What It Does
BlenderAe2 connects Blender and After Effects through a bidirectional data pipeline. Export 3D objects, cameras, lights, vertices, faces, and bones from Blender into After Effects as native layers. Import solids, nulls, cameras, and 3D transforms from After Effects back into Blender. The plugin handles coordinate conversion, animation keyframes, and layer synchronization automatically.
Version 2 adds a glTF exporter for quick 3D model transfer and layer sync, which updates existing After Effects layers instead of creating duplicates every export.
Key Features
Export from Blender. Send cameras, lights, objects (as nulls or shape layers), selected vertices (as individual nulls), planar faces (as precomposed shapes), and rigged bones. Physics simulations like cloth, ocean, soft body, and rigid body transfer as vertex animation. Vertex normals export as rotation data for controlling element orientation.
Import from After Effects. Pull solids, nulls, cameras, and 3D layer transforms into Blender. The plugin includes anchor point offsets and warns about resolution or frame rate mismatches. Cameras imported in portrait orientation automatically switch to horizontal sensor fit to match After Effects behavior.
Layer synchronization. Update existing layers in After Effects rather than creating new ones each export. Works with objects, vertices, faces, lights, and cameras. Useful for iterative workflows where you’re refining animation in Blender and want changes reflected in After Effects without manual cleanup.
glTF quick export. Requires After Effects 23.0 or later. Exports Blender objects as .glb files and imports them into After Effects in one step. Faster than the standard data export for static 3D models or baked animations.
Auto-connect. The plugin can automatically establish the connection to After Effects when exporting, skipping the manual connect step.
Camera shift support. Blender camera shift X and Y values transfer to After Effects, matching lens shift for architectural or perspective correction setups.
Who It’s For
Motion designers working across both applications, particularly those using Blender for 3D modeling or simulation and After Effects for compositing and final render. Useful if you’re generating particle systems, cloth sims, or camera tracks in Blender and need that data as native After Effects layers with keyframes. Also relevant for rigging workflows where you want bone positions exported as nulls for control layers.
Not ideal if you only need static 3D renders, Blender’s built-in EXR or image sequence export handles that. This is for transferring animation data and scene structure.
Pricing
Pay-what-you-want model. Set your own price when purchasing. The developer suggests $49 as a standard price, with a $34 upgrade path for users who bought version 1 before August 2024. Free upgrades for v1 purchases after that date. No subscription or recurring fees.
Requires Blender 3.6 LTS or later and After Effects 23 or higher. macOS users need to enable After Effects in System Settings under Privacy & Security > Full Disk Access for the connection to work.