What It Does
This 10-class video course teaches you to write scripts for After Effects using ExtendScript, Adobe’s JavaScript implementation. Taught by Lloyd Alvarez, it assumes strong After Effects knowledge but no programming experience. You’ll learn to automate tedious manual tasks by building actual working scripts throughout the course.
Key Features
ExtendScript Toolkit introduction. Class 2 covers Adobe’s full-featured JavaScript debugger where you’ll write all your scripts. You’ll learn variables, operators, arrays, and basic UI controls.
Real-world script assignments. Instead of theory-heavy lectures, the course teaches through three practical projects: a DSLR workflow script that creates comps from footage and sets up render queue settings (Classes 4-5), a promo version maker that imports text data and uses regular expressions (Classes 6-7), and a search tool with custom ScriptUI interface (Classes 8-10).
Programming fundamentals. Class 3 introduces conditionals, loops, and functions. Later classes cover error checking, working with After Effects DOM model, iterating through projects and comps, manipulating layer properties, and creating custom objects.
Lifetime access. Originally available only through fxphd.com enrollment, the course is now sold as a one-time purchase with permanent access to all video lessons.
Who It’s For
Motion designers and editors who find themselves repeating the same After Effects tasks manually. If you’ve wished you could automate batch operations, custom render setups, or repetitive comp building but don’t know where to start with code, this course bridges that gap. Useful for anyone managing DSLR footage workflows, creating multiple promo versions, or building large-scale projects where scripting saves hours.
Pricing
This course uses pay-what-you-want pricing. The suggested price is $99 for lifetime access to all 10 classes, but you can choose what to pay. Qualifying users may see upgrade pricing when logged in.