Apr 26, 2020 File Name: Animationcomposer 2.9.4 Win.Zip: Upload Date: 2020-04-26 16:30:14: Mime Type: Application/zip: Virus Scan Result: Clean: Size: 103.68 MB: Total Downloads. Upgrading from Animation Composer 2 to Animation Composer 3 Missing sounds after updating to Animation Composer 3 Wrong names under layer's Master Properties group (Slider/Checkbox/Point Control instead of proper names). Installation of Animation Composer & Preset Packs. Animation Composer is a native plugin for Adobe After Effects, made to improve workflows of motion designers. It's a huge library of animation presets, which you can quickly browse, preview and use in your projects. To find out more about Animation Composer and Mister Horse visit. Animation Composer 3 A free plug-in for Adobe After Effects used by more than 100 000 motion designers.

Changelog

3.3.2

• Fixed Essential Property names in AE 2021

Date: 06. Aug 2021

3.3.1

Platform: Windows

• Fixed a bug that causes freezing UI when editing a text layer
• Fixed a rare crash on Windows that might occur after selecting a text layer containing non-English character when some specific fonts are installed in system

Date: 10. Jun 2021

3.3.1

Platform: macOS

• Fixed a bug that causes freezing UI when editing a text layer

Date: 10. Jun 2021

3.3.0

• Added Transition Shifter controls to Edit Tab in main panel
• Added preset controls to Edit Tab also when multiple layers selected
• Added Copy Item Name and Preset Code to item context menu
• Added Reveal button for presets in Edit Tab
• Deactivated vertical scrollbar hiding in Browse Tab to avoid changing preview size when selecting folders with different number of items
• Fixed an issue with some text presets that cannot be applied to a layer with modified Anchor Point Grouping property

Date: 07. Jun 2021

3.2.2

Platform: Windows

• Fixed issue with User Library loading introduced in version 3.2.1

Date: 23. Mar 2021

3.2.1

Platform: Windows

• Fixed some issues with UI scaling on HiDPI displays in After Effects 18.0

Date: 19. Mar 2021

3.2.0

• Added Tools to main panel
• Added support for Hi-DPI-related changes in After Effects 18.0
• Fixed crash after removing a preset using Preset Actions dropdown
• Fixed some other issues that might cause rare crashes

Date: 10. Mar 2021

3.1.0

• Added 'Preset Actions' menu to both Browse and Edit tabs to make Copy/Paste/Remove actions more accessible
• Added support for non-Roman characters
• Added 'Reveal in Browse Tab' option also for Precomps (by right-clicking a layer name in Edit Tab)
• Added item tree width saving in Browse Tab so it does not get reset after closing and opening panel again
• Fixed a couple issues with dropdown menus

Date: 27. Jan 2021

3.0.15

Platform: Windows

• Fixed freezing of previews when scrolling too fast
• Fixed a couple rare crashes

Date: 17. Dec 2020

3.0.15

Platform: macOS

• Fixed a couple rare crashes

Date: 17. Dec 2020

3.0.14

• Added 'Reveal in Browse Tab' right-click menu to applied preset shown in Edit tab
• Fixed an issue with previews on Windows when there is no audio device available
• Fixed an issue causing an error when importing some precomps in non-English versions of AE
• Added settings for HW acceleration for previews on Windows
• Fixed some issues causing a rare crash

Date: 07. Dec 2020

3.0.11

• Fixed an issue causing 'No layer selected' error in Transition Shifter even when layers are selected
• Fixed Apply IN and OUT buttons for presets when panel is too narrow
• Stagger in Transition Shifter now works with all kinds of layers
• Files in sequences are now excluded from 500 free items limit
• Fixed some mogrt and aep import issues
• Fixed a couple other minor issues causing rare Unexpected error message

Date: 02. Dec 2020

3.0.9

• Fixed preview scaling for footage with aspect ratio other than 16:9
• Fixed an issue causing an error after deleting a layer containing presets
• Fixed an issue causing a rare crash after selecting a layer
• Fixed an issue causing a crash after attempting to fix layer parenting for layers with presets
• Fixed a couple visual issues in UI

Date: 01. Dec 2020

3.0.7

• Increased limit in the free version of User Library to 500 items
• Fixed an issue causing 'EntryPoint not found' error on Windows
• Fixed a bug causing Precomp duration cannot be set above 100s
• Fixed a bug causing a crash when loading palette from layer
• Avoided loading auto-save folders and AE Crash.aep files in User Library

Date: 23. Nov 2020

3.0.6

• Fixed an issue causing 'EntryPoint not found' error on macOS High Sierra
• Avoided loading in unsupported versions of After Effects
• Fixed a couple visual issues in user interface
• Added an error dialog that appears when Product Manager cannot be found

Date: 22. Nov 2020

3.0.5

• This is a major update, so fasten your seatbelts
• Completely new UI
• Previews are now in grid and load much faster
• Customization is now in separate 'Edit' tab
• User Library. You can load your own files to Animation Composer
• More items in free version - new presets, effects and precomps
• Adobe After Effects CC 2019 or newer is required
• For more info visit https://misterhorse.com/animation-composer

Date: 20. Nov 2020

2.9.8

Platform: macOS

• Fixed video previews on macOS Catalina
• Updated installer for macOS Catalina

Date: 27. Sep 2019

2.9.4

• Fixed laggy RAM preview in CC 2019 when AC and AE use the same audio device
• Improved product update notification system
• Fixed fun examples project file which is bundled with AC installer
• Fixed some other minor issues

Date: 26. Apr 2019

2.9.3

• Added Sound Reverse feature
• Added 19 new free sounds
• Fixed sorting of sound files
• Fixed Light Leaks in Free Starter Pack
• Fixed some UI glitches

Date: 19. Mar 2019

2.9.1

• Added support for new Textures
• Added new items to Free Starter Pack
• Fixed crash that might happen during updating preset expressions in projects created using non-English versions of After Effects

Date: 31. Oct 2018

2.8.0

• Compatibility updates for the latest version of After Effects (16.0)
• All of our expressions now work also with the new JavaScript engine
• Heavily optimized preset expressions, they are much faster now in all versions of After Effects
• Precomps now use Protected Regions in the latest version of After Effects
• Some minor bugfixes

Date: 13. Oct 2018

2.7.3

• Updated some precomps from Filmmaker's Transitions
• Fixed ordering of master properties in Filmmaker's Transitions
• Updated project file with some fun examples
• Fixed very rare crash when inserting precomp from Preview Grid panel
• Other minor changes

Date: 25. May 2018

2.7.1

• Fixed expression errors in Filmmaker's Transitions on non-English versions of After Effects
• Fixed Settings dialog

Date: 07. May 2018

2.7.0

• Added support for new Filmmaker's Transitions
• Added buttons for replacing selected Precomp with another one
• Added a few precomps from new Filmmaker’s Transitions product to free version
• Added a preset 'Fade Cubic In 1' to free version
• Added a preset 'Position Lines From Start Separately 3' to free version
• Fixed some issues with presets that use pseudo effects
• Other minor bugfixes

Date: 04. May 2018

2.6.0

• Added support for new presets with Pseudo Effects
• Optimized preset expressions
• Added support for separated dimensions in position property
• Added option to enable/disable preset in Effect Controls Panel using 'fx' checkbox (the same way as when using effect)
• Fixed some errors when using Transition Shifter

Date: 21. Mar 2018

2.5.1

• Added support for new IN/OUT transition markers on precomps to Transition Shifter
• Fixed issue with entering non-English characters when editing texts in precomps
• Fixed bug causing freezing AE when changing palette on some specific precomps
• Fixed bug causing freezing after adding a folder containing too many sound files

Date: 11. Jan 2018

2.5.0

• Added support for new Backgrounds and Transitions
• Added IN/OUT/CUT markers to Precomps. Now you can easily adjust duration of transition animations
• Fixed issue with Update Dialog. Now it should not block other scripts on start
• Fixed issue with Transition Shifter draggable duration component. Now you do not have to double-click to edit shift time
• Fixed some other minor bugs / rare crashes

Date: 21. Nov 2017

2.4.3

Platform: Windows

• Fixed a bug causing crash on startup in CC 2018

Date: 19. Oct 2017

2.4.2

• Added support for new items in Shape Elements pack v2
• Fixed issues with keyframes when changing precomp duration
• Fixed an issue when layer lost its parent after pasting a motion preset
• Fixed a crash when Preview Grid panel was focused and other AC panel was being closed
• Fixed some crashes on Windows caused by a bug in DirectX text rendering
• Fixed an issue in Transition Shifter when effect preset was moved instead of transition

Date: 18. Oct 2017

2.4.1

• Added support for new auto-resized Titles & Lower Thirds
• Added option to edit texts in Precomps using AC panel
• Added breadcrumb navigation to Preview Grid panel
• Added preview images to folders
• Fixed some crashes under low memory conditions
• Fixed some other minor bugs

Date: 13. Sep 2017

2.3.2

• Added Audio Device Settings so now you can choose output device for previewing Sounds
• Fixed Anchor Point Tool crash when Render Queue is opened
• Fixed a bug that was causing a nasty corruption of Undo stack
• Fixed some minor glitches in User Guide

Date: 29. Jun 2017

2.3.0

• Added a new feature that lets you add Sounds to Animation Composer
• Tweaked menu for applying items (now the preview window reacts to all changes made in this menu)
• Changed install location so you don't not have to install Animation Composer again after updating After Effects
• Fixed logout issues on macOS
• Fixed a rare crash after adding Precomp from Preview Grid
• Fixed a bug in Anchor Point Tool when stroke was applied to a vector layer
• Fixed time sliders

Date: 14. Jun 2017

2.2.8

• Fixed crash that occurs when starting After Effects

Date: 05. Apr 2017

2.2.7

Download & Install Animation Composer 3 Plugin For After ...

• Added support for new Shape Elements Pack
• Preview Grid now shows only items shown in tree when using search
• Fixed slow closing of Animation Composer panel
• FIxed some minor glitches in UI

Date: 05. Apr 2017

2.2.1

Platform: macOS

• Fixed a crash that happened when one of AC panels was docked as Stacked Panel Group

Date: 15. Mar 2017

2.2.0

• Added new amazing panel called Preview Grid
• Fixed slow Preview loading on Windows in some cases
• Fixed Green Preview issue on Windows
• Fixed mouse-over handling when multiple panels are opened on Mac
• Fixed some other minor bugs and UI glitches

Date: 06. Mar 2017

2.1.1

• Added support for paths (masks, shapes) to Keyframe Wingman
• Fixed several bugs that were causing crashes when using Keyframe Wingman

Date: 27. Nov 2016

2.1.0

• Added Keyframe Wingman tool
• Added option to change Precomp's duration before inserting it
• Added option to insert Precomp at playhead at its In Point or at the end of its In Transition
• Added clear button to search bar
• Added option to reveal freshly installed items
• Fixed some minor issues

Date: 22. Nov 2016

2.0.6

• Fix an issue that caused crash when using Anchor Point tool
• Fix an issue that caused the plugin to not load when After Effects was started through Adobe Premiere
• Add back the possibility to search for preset with its unique code

Date: 06. Sep 2016

2.0.5

• Prevented crash in buggy AE CS6 version ('Update required' warning)
• Fixed random logout issue
• Fixed crash on changing Precomp duration

Date: 17. Aug 2016

2.0.4

• Added option to edit 'Duration with transition' directly in UI
• Fixed error occuring during inserting a new Precomp
• Fixed some other minor issues

Date: 12. Aug 2016

2.0.3

• Fix Free Starter Pack download button
• Fix some rare crashes

Date: 11. Aug 2016

2.0.2

• Fixed Precomp editing issue in large project files
• Fixed some UI glitches in Manage Products window

Date: 10. Aug 2016

2.0.1

• Fixed crash on start
• Fixed crash after login
• Fixed Update button in Manage Products

Date: 10. Aug 2016

2.0.0

Animation Composer has a lot of new awesome features.

• Polished user interface.
• New type of content called 'Precomps'. It’s royalty-free content that you can use in your videos. For example: titles, animated illustrations, elements and much more.
• There's a new store where you can get a lot of additional content.
• Anchor Point Mover - quickly reposition the anchor point for selected layers...
• There's a new user guide with lots of short videos... full of tips and tricks.
• User accounts. Now you can keep your favourites and licenses safely synced with your account.
• New 'Manage Products' window. Download, update and manage your products from one place.Working with presets has got better too.
• Now you can finally apply a preset to multiple selected layers.
• There are more options on how to copy a preset.
• New presets in 'The Most Handy Presets Pack'.Update to Animation Composer 2 for free and check out the other videos for tips and tricks.

Date: 10. Aug 2016

When Jerry hits Tom over the head with a shovel, the language of the action is understood across the globe. This is one of the beauties of animation; it's a translatable art form. When done properly, a finished animated film can be viewed and enjoyed (in much the same manner) in countries around the world. There's only one other medium with such a universal acceptance rate: music.

Music is an incredibly expressive medium. In a single note more can be expressed than what most people express through words in a single day. That music and animation would join together is a celebration of common sense. When married properly the two are a perfect fit, complimenting, driving and inspiring each other and the audience.

The men and women who have helped marry music and animation number in the 100s. From studio composers to arrangers, lyricists to musicians, each has played an important part in the evolution of the animated film. Each musician has (or continues) to offer their own unique outlook to the soundtracks that they create and yet each also, in some way, builds off of the work that has proceeded them.

A Quick Start and Stop
While synchronized sound on film had been an experiment for a number of years, it wasn't until 1927's release of 'The Jazz Singer' that studios began to see the power of sound. As that film broke box office record after record, studios tripped over themselves to get sound films into production. This of course included all of the cartoon studios. While Disney is widely credited with having the first sound cartoon with 'Steamboat Willie' (1928) there were others that came before him.

The first animated film with a synchronized soundtrack was actually completed in 1925 by chronic innovator Max Fleischer. The short, 'My Old Kentucky Home', made use of Dr. Lee DeForest's PhonoFilm system. The picture was competent but the system never caught on with distributors or studios.

The Foundation
All good songs come from notes. Many composers create these notes themselves, but some look to other sources for 'inspiration'. Raymond Scott was one of these inspirations. Scott was born Harry Warnow in 1908 (he would change his name several years later). He started playing the piano at age two and played around for a number of years before finally getting serious in 1931 as he was hired to be the staff pianist for the CBS radio house band. He not only played, but he also began composing work for the orchestra.

Scott was truly a unique individual; he had a playful, surreal outlook on life that he expressed in a particular way through his music. In 1936 Scott, in an effort to experiment more with his own compositions, approached CBS about letting him form a band as a 'side' project. CBS eventually agreed and so 'The Raymond Scott Quintet' was formed. The uniqueness of the arrangements and the musicianship of the players led the Quintet to great popularity. They played on a number of radio programs, toured the country and even appeared in several movies and yet their greatest and most lasting success would come from a place they never suspected: animated films.

Animation Composer Pack

A Sample of Raymond Scott's Songs:
'Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals'
'Powerhouse'
'War Dance for Wooden Indians'
'Careful Conversation at a Diplomatic Function'

Music in Animation Arrives
Carl Stalling learned the business of film music from the ground up. He worked during the silent era as orchestra conductor and composer at the Isis Theater in Kansas City. His time here was well spent as it gave him a first hand opportunity to see how audiences reacted to a musical score, to discover what types of musical ideas worked with what types of pictures and to see how an audience could be manipulated through music.

Stalling was enthralled with the world of film and thankfully for him so was all of Kansas City. The town was practically over-run with fledging filmmakers, many of whom spent time in the Isis and came to know Stalling well. One of the men who became particularly close to Stalling was Walt Disney.

By the late 1920's, Stalling had moved to Hollywood to stake out a career. He started to pick up a number of odd jobs and sensing that things there were only going to get better and better, began persuading his Kansas City friends to 'head West'. Walt Disney heard the call and with help from Stalling in the form of a small loan, he moved his fledgling animation studio to the California. Stalling became Disney's studio composer and was responsible for the music in all of Disney's early cartoons, including 'Steamboat Willie' (1928). Stalling enjoyed composing for these cartoons but felt that his music was too often being used either as a novelty or an after-thought. It was out of Stalling's concerns and desires to see musical scores evolve that Disney started the Silly Symphony series, the lead cartoon in which was 'The Skeleton Dance' (1929). This was the first time in which the action of the animated film was created around the music. Its phenomenal popular and critical success helped to bring to a new level of importance to the way music was viewed in animation. Music was now deemed so important to animation that musicians and artists at Disney all worked in the same room.

Stalling eventually left Disney and worked for several other studios (including Iwerks) before finding himself at Warner Brothers in 1936. He remained here until 1958 composing the music for over 600 cartoons.

At Warner Brothers, there had always been a caveat attached to the cartoons, and that was that each should contain a Warner Brothers song. The advertising and marketing benefits of placing popular songs in the cartoons was to good for the studio to pass up. This practice produced such 'classics' as 'Shuffle Off to Buffalo' (1933). When Stalling arrived at Warner Brothers the importance of song placement was starting to lag but as Stalling considered it he realized the brilliance that it contained. By using popular songs one could easily tie into the audience's emotions and help direct them down any chosen path, which in some ways was predetermined by the previously heard song. Stalling felt the trick though was not to make a blatant use of a song but rather to incorporate it into the soundtrack. Take the song 'I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover'. Previously this song would be given to Porky Pig to sing as he walked across a farm its presence was pure advertising, doing nothing to further the action of the film. Stalling though placed it in a Coyote/Road Runner film as the Coyote chased the Road Runner around a highway cloverleaf. Its placement was simple, subtle and incredibly effective.

This is part of Stalling's genius for he wouldn't just throw a song into a soundtrack, rather he would take snippets from a song and thread it in or re-work them until they flowed with the music and added a punch to the music and action. Stalling's work benefited from having the large and diverse Warner's musical catalogue to work with. A catalogue that grew in1943 when Warners bought Raymond Scott Publishing. Stalling now had a license to use Scott's work. And use it he did.

The Raymond Scott Archive estimates that Stalling used Scott's music a total of 133 times in 117 separate cartoons. Far and away the song used the most was 'Powerhouse'. Its straight ahead drive instantly puts into your mind an image of Daffy Duck and Porky Pig working the assembly line in 'Baby Bottleneck' (1946) (or any number of similar situations). Carl Stalling had most certainly been providing impressive musical scores up to 1943 but once he began to incorporate Scott's structured lunacy into his work, it became inspired and a mark against which others continue to be measured.

These Stalling/Scott scores were (and continue to be) an inspiration for established composers and those looking to join the field. Jody Gray, a composer, says that these scores were 'enthralling' to him as a child and cites them as a major influence on his decision to become a composer. Their influence is still felt at Warner Brothers as well. Gray, who completes a number of scores for Warner Brother's On-Line animated ventures says that in discussions, 'Stalling-like' is a description that is continually bantered about.

Over at MGM Scott Bradley had a both enviable and unenviable task: compose music for the animated shorts being produced there. This was enviable because of the popularity, both commercial and critical, of the MGM cartoon stars. Unenviable because after all, Tom and Jerry films are chase films. Perhaps each has a different setting, but at their core…. Bradley saw this challenge and rather than 'cartoon up' his work he took a more serious approach. An orchestra composer by day, Bradley used much of the same orchestral overtones in his music for MGM which provided a certain serious, cynical counterpoint to all of the action on the screen.

Back over at Disney, Bert Lewis had taken over for Stalling as Musical Director and now gave way to Leigh Harline. Harline was the first college educated Musical Director Disney had; previous directors had learned their trade in music halls and theater orchestra pits. The schooling that Harline received paid off in droves for Disney as he brought a sophistication and complexity to his scores. Films such as 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' (1937) and 'Pinocchio' (1940) benefited from his talents. Many composers of the time composed almost on a shot by shot basis, but Harline had an ability to compose long musical themes that would carry out over an entire scene. Within each musical strand, he would place individual call outs which could punctuate the action without detracting from the overall musical 'scheme'.

In Everyone a Song
Stalling, Harline, Scott and Bradley are some of the more influential composers to come out of the early years of animation but they are in no way the only composers you have heard. Over the years we've also been treated to the work of:

Clarence Wheeler - He worked for Walter Lantz, particularly on the Chilly Willy series.

Winston Sharples - Winston wrote music for a number of Paramount cartoons as well as
Merrie Melodie shorts. He would compose music for 696 animated shorts in all.

Sammy Lerner - Musical Director at Paramount. His major contribution was in writing
Popeye's theme song.

Sammy Timberg - The third major Music Director at Paramount. He was responsible for
scoring the majority of cartoons released between 1942 and 1949.

Ralph Rainger and Victor Young - Both did work for the Fleischers, particularly on the
feature 'Gulliver's Travels' (1939).

Some studios left music composition to one person or to a core group while others worked with music differently on every picture they created. For example, UPA had no composer on staff. Instead it kept to its artistic ideals by hiring in a composer for each particular animated piece. That meant that they could marry the overall tone of the work with a composer's specific skills. This put the studio in a partnership with various talents such as Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Kubik (who scored the Oscar winning 'Gerald McBoing Boing') and jazz artist Shorty Rogers (who scored a number of Mister Magoo cartoons.)

As animation continued to branch out and grow, new composers entered the field and started to leave their mark. Composers such as:

Hoyt Curtain - A composer with Hanna/Barbera, he was responsible for the creation of a
number of themes including: 'The Flintstones', 'The Jetsons' and 'Scooby Doo, Where are You?'.

Maury Laws - The man behind the music of Rankin/Bass.

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken - They helped Disney achieve new highs with their
work on 'The Little Mermaid' (1989), 'Beauty and the Beast' (1991) and
'Aladdin' (1992).

Richard Stone - The Music Director for 'Ren and Stimpy', he brought Raymond Scotts
music back to animation.

Jody Gray - The composer behind 'Courage, The Cowardly Dog', Jody is also
working on-line, scoring an entirely new generation of Warner Brother shorts.

Shirley Walker - Continuing the tradition of amazing musical settings with her work on
'Spawn' and 'Batman: The Animated Series'.

There are an incredible number of men and women who have made our cartoon favorites dance, made them scared, set their moods and given them music to chase by. As you watch your next animated show, give yourself an exercise, at some point turn the sound off. You'll discover that while although the images may still be incredible to look at, the animation its self is missing something, it's missing a personality, a tempo, a story spine, it's missing its music.

--

Noell Wolfgram Evans is a freelance writer who lives in Columbus, Ohio. He has written for the Internet, print and had several plays produced. He enjoys the study of animation and laughs over cartoons with his wife, daughter, and newborn son.

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