What It Does
Quick Menu replaces menu hunting with a keyboard-driven search interface. Press a hotkey, type a few letters, and apply effects, plugins, presets, scripts, extensions, menu commands, shape layer filters, or expressions to your layers. It stays hidden until you need it, so it doesn’t clutter your workspace.
Key Features
Fuzzy search across everything. Find any After Effects tool by typing partial matches. Works with built-in effects, third-party plugins, animation presets, scripts, extensions, menu commands, and shape layer filters.
Smart application targets. Apply effects to selected layers, new solids, adjustment layers, or null objects. Auto-create pre-comps for property sources, apply effects to all layers sharing a label color, or use selected masks as composition masks.
Expression template system. Store custom expression snippets with exposed variables. Quick Menu can auto-create expression controls on parent layers, selected layers, or new nulls when you apply them.
Custom command groups and favorites. Organize frequently-used tools into groups. Recent commands appear automatically for quick re-access.
Keyboard-first workflow. Assign custom shortcuts to any command. No mouse required once you’ve learned your hotkeys.
Version 3 added a toolbar UI option, custom command icons, static commands that stay pinned at the top of search results, and auto-detection for installed extensions.
Who It’s For
Motion designers and compositors who value speed and want to stay in flow without breaking focus to hunt through menus. If you apply the same effects or presets repeatedly, Quick Menu turns those actions into instant hotkey commands.
Particularly useful for editors working with large plugin libraries or custom expression libraries where remembering menu locations becomes a bottleneck.
Pricing
Quick Menu uses pay-what-you-want pricing. The suggested price is $30 for a single-user license, but you can name your own price. Floating server licenses are also available.
If you bought Quick Menu 2 after January 1, 2022, the upgrade to version 3 is free. Earlier Quick Menu 2 owners can upgrade for $15. No upgrade discount from version 1.
A trial version is available to test the tool before purchase.