🎉 Spring Registration is OPEN! 🎉
00
DAYS
00
HOURS
00
MINUTES
00
SECONDS
REGISTER NOW
Back to Blog Index

Automate (Almost) Anything in After Effects with KBar!

No items found.

How to speed up your After Effects workflow with Kbar.

Many things we do in After Effects can be very tedious. It's pretty much the life of an animator. Sometimes we just have to get in there and do the dirty work. Thankfully, there are a lot of ways to make our After Effects life easier. One huge way is with scripts and plugins. Today I'm going to share with you one of my favorites, and talk about how I use it in some detail.

KBar is a simple, but very nifty tool that allows you to create one click buttons for just about anything you can do in After Effects.

Free Custom Icons for your KBar!

One of the coolest things about KBar is that you can import your own custom images for the buttons. I've created a bunch of icons for myself, and I've included them at the bottom of this article for you to download for free along with a brief description for each one. But, in my opinion, the most fun thing about this is to create your own!

KBar-Custom-Buttons.png
EXPLORE ALL COURSES ➔

Dive into real-time 3D with our Unreal Engine beginner's course by Jonathan Winbush. Master importing assets, world-building, animation, and cinematic sequences to create stunning 3D renders in no time! Perfect for motion designers ready to level up.

Explore this Course âž”

Unlock the secrets of character design in this dynamic course! Explore shape language, anatomy rules, and motifs to craft animation-ready characters. Gain drawing tips, hacks, and Procreate mastery (or any drawing app). Ideal for artists seeking to elevate their craft.

Explore this Course âž”

Elevate your freelance motion design career with our guide to client success. Master a repeatable method for finding, contacting, and landing clients. Learn to identify prospects, nurture leads, and develop a thriving freelance philosophy amidst chaos.

Explore this Course âž”

Rev up your editing skills with After Effects! Learn to use it for everyday needs and craft dynamic templates (Mogrts) for smarter teamwork. You'll master creating animated graphics, removing unwanted elements, tracking graphics, and making customizable templates.

Explore this Course âž”

Stand out with Demo Reel Dash! Learn to spotlight your best work and market your unique brand of magic. By the end, you'll have a brand new demo reel and a custom campaign to showcase yourself to an audience aligned with your career goals.

Explore this Course âž”

Illuminate your 3D skills with Lights, Camera, Render! Dive deep into advanced Cinema 4D techniques with David Ariew. Master core cinematography skills, gain valuable assets, and learn tools and best practices to create stunning work that wows clients.

Explore this Course âž”

Master After Effects at your own pace with Jake Bartlett's beginner course. Perfect for video editors, you'll learn to create stylish animated graphics, remove unwanted elements, and track graphics into shots. By the end, you'll be equipped for everyday AE needs and more.

Explore this Course âž”

Revolutionize your Premiere workflow with customizable AE templates! Master creating dynamic Motion Graphics Templates (Mogrts) in After Effects to speed up your team's work. By the end, you'll craft easily-customizable templates for seamless use in Premiere Pro.

Explore this Course âž”
Free KBar Icon Pack
Grab this FREE KBar Icon Pack!
Your download is in your inbox!!!
Check your email (spam, too) for the download link!
Please check the spam folder if you don't see the message within a minute or two. Google likes to hide your downloads, sometimes.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

‍What does KBar do?

A KBar button can be many things, so I'll just run through the different built in options.

APPLY EFFECT / PRESET

The first two things it can do are apply effects and presets. Once you set up the button, you simply click it and it will apply the effect/preset to the selected layer(s). NEAT! This can be useful if you have some effects or presets that you use a lot and you want them to just be one click away, right there on your workspace. Personally, I like using another tool called FX Console for applying effects, but KBar would be slightly faster since it's literally a single click and the effect/preset is applied.

SET EXPRESSIONS

This is one of my favorite applications of KBar. There are many expressions that I use often, and instead of having to type them in every time it's nice to just apply them in one click. Some great examples are wiggle and loopOut and all it's variations.There are some other pretty incredible expressions that I use a lot.  A great example is one that maintains the stroke width while scaling. I certainly didn't figure this one out myself. It's from the brilliant mind of Adam Plouff of Battleaxe.co.

INVOKE MENU ITEM

Instead of searching through long menu lists you can simple invoke something from the menu with one click. A great example for this is "time reverse keyframes" So instead of the usual 1. right click 2. hover over 'keyframe assistant' 3. click 'time reverse keyframes' you can just do it with one click. Bang!

OPEN EXTENSION

This is much like the menu item one. If you have an extension that you like to use (such as flow) but don't always have it docked in your workspace, you can have a button to open it when you need it.

RUN JSX / JSXBIN FILE

This is when things get beautiful. If you have ever used a script before, that you might be familiar with a JSX file. Without getting into too much detail, a JSX or JSXBIN file is a file that After Effects can read in order to run a series of commands. In other words, it can perform a complex task for you, generally to save you time. So with KBar, you can invoke another script to perform a task for you. A new favorite of mine is the recent release from Paul Conigliaro, called Key Cloner. What I love about this is he has separated the 3 functions of his script out into separate JSXBIN files. That way I can create a separate button for each function. AMAZING!

RUN SCRIPTLET

The final thing it can do is run a cute little mini script, called a scriptlet. A scriptlet is basically a line of code that will perform a task to make your life more joyful. These function the same way a JSX file works, except you just write the line of code into the menu, instead of telling Ae to reference another file. You can either use the text from them as scriptlets, or you can go to downloads and download the JSX files.

Setting Up a KBar Button

Once you have KBar installed, the process for setting up a button is pretty simple. Here's a quick little tutorial created by yours truly that explains the process of setting up a KBar Button.

  1. Go into the KBar settings.
  2. Click "Add Button" and select the kind of button you want to create.
  3. This step varies depending on the type of button you are making. If it's an effect or a menu item you can just type it in and search for it. If it's an extension then you select it from the dropdown. If it's an expression or a scriptlet you need to type (or copy/paste) the code in. Or, if it's a JSX or preset, then you need to browse for the local file.
  4. Then click "ok

If you found this helpful or if you come up with any of your own Kbar icons be sure to shout at us on twitter or our facebook page! You can pickup your copy of KBar over on aescripts + aeplugins.

Not sure where to start?

If you’re a beginner, here are some great courses to help you get started:

After Effects Kickstart

Dive into the fundamentals of motion design with our most popular (and recently updated) After Effects course.

LEARN MORE

Photoshop + Illustrator Unleashed

Master the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator and gain invaluable insights in this introductory level course.

LEARN MORE

Design Kickstart

An introduction to the design principles behind all great work.

LEARN MORE

More Advanced?

If you’re a more advanced student looking to up your game, here are some great options:

Animation Bootcamp

Learn the art and principles of creating beautiful movements in Adobe After Effects.

LEARN MORE

Design Bootcamp

Learn to design for motion in this intermediate-level, project-based course.

LEARN MORE

Cinema 4D Basecamp

Learn Cinema 4D from the ground up in this exciting introductory C4D course.

LEARN MORE

Now is the time to learn the skills you need to advance in your motion design career: