The lower third, from the chat
An MCP server that builds and renders in a live After Effects project, with the tool count left as the disagreement between 65 and 73.
- Category
- Motion
- Who it is for
- A motion designer who already pays for After Effects and still keys the lower third by hand.
- Possible model
- Open source
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Inspired by
- ae-motion · ae-motion
- Original launch
- Watch the launch · Oct 9, 2026
Difficulty is an editorial estimate of technical and operational complexity, not a score.
Startup idea analysis by Startup Ideas. Last reviewed Oct 9, 2026. How we read a launch.
The startup idea
Dhananjay Singh posted ae-motion on October 9. A free, open-source MCP tool for After Effects. The readme says Claude and other assistants can build, animate, preview, and render in a live project. The repository title says 65 tools. The readme says 73 tools in twelve groups: comps, layers, keyframes, text, masks, effects, layout, 3D cameras and lights, and aerender. MIT. No price. Install is a clone, then bash scripts/install.sh on macOS or install.ps1 on Windows. It needs After Effects 2022 or later, Node.js 22.18 or later, and an unsigned CEP panel, which means PlayerDebugMode. The server listens only on 127.0.0.1, with a token. File access stays inside AE_MCP_ALLOWED_DIRS. run_jsx is off unless AE_MCP_ALLOW_JSX is 1. The project has to be saved before a render. This page did not install the panel.
The opportunity is one comp the chat can finish, on a machine the designer already owns. A smaller product is a lower third, a preview, and a render, with JSX left off. The tool count is not settled. Quote 65 and 73 until one of them is wrong.
Do not say it runs in the cloud. The readme says localhost. Do not say any JSX the model writes will run. That switch is off.
The problem
The motion is a sentence in chat. The comp still has to be keyed by hand.
Who would pay for this?
- Primary
- A motion designer who already pays for After Effects and still keys the lower third by hand.
- Secondary
- A developer who will turn PlayerDebugMode on for an unsigned panel.
- Early adopter
- One saved project, one five-second lower third, one render.
How could it make money?
Possible models. Nothing here is a claim about what ae-motion charges.
- The post says free and open source. The readme says MIT. No price.
- After Effects is the customer's license. This page did not price it.
What would the MVP look like?
- One live project, After Effects 2022 or later.
- A panel that only talks to 127.0.0.1.
- One lower third and one render.
- JSX left off.
- The 65 and the 73 left as a disagreement.
How to validate the idea
- Ask five After Effects users to let it build one lower third they would otherwise key.
- If they only want the demo film, the panel was not the product.
- Do not add a second host app until one render is used in a cut.
How to differentiate
- The comp is the one already open.
- The server does not leave the machine.
- Arbitrary JSX is a switch, not the default.
- Do not become a video model. The timeline is the job.
Why this could be interesting now
The post and the readme agree on free, open source, and After Effects. They do not agree on how many tools that is. The opening is one render a designer can throw away.
Original product launch
This launch is inspiration and evidence that someone shipped, not a partnership. The idea above is our reading of the broader opportunity. ae-motion did not write it.
- Product
- ae-motion
- Source
- ae-motion
- Film
- ae-motion, After Effects from the chat
- Posted
- Oct 9, 2026 · 0:40
Product that inspired this idea
Dhananjay Singh's post says he built a free, open-source MCP tool for After Effects. The readme says it lets Claude and other assistants build, animate, preview, and render in a live project. The repository title says 65 tools. The readme says 73 tools in twelve groups, including comps, layers, keyframes, text, masks, effects, layout, 3D cameras and lights, and aerender. MIT. No price. It needs After Effects 2022 or later and Node.js 22.18 or later. The server talks only to 127.0.0.1 with a token. Arbitrary JSX stays off unless AE_MCP_ALLOW_JSX is set to 1.
Posted by @dhaannjaay. Watch the original launch. No separate product site is listed unless the post itself is the source.
- after-effects
- mcp
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