AEbar gives you a grid of one-click buttons inside After Effects. Each button triggers an action: apply an effect, run a script, invoke a menu command, or any of five other action types.

The grid resizes fluidly as you change the panel dimensions. Hold Shift, Alt, or Cmd while clicking to trigger alternate actions configured on the same button.

Who This Is For

Motion designers and After Effects users who want quick one-click access to effects, presets, expressions, scripts, menu items, and extensions. AEbar replaces scattered workflows with a single visual toolbar you design yourself.

How It Works

  1. Create buttons. Each button has a primary action and up to three modifier actions (Shift, Alt, Cmd). Choose from eight action types.
  2. Organize into bars. Group related buttons into named bars. Switch between bars or assign different bars to separate panels.
  3. Click to execute. Click a button to run its action. Hold a modifier key while clicking to run the alternate action instead.

Responsive Grid

Dock AEbar anywhere in your After Effects workspace. The button grid automatically adapts its column count and button size to fill whatever shape you give it — wide toolbar, tall sidebar, or square panel.

When there isn't enough room to fit all buttons above the minimum size, the grid switches to a scrolling layout.

Key Concepts

Buttons are the core unit. Each button has an icon (from 700+ Lucide icons, a custom SVG, or text/emoji), an optional color tint, and one or more actions.

Bars are named collections of buttons. You can have up to 100 bars. Each bar can hold up to 200 buttons.

Panels are separate AEbar windows in After Effects. You can open up to four panels, each showing a different bar. This lets you keep frequently used bars visible while switching others.

Modifier actions let a single button do multiple things. A button might apply Gaussian Blur on click, but apply Directional Blur on Shift+click.

Presets are built-in starter bars that ship with AEbar: Motion Essentials, Curves, Transform Shortcuts, Layer Alignment, and Shape Tools. Install any preset to get a working bar immediately.