The first half of the year was action-packed for After Effects, with months of big features, AI and freemium competition, and 3rd-parrty news. The current release of AE is June 2026 release (version 26.3).

With various Fixed issues and Known issues, the June 2026 release (version 26.3) included:

• After Effects AI Assistant
• editable text from Illustrator files
• New guides functionality in After Effects
• Disk Caching for Object Matte
• Stylize footage with Contour Paint effect
• Duplicate layers using Alt/Option-drag
• Change anchor point in a more efficient way
• Effect Controls panel modernization
• Color labels for effects

Of course the AI Assistant (announcement/forum) should be huge in the long run. The beta implementation helps you work on your project using natural language (you talk to AE), instead of following in-app workflows or manually navigating menus. It’s designed to feel like a conversation where you describe what you want, ask follow-up questions, or refine your request. The Assistant translates requests into actions within your project and composition. You can currently Organize your project, Work with expressions, and Generate images and videos.

SternFX has an introduction with After Effects Has an AI Assistant. Is It Any Good?  flomotion has another intro, NEW FEATURE in AFTER EFFECTS – AI ASSISTENT.

Jake In Motion dives deeper in ponderous live sessions: After Effects just got an AI Assistant (and it’s not what you think) and

Premiere and Photoshop got their assistant first; here’s something on Premiere, Premiere Pro AI Assistant: Game Changer or Overhyped? from Cut to the Point.

There were other instances of leveraging AI in After Effects, including Atom and a Claude/Higgsfield extension. Davey Design says I built the first AI Agent for After Effects. He seems pretty busy making a bunch of other tools too.

Jake Bartlett likes Atom, but there doesn’t seem to be a comparison with Adobe’s version. Eran Stern tried Atom out last year; video below.

Plainly has a brief take on another assistant, and there’s a ton more videos from the many who have tried the Claude/Higgsfield extension. See Higgsfield AI plugin for Adobe After Effects (Honest Review).

Jack Vs. AI promises a lot of money if you watch him show you How to Build a Solo Motion Graphics Studio with AI. He’s using Higgsfield and Seedance in this tutorial, and has a school if you really want to be successful. Maybe AI is the incentive you need to convince clients that you are on the edge.

In Claude Just Solved Motion Design (Destroy AI Slop), Jack Roberts says that color grading, motion B-roll and film style transitions, can be well built with Claude and no editing software. He leans heavily on good references, but do all great artists “steal”?

Here on PVC Chris Zwar has an intro and a sequel on the built-in Mocha AE, which improves on the old Adobe tracker.

Code Runner 2 is a free After Effects panel from Jake In Motion that turns what you might do 20 times a day into a single button. Run a script, apply an expression or a preset, run a menu command, or apply your own keyframe easing — all from one panel you that can shape around the way you work. It has a dizzying amount of features for a free plug-in. See Code Runner 2 – Free After Effects Plugin.

KYLER HOLLAND shows how to Create This INSANE Noise Effect in Premiere Pro. It’s not crazy, but a subtle glitching, using the standard Wave Warp effect with the Noise wave type.

Boone Loves Video shared an update, The BEST Plugins for Map Animators Pt2 🗺️🔌❤️

In The After Effects Techniques Motion Designers Gatekeep, 8bitbrain offer 5 not usual moves.

Creation Effects shared Free Repeller Effect & After Effects Tutorial (Repel & Attract Layers), one of a bunch of free or inexpensive templates. At one point his Ball Action template was visually impressive.

Stephan Zammit has This After Effects Trick Came From Cavalry, the app Canva bought and made free.

Another new AE-like app is continuing development, See Caddis – August Updates (Linux & MCP). Caddis 1.0.5 brings Linux support and MCP support, plus a handful of smaller improvements. There’s a 7-day trial. There’s additional news from CG Channel in Motion graphics tool Caddis 1.0 puts a node graph in every layer and from Jörn-Erik Burkert in Let’s talk to the Caddis developer.

Maxon made another pitch for Autograph in Free Motion Graphics & VFX Software in 2026: Start Free, Grow Into Pro. This coincides with a new short series on responsive design. They also seem to have snagged Jeff Greenberg, a sharp hired gun for a free webinar Sept 16.

Surfaced Studio says I Quit Adobe After 15 Years. Here’s What I’m Using Now. He’s an Australian and supporting Aussie products… well that’s part of the story.

Glyn Dewis asks Who is Photoshop for now? 🤷‍♂️ (update 27.10.0). There are Pro and AI assistant modes but the push to AI is disconcerting, even if there are no plans to switch.

Meanwhile, PiXimperfect shows off 9 Photoshop Tools That Beat AI Every. Single. Time. On the other hand…

404 Media features The Future of Deepfakes and the Decline of Reality (With Hany Farid). Farid is the cofounder of GetReal, a company that specializes in detecting deepfakes and other AI-generated images, and is the developer of PhotoDNA, a perceptual hashing algorithm that helps companies automatically detect and remove some of the worst images that exist online, and that is now being used by every serious internet platform. His intro to “Digital Image Forensics” (Scientific American 2008) is available on his website; there are also various classes on video.

Theoretically Media covers generative AI. Recently he noted H3 Max and Comfy UI improvements: AI Video Just Broke Real-Time — What Happens Next Is Wild! and AI’s Hardest Tool Just Killed The Hard Part!

Ok, so maybe there’s real-time generation, but will every pixel be generated — as claimed by Jensen Huang? Certainly every middle man wants a nickel & dime of the herd’s cash, but why can’t most of work be done locally? The big tech bros can have render farms, but not everyone has to be an extraction chokepoint; if they want to be a utility they must prepare for regulation.

Some people have no problem with complete generative AI or the transition with hybrid approaches. Joey /// VP Land deals with some of this in Green Screen vs No Screen. What is Hybrid AI Filmmaking Going to Look Like?

The stock market is defined by irrational exuberance, promoted by sharks! But yeah, how many subscriptions will fall away as AI replaces people, and will Adobe be able to take a cut of the action? Will the infrastructure work make Adobe part of the backbone? Will the current freemium apps be gobbled up along with Adobe as front end editors for the big models? Or will they use AI to create new UI?

For your reflection, Tech Meets East has a overview of recent Adobe developments with Adobe BLOWS UP The Entire Creative Market With Latest Announcement!

Here’s a fun general take in another direction, a palette cleanser if you will: Gaussian Splatting Is Going Mainstream (Apple, Insta360 and 4D Video) from Spatial Insider ᯅ.

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