Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
One click creates a smart animated highlight box and cursor, styled like a clean UI/SaaS selection box, for any layer, including text, images, shapes, and more. Animate the box and cursor in from any direction you want. In this tutorial, we will go over all of the settings
aescripts.com/highlighter
00:00 - Introduction
00:10 - Interface Overview & Responsive Design
00:57 - How to Use the Tool (Quick Start)
01:28 - Animating the Box and Cursor
02:24 - Box Tab: Color & Stroke Settings
02:51 - Cursor Direction & Modes
03:26 - Color Swatches Explained
04:03 - Highlighter Button: Multiple Selection Modes
04:57 - Deleting Highlighters & Layers
05:22 - Toolbar: Adding/Removing Sources
06:03 - Converting to 3D
06:25 - Locking/Unlocking Transform
06:44 - Duplicating Highlighters
07:02 - Tool Tab: Animation Panel (Scale & Trim Path)
08:24 - Deleting Animations & Keyframes
08:52 - Nulls Button: Corner Nulls & Parenting
09:48 - Parent Button: Automated Parenting
11:01 - Alpha Matte Tool
11:45 - Link Button: Creating Responsive Scaling
12:14 - Control Button: Essential Graphics & Premiere Export (MOGRT)
13:34 - Detailed Preset Controls (Effect Controls)
13:51 - Group 1: Box General Settings
14:15 - Group 2: Box Scale Controls
14:25 - Group 3: Box Padding
14:38 - Group 4: Box Offset
14:55 - Group 5: Box Rotation
15:11 - Group 6: Cursor General Settings
15:38 - Group 7: Cursor Colors & Opacity
16:06 - Group 8: Cursor Stroke Thickness
16:22 - Group 9: Cursor Scale & Anchor Points
16:51 - Group 10: Cursor Trim Paths
17:17 - Group 11: Cursor Padding
17:41 - Group 12: Cursor Offset
18:03 - Settings Window: Box Tab Options
19:09 - Settings Window: Cursor Tab Options
20:15 - Settings Window: General Panel & UI Settings
20:57 - Save & Reset Options
21:10 - Help & Support Features
21:24 - Conclusion & Summary
One click creates a smart animated highlight box and cursor, styled like a clean UI/SaaS selection box, for any layer, including text, images, shapes, and more. Animate the box and cursor in from any direction you want. In this tutorial, we will go over all of the settings
aescripts.com/highlighter
00:00 - Introduction
00:10 - Interface Overview & Responsive Design
00:57 - How to Use the Tool (Quick Start)
01:28 - Animating the Box and Cursor
02:24 - Box Tab: Color & Stroke Settings
02:51 - Cursor Direction & Modes
03:26 - Color Swatches Explained
04:03 - Highlighter Button: Multiple Selection Modes
04:57 - Deleting Highlighters & Layers
05:22 - Toolbar: Adding/Removing Sources
06:03 - Converting to 3D
06:25 - Locking/Unlocking Transform
06:44 - Duplicating Highlighters
07:02 - Tool Tab: Animation Panel (Scale & Trim Path)
08:24 - Deleting Animations & Keyframes
08:52 - Nulls Button: Corner Nulls & Parenting
09:48 - Parent Button: Automated Parenting
11:01 - Alpha Matte Tool
11:45 - Link Button: Creating Responsive Scaling
12:14 - Control Button: Essential Graphics & Premiere Export (MOGRT)
13:34 - Detailed Preset Controls (Effect Controls)
13:51 - Group 1: Box General Settings
14:15 - Group 2: Box Scale Controls
14:25 - Group 3: Box Padding
14:38 - Group 4: Box Offset
14:55 - Group 5: Box Rotation
15:11 - Group 6: Cursor General Settings
15:38 - Group 7: Cursor Colors & Opacity
16:06 - Group 8: Cursor Stroke Thickness
16:22 - Group 9: Cursor Scale & Anchor Points
16:51 - Group 10: Cursor Trim Paths
17:17 - Group 11: Cursor Padding
17:41 - Group 12: Cursor Offset
18:03 - Settings Window: Box Tab Options
19:09 - Settings Window: Cursor Tab Options
20:15 - Settings Window: General Panel & UI Settings
20:57 - Save & Reset Options
21:10 - Help & Support Features
21:24 - Conclusion & Summary








![Gulp - CGI Shot Builder for After Effects
Bringing a rendered CGI shot into After Effects is a chore. Hunt through the open-file dialog, import the EXR, then wire up EXtractoR for every pass by hand — then do it again for the next shot, and the next version of it.
Gulp replaces the routine. Point it at a render folder, browse your shots in a panel, and build a comp with every pass on its own named layer — channel routing, blend modes, depth remapping and PuzzleMatte splitting done.
https://aescripts.com/Gulp
BROWSE YOUR RENDERS, NOT THE FILE DIALOG
• Image sequences collapse to a single line with their real frame range — [1001–1150] · 150f
• Multichannel EXRs carry a multipass tag — hover to see the passes inside
• Filter by name or extension, with negative terms to exclude what you dont want
• Favourite folders globally or per project; recent roots sit by the picker
• Select footage in AEs Project panel and jump straight to it on disk
• Drag a folder from Explorer or Finder onto the panel
IT READS THE EXR BEFORE YOU IMPORT IT
• Headers are parsed as you browse: passes, channel layout, bit depth (16-bit half or 32-bit float), frame rate where present
• The build dialog shows the detected colourspace and bit depth before anything is imported
• Frame ranges and gaps are visible before you commit
• Missing frames are named, not just counted — hover the badge to see exactly which
• Gulp can silence After Effects own missing-frame dialogs
ONE CLICK, ONE FINISHED COMP
• Build takes the multipass EXR plus any standalone AOVs beside it and returns a named comp
• Every pass on its own labelled layer, filed into tidy project folders
• Lighting passes get additive blend modes; data passes arrive parked, not polluting the picture
• EXtractoR / IDentifier channel selection is set on each layer by Gulps own native plugin — no manual channel picking
• A shot with a beauty builds with the other passes switched off, so you start from the picture
• Progress bars on builds and imports
DEPTH AND MATTES, HANDLED PROPERLY
• Depth arrives as one layer, Z routed to RGB, black/white points set from a near/far range
• That range is prefilled from the render cameras own metadata where present (Redshift writes it)
• PuzzleMattes split into one luma-matte layer per ID, ready to use as track mattes
• A matte baked as a single ID at render time stays one layer, not three duplicates
IT KNOWS THE RENDER ISNT FINISHED
• A shot still coming off the farm shows a completeness bar: frames present against the expected range
• Tick Watch this shot for renders and Gulp extends the comp and every pass layer as frames land — no re-import, no rebuild
• If earlier frames appear, it asks whether to slide the shot to the new start
WORKS WITH DROPBOX, ONEDRIVE AND ICLOUD
• Online-only files are badged, and reading an EXR header never triggers a download
• Download what you need from the browser — right-click, or click the badge
• Every prompt states the cost in GB before it acts — nothing pulls 40GB behind your back
• Inspect an online-only sequences passes on demand
SPLIT A MULTIPASS TO REAL FILES ON DISK
• Right-click a multipass EXR and each pass is written out as its own sequence, then the folder opens
• Choose the output compression: DWAB, DWAA, ZIP or PIZ
• Powered by the bundled oiiotool, so every EXR compression is handled
RELINK A BROKEN PROJECT IN ONE PASS
• Scans for missing footage and matches it against a folder you point at, to a search depth you set
• Relinks in bulk — sequences, stills and movies, including items whose type AE got wrong
• Ambiguous matches get a per-item choice, not a silent guess
QUICK IMPORT WHEN YOU DONT WANT A COMP
• Import any footage with its own dialog: frame rate, destination folder, layer naming, straight into the active comp if you want
• Loose movies and stills can build a comp too, sized and timed from the footage — mp4, mov, png and the rest
SEND THE COMP TO PREMIERE
• One click sends the active comp to an open Premiere project as a Dynamic Link comp, optionally at the playhead
• If the project isnt saved yet, Gulp prompts you and carries on
COLOUR, STATED HONESTLY
• Reads your projects live colour state — engine, OCIO config, working space, bit depth
• Walks you through an ACES setup, recommending 32bpc and an ACEScg working space for scene-linear EXRs
• AE will not let a script change all of it — Gulp sets what is settable and says exactly what to click for the rest, rather than pretending
AN INTERFACE THAT FITS YOUR AFTER EFFECTS
• Five themes previewed live in Preferences, the default matching AEs own darkest interface and Adobe accent
SPECIFICATION
• After Effects 2022 and above
• Windows x64 · macOS universal (Apple Silicon and Intel), Apple-notarized — no security prompts
• Multipass / multichannel EXRs from any renderer — Redshift, Octane, Arnold, V-Ray, Cinema 4D
• Under the hood: a CEP panel, a native AE plugin (AEGP) doing the comp building and channel routing, plus a bundled oiiotool Gulp - CGI Shot Builder for After Effects](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pTpM8YHv3vQ/mqdefault.jpg)

