After Playlist (V1.0)

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

How it works (in more simple terms)

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.

AI usage

Claude Sonnet was used to debug the code and provide some suggestions on what to add (im not super creative 😭 )

Anyways have fun guys I hope someone will actually use this!