Say hello to After Playlist, an After Effects Script UI Panel that allows you to control your music directly inside your composition! This works with any type of music platform like Spotify on the desktop app version. Windows 11 ONLY.
I decided to make a little “Minimum System Requirements” sheet because well, why not? It felt like a good addition because I don’t want people installing the script and then not being able to use it. The other important thing I did was make another video. Is it necessary? No. Is it absolutely awesome and cool? ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! My passion for video editing is so strong I just couldn’t bring myself to not make another video. This one is a little different however. I didn’t showcase the tool at all, its more so just an ad to get people interested. The style of it is also different. I went with a low fps, grainy, style of video.
References:
Video Details:
FPS: 18
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 px
How cool it is: 10/10
I did quite a lot in these 4 hours. Before I tell you, I’d like to thank everyone at stardance for this amazing opportunity to pursue this project and also get a cool prize :D
I added a settings menu! I actually tried to add one a while back but it unfortunately it did not work. I did not give up. I decided to add it back in the 5.0 version (releasing soon, probably when I ship). I also added a couple more things:
I also created two manuals so far. A user manual and a troubleshooting manual.
The troubleshooting manual defines all the error codes and gives fixes, general fixes, how to report a problem, and known limitations of the script.
The user manual gives explicit info on the script and its functions and it has a simplified version of how to install it (more in depth instructions on readme).
While seemingly irrelevant, error codes are SUPER important. It lets the user reference the trouble shooting guide much easier and they also have much less to remember.
As always I have to provide an AI disclaimer. Now most of this didn’t really use much AI since it was pretty basic stuff especially the error codes. All I really asked AI about was what I should add to the settings since I’m not exactly creative. As for how to make the settings panel, I just researched a little online, dug through some forums, and that’s pretty much it.
I got some amazing feedback on this project and I’m honored to get a blessing. It has boosted my motivation to continue this silly project of mine. I’ve been quite inactive lately because I was sick but fret not because I’m back to working on After Playlist.
This time, I worked a lot more on the UI because most of my feedback was that the UI looked boring and generic. Fair enough. I changed up some colors and positions of the buttons and then I set this as a new release on my github. I plan on spending atleast 6 more hours on this because only then will I be able to get the thing I want (the keebcard). I am not really sure what to add so if you are reading this please give me suggestions!
Not much AI used this time as all I did was change up the UI. I did however use Claude to tell me what I should do to improve the AI but otherwise none of the code was written by AI.
This project was vetted by Shipwrights and is now up for voting. You can ship again after making more updates.
Feedback
Hey Jolly_VFX,
Awesome project! I'd love to see what you make in the future!
For any other questions, DM @sl4shed or create a ticket in Slack—#ask-the-shipwrights.
Shipwright walkthrough
The journey was fun. I’d never thought I’d make something that I’d use almost every day. After Playlist has evolved ALOT in a short time. When I first made it, I had low hopes. Almost as if it’d be a fail. And though it did indeed fail, I pushed through and made it work. So for my last update, I added two buttons:
C - Enables compact mode by hiding everything except the media controls and diagnostics section.
S - Launches Spotify for the people like me who feel too lazy to even open Spotify normally.
I wont go too much in detail but I used the Spotify protocol which works with every version of Spotify and the compact mode was very simple, all it did was hide certain aspects. I also learned something new. I never actually knew how helpTips worked and I researched them a bit and added two helpTips. One to each button because you can’t really tell what each button does. I’m going to ship this project shortly after everything is in order.
HUGE thanks to manus once again my goat helped my find out why the diagnostics text was getting cut off and also how to use helpTips properly.
So as you may know, I revealed in my second devlog of this project that the now playing feature had to be removed because I just could not get it to work. Today I woke up and thought: “Let’s give it another shot”
##My biggest challenge:
I had thought of a way to make it work but AE would still keep freezing every now and then because the process was happening through AE.
I made a sort of “scout” that would launch a small, hidden powershell process in the background every 6 seconds. This scout then asks windows: “Bro what song is playing right now? I gotta know.” So then windows responds with the answer written in a temporary file. AE then reads this file and displays it on the “Now Playing” section near the top. If the answer comes empty then AE keeps the same song. This way AE doesn’t freeze because the process happens outside AE. One other problem was that the text would get cutoff due to panel resizing issues. To fix this I simply added a marquee scrolling effect to keep it nice and smooth. I won’t go into detail about that but know that I had to search up how to do it since I’ve never done it.
Claude Sonnet was used to point out syntax errors and Manus was used to help guide me to using the “background scout” method. Both AI helped out a whole lot.
So if you’ve seen my previous script: “Wiggle Me Timbers,” you’d know I made a short, sick looking demo video so people know how it works. Well, I did it again. My main talent lies in motion graphics and video editing so not making a video would feel like a crime. This video is a bit different from the other one. Instead of making a simple video, I added a fun twist using my knowledge of 3D typography. Anyways the video IS done but I haven’t rendered it yet because I don’t intend to upload it right now.
Hope you guys like it!
So I had a minor (actually kinda major) problem with the original version. It had MAJOR delay! It was honestly very irritating.
To fix this I reduced the unecessary delays by reducing the key-down/key-up timing from 40 miliseconds to 15 miliseconds, and the response-file polling interval was reduced from 100 miliseconds to 25. This made it faster yes, but After Effects was still waiting synchronously :(
I made the script create a temporary PowerShell script and a hidden VBScript launcher. The VBScript uses WScript.Shell.Run with style 0 and the False wait parameter. I did a little more but I don’t want to bore you :D
Anyways if anyone read to the end, I hope you guys have a great day and that someone can actually find this useful.
Now I realized that the idea was i bit far fetched and that making it work first try would be… impossible. It took a while of debugging which i forgot to record so there goes some hours BUT i did record ~15 mins of me testing and updating the README so theres that. I changed the UI, removed and entire feature and make a lot of tweaks to FINALLY make it work. Great thing is manus and claude helped me identify tons of the errors.
Have a good day :D
I basically made everything in this one session but technically it’s not fully done. The next few devlogs will include QoL improvements, UI changes, etc.
It’s a lightweight media controller for After Effects. If you use AE for hours like me and you need music to stay focused, this is honestly perfect for you.
Note: This only works on Windows and the desktop app of Spotify, other desktop apps may work
Now most of this I needed quite a bit of help for like how to integrate Windows SMTC (System Media Transport Control) Now ExtendScript, the programming language for After Effects ScriptUI Panels doesn’t really support asynchronous Windows API’s :(
The good this is you can still build a simple PowerShell Bridge, (It’s not actually that simple for a new coder like me 😭 )
So for the people who can actually understand this…
It generates a temporary .ps1 script tapping into GlobalSystemMediaTransportControlsSessionManager wow, thats a real mouthful.
Anyways then it uses a custom Await helper via .NET reflection to query the active media session for the song name, artist and the playback status :D
Then it reads the cached input from Folder.temp back into the UI Panel (stay with me we’re almost done)
Lastly the playback is mapped directly through Poweshell SendKeys commands.
Claude Sonnet was used to debug the code and provide some suggestions on what to add (im not super creative 😭 )
