Sweet - Manual
a tasty touch for your animation
Introduction
Sweet is a preset based script for After Effects. It is a small but powerful platform that boosts your performance with either basic or complex animations. Easy to use and set up - you will be running it in no time. Sweet gives you a vast array of tools to improve on your workflow and adds that needed pinch of tasty details just were you need them. The script is package based and its library is updated on regular basis with new animations at aesweets.com.
Sweet is using the built-in features of AE and vector graphics – shape layers that can be resized without loosing quality. Sweet v2 introduced new capabilities with high quality raster animations and sounds. Its possibilities are endless, ranging from simple patterns and transitions to even typography and whole scenes with cameras and lights.
Sweet includes completely new tool – Colorize – for free! Colorize generates harmonic color combinations for your animations in just one click. It can also store, export and import your favorite color combinations.
In the end we have built this tool because we needed to. We were missing these features and we made them happen. It took more than 9 months working around the clock to build the first version of sweet and almost that much, to build sweet v2, but we love what we do and it is all love and passion we have put in this project. Sharing it all we hope you will enjoy it even more.
Tihomir Trifonov a.k.a. Mastermind (programming)
Jelio Dimitrov a.k.a. Arsek (design)
Installation
To install Sweet you simply need to follow these 2 steps:
- After unpacking the archive of the script, copy and paste the files contained in it to this specific folder of After Effects:
- On Windows this folder is located at:
"(after_effects_install_path)/Support Files/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels" - On Macintosh this folder is located at:
"(after_effects_install_path)/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels"
- On Windows this folder is located at:
- Allow Sweet to access the network so your copy can be registered. This option is found under "Preferences > General" tab of After Effects
- On Windows this option is located in:
"Edit > Preferences > General... - On Macintosh this option is located in:
"After Effects > Preferences > General...
- On Windows this option is located in:
- Make sure the user that runs AE has permissions to read from and write to the ScriptUI Panels folder. If you have issues with your license file you can try to:
- On Windows:
run After Effects as administrator or change the permissions of that folder from Properties > Security > Edit..
- On Macintosh:
change the permissions of that folder from Get Info > Sharing & Permissions
- On Windows:
User Interface
We did our best to blend in Sweet's interface with your current After Effects Workspace. From the bumpy CS 5 design through the flat version of CC 2015 to CC 2017 we've got you covered!
Sweet adaptive design / draggable menus
Sweet has adaptive design that will show the maximum possible number of thumbnails in your UI and it's enabled by default.
All drop down menus and animation thumbnails now support dragging, scrolling or both depending on your version of AE and OS.
Sweet User Interface elements
1) Settings button
Opens Sweet Settings window. Check "Sweet Settings window" section below.
2) Colorize tool
Detailed view of the colorize tool, its shortcuts and functionalities is located at Colorize - Manual page.
3) Category Selection
Select the desired category > sub category to work with. Only the activated sweet packages are shown here.
4) Animation previews
Shows controls and preview for the animation presets. Depending on your version of AE and your OS you will be able to scroll though the thumbnails in one or all of the following ways: Drag the scrollbar, use your mouse scroll while your mouse is over the scrollbar or drag the thumbnails.
5) Select animation
Selects the animation so it can be generated after pressing the (10) - Make It Sweet button. If the animation is already selected clicking again will deselect it. Clicking over the thumbnail will do the same action.
6) Preview animation
Make fast preview of the animation before you generate it by dragging its timeline slider.
7) Clear Selection
Clear all selected animations no matter in what category they are.
8) Open Browse window
Bigger window to preview all of your animations at once. All functionalities for the thumbnails in the main UI are duplicated in the Browse Window
9) Information text
Information about the most recent action sweet made.
10) Make It Sweet
Generate all selected animations. Composition must be selected in AE's UI in order for the animations to be generated. Depending on your settings in the Sweet Settings window > General tab all animations will be created at the current timeline marker one after another or at the same position.
Sweet Settings
Set the desired preferences for sweet and the colorize tool.
Sweet Settings window > General tab
1) General tab
All preferences concerning sweet.
2) Number of thumbnails
Choose between adaptive - "auto", or preferred number of thumbnails to be shown in the main UI. If "auto" is selected the number of thumbnails depends on sweet's UI height.
3) Autoclear selection
Automatically clear all selected thumbnails after they are generated.
4) Animation position
All animations will have their starting point set to your current timeline marker. If "Current time" is selected they will all have the same starting point. If "Successive" is selected all animations will be place one after another.
5) Animation offset
The number of frames to offset each animation position on the timeline. Negative values are possible. You can drag the text slider control or click on it to set it to precise number.
6) Reset
Reset all settings for sweet and the colorize tool to their default state. This action won't affect your licenses.
7) Save
Save changes made on all tabs.
8) Cancel/Close button
Closes the Sweet Settings window. If any changes to the General tab or the Colorize tab were made pop-up window will ask to whether save or discard any changes.
9) Social links
Opens our social pages in your browser.
Sweet Settings window > Colorize tab
1) Colorize tab
Detailed explanation of this section can be found at Colorize - Manual page.
2) Hide the colorize tool
If you already own the standalone version of the Colorize tool you can hide the one included with sweet.
License information, Installing packs and Activation
After acquiring an Activation key for any pack for sweet from aesweets.com you simply need to enter your purchase e-mail and the received Activation key in the Sweet Settings window > License tab and then press the Activate button.
Sweet Settings window > License tab
1) License tab
Install and activate new or view all of the available animation packs.
2) Browse for pack folder...
Select the folder with the extracted animation archive from aesweets.com to install new pack. Multiple packs can be installed at the same time if they are extracted in one folder.
3) Packs activation fields
Enter your activation/purchase e-mail and one or more activation keys separated by commas to activate them.
4) List of your packs
All packs installed in your current version of sweet are shown here.
5) Animation pack row
Each row contains the status, name, version, short description of your pack and your activation e-mail and key.
6) Uninstall
If you're planning to transfer your animation packages to another machine you must first remove all license data from your current computer - each license serves only one machine. After uninstalling your packs contact our support for further instructions.
How to Install and Activate packs
1) Step 1. Browse for pack folder...
Click on the button and navigate to the folder where the extracted animation packages are located. You can install multiple packs at once if they are extracted in the same folder. Sweet v2.0+ requires packs v4.0+
1.1) After successful installation
The list of your installed packs will be updated. If the packs are not activated their status will be Not active and if they are the status will be Active
2) Step 2. Enter your email
Enter your Activation email. The email is listed in your "Sweet Packs Activation Keys" table and sent to you via email after successful purchase. If you can't find your email please contact our help center.
3) Step 2. Enter your Activation keys
Enter the received "Comma separated keys" string from your purchase email or your activation keys separated by commas. Our list with free keys as an example: WOR31-FREE-PACK-00000, LIG23-FREE-PACK-00000, ARR16-FREE-PACK-00000, DUM11-FREE-PACK-00000
4) Step 2. Activate
Press the Activate button and wait for the process to finish. Make sure that your firewall is is disabled upon activation and AE have access to aesweets.com
4.1) Your packs are now Active
The status of your packs will change to Active and sweet's main UI and Category drop down menu will be updated.
How to use Sweet
You can check our video guides on how to use sweet at aesweets.com/help-center/sweet/faq/
Applying animation preset
1) Select the desired composition from the Project panel or make sure it's selected in the Composition panel.
2) Select the desired Category > Subcategory from the Category drop down menu.
3) Select one or more animations.
4) Press the Make It Sweet button.
5) New animation will be created and precomposed at your current timeline marker and over your last selected layer. Depending on the setting of the Animation position in Settings window > General tab, all following animations will be created at the same marker position or one after another.
