Aescripts pins-and-boxes v1.1.003 Free Download

April 10, 2023 3 Min Read

Stop Writing Complex Expressions – Create Modular Layouts with Pins & Boxes

Pins & Boxes allows you to create dynamic layouts in After Effects that automatically adjust when you change the texts or resize elements. Do you develop motion graphics templates? Then this is the perfect tool for you!

Instead of writing complex layout expressions, let Pins & Boxes take care of all the technical details and create even the most complex layouts with just two very simple concepts: pins and boxes.

Pins

Pins are little shape layers that are attached to the boundaries of another layer – their mother layer. If the size of the mother layer changes, they automatically move with it. To place any other layers relative to the mother layer, simply parent them to one of the pins.

Boxes

Boxes are shape layers, solids or precomps that are automatically resized so that they always include their own set of pins. If any of the pins move, the box moves and resizes to ensure it still includes all the pins attached to it.

Boxes can be created for any selection of pins – simply select the pins from one layer to create a box exactly around its contents, or the pins from several layers to create bigger boxes.

Intuitive Controls

Boxes have controls for their borders. Animating them in or out is very easy using the built-in controls for scale, anchor and offset. Those values are all expressed as a percentage (of the box size) instead of absolute pixel values, so your animations always look good, no matter how much the size of the box changes.

Lines

Shape layer boxes can also render a single line instead of an entire box.

Ideal for Motion Graphics Templates

Of course, these dynamic layouts also work inside Motion Graphics Templates (mogrts). As soon as you change the text of the template inside Premiere Pro, the layout updates automatically.

The dynamic layouts you create with Pins & Boxes will also work on systems where Pins & Boxes is not installed. So, if you develop a template with Pins & Boxes, you don’t need to worry whether people using your template have Pins & Boxes installed.

Build complex layouts step by step

Pins can be created for any layer – even for layers that are parented to the pin of another layer. This allows you to create hierarchies, where the position of a layer depends on the position and size of several other layers.

Want to position a layer relative to another, different group of layers? Since you can also create pins for box layers, you can first create a box around the layer group and then create pins for this box. By nesting boxes and pins, you can create layouts that are as complex as you like.