What It Does
AE Link bridges Lightwave 3D and After Effects by exporting cameras, nulls, lights, and rendered sequences directly between applications. Changes made in Lightwave update in After Effects with one click, no manual importing required. The plugin uses quaternion-based coordinate conversion for pixel-perfect camera matches, even with complex movements and hierarchies.
This product is discontinued and no longer available for purchase.
Key Features
One-click sync. Two buttons handle the entire workflow: Sync Scene updates everything, Sync Selected handles individual items. Changes in Lightwave mirror automatically in After Effects, updating complex scenes in near real-time.
Custom objects. Create and edit After Effects layers inside Lightwave. Control whether objects appear as nulls, solids, or text layers. Extract motion from object vertices and convert them into separate layers.
Reliable coordinate conversion. Handles hierarchies, non-square pixels, and animated focal length changes. The quaternion-based system ensures accurate positioning regardless of rotation complexity.
Soft baking. Automatically generates per-frame keyframes in After Effects without modifying the Lightwave scene. Does not support IK or certain motion modifiers applied after IK in Motion Options.
Who It’s For
VFX artists working across Lightwave 3D and After Effects who need accurate 3D scene data transfer. Particularly useful for compositing 3D renders with live-action footage where camera accuracy matters.
Compatibility
Final version supported Lightwave 11.0.3, 11.5, and 11.6 with dongle-less licensing, plus older versions from 9.6 onward. Compatible with After Effects CC releases available at the time, as well as CS3 through CS6. Worked on both Windows and macOS (32/64-bit), though Auto Sync had known issues on OS X Mountain Lion and later.
Pricing
This product has been discontinued. Historically, it required a Lightwave hardware lock ID for licensing and was delivered as a digital download. Minor version upgrades were free for existing users.