Set up PlentyLabs for After Effects

The PlentyLabs panel connects Adobe After Effects to your PlentyLabs workspace. Use it to find your PlentyLabs assets and place them in your project, without leaving After Effects.

1. What the panel does

• Browse your library. See the videos, images, logos and audio in your PlentyLabs workspace, and search by name.
• Place assets. Click an asset to download it and add it to the active composition, at the current time.
• Use logos as shapes. An SVG logo becomes editable shape layers in After Effects 26.0 and later.
• Send a composition to PlentyLabs. Render the active composition as a video and add it to your library, and to a board if you choose one.

2. What you need

• A PlentyLabs account that is a member of at least one workspace. You can sign up here.
• Adobe After Effects 23.0 or later, on macOS or Windows. The panel does not appear in older versions.
• After Effects 26.0 or later, to place SVG logos. All other assets work from 23.0.
• An internet connection. The panel connects to api.plentylabs.com.

3. Install the panel

1. Find PlentyLabs on Adobe Exchange and click Install. The Creative Cloud desktop app installs it for you.
2. Restart After Effects if it was open.
3. In After Effects, choose Window > Extensions > PlentyLabs.

You can dock the panel next to your other panels, like any After Effects panel.

4. Connect your PlentyLabs account

The panel uses a pairing code. You approve the code in your browser, so you never type your PlentyLabs password in After Effects.

1. In the panel, click Connect.
2. The panel shows a short code, and your browser opens the PlentyLabs approval page.
3. If you are not signed in to PlentyLabs in that browser, sign in.
4. Check that the code in the browser is the same as the code in the panel.
5. Click Approve.
6. Go back to After Effects. The panel connects within a few seconds.

If the browser did not open, click Open the page again. You can also go to app.plentylabs.com/device on any device and type the code. A code works for 15 minutes.

Only approve a code that you started from After Effects yourself.

What the connection can do

• It can read every asset and board in every workspace you belong to.
• It can create assets as you.
• It cannot open your account settings, your password, billing, or admin tools.
• It ends after a week without use. The panel then asks you to connect again.

The panel keeps the connection in a file that only your user account can read. On macOS it is in ~/Library/Application Support/PlentyLabs/after-effects-panel/. On Windows it is in %APPDATA%\PlentyLabs\after-effects-panel\.

5. Use the panel

The panel has three tabs: Browse, Export and Settings. Pick your workspace in Settings.

1. Open a composition, and move the time indicator to where the asset should start.
2. In Browse, filter by Video, Image, Logos or Audio, or search by name.
3. Click an asset. The panel downloads it and adds it as a new layer at the current time.

If no composition is active, the asset goes into your project but not onto a layer. Open a composition and place it again to add a layer.

The panel saves each downloaded file in the folder above, and After Effects links to that file. Do not delete or move these files, or your projects show missing footage. If you place the same asset again, the panel uses the saved file.

6. Send a composition to PlentyLabs

The panel renders the active composition as an H.264 video and uploads it to the workspace you picked in Settings. Nothing renders until you confirm.

The After Effects Render Queue must have no queued items. A render starts every queued item, so the panel refuses to start while any are queued. Remove or unqueue them in the Render Queue panel first.

1. Open the composition you want to send, and click in its timeline so it is active.
2. Open the Export tab and click Send the active composition. The panel checks the composition.
3. Check what the panel shows: the name of the composition, its size, frame rate and length, and the length of the work area if it is not the whole composition.
4. If you want the video on a board too, choose it under Also put it on a board. Otherwise leave No board, library only.
5. Click Render and send.

After Effects renders the video in the background, so you can keep working. The panel shows how long it has been rendering, then the upload progress. When it is done, the panel says the video was sent. The video is in your library, named after the composition, with the after-effects tag.

After Effects uses your render settings, so it often renders only the work area. A render can be up to 500 MB. You can switch to other tabs while it runs.

You can only choose a board that you can edit and that has been opened in PlentyLabs at least once. Other boards are shown greyed out.

Cancel, or a failed upload

• Click Cancel while it renders or uploads to stop. The panel deletes the render, and nothing is added to your library.
• If the render finished but the upload failed, the panel keeps the render. Click Try the upload again to send it to the same workspace and board, or Discard the render to delete it.
• If you stop the render in the After Effects Render Queue, the panel says so. Nothing is sent.

Some versions of After Effects cannot render in the background. The panel then warns you before it starts: After Effects does not respond until the render is done, and you cannot cancel it.

7. Disconnect

1. Open the Settings tab in the panel.
2. Click Disconnect, then click Disconnect again to confirm.

This ends the session in PlentyLabs, and the panel stops reaching your workspace. Nothing in your After Effects project changes. To use the panel again, connect again with a new code.

If the panel says that it could not reach PlentyLabs to end the session, the session may still work. Sign in to PlentyLabs, open Settings, then Your account, and click Revoke next to the panel under Connected apps. Do the same if you lose the computer.

Deleting the connection file only removes the connection from this computer. It does not end the session in PlentyLabs. Use Disconnect or Revoke for that.

8. Troubleshooting

I cannot find PlentyLabs under Window > Extensions

Check that you use After Effects 23.0 or later. Then restart After Effects. The panel only appears after a restart.

“That code expired”

The code was not approved within 15 minutes. Click Get a new code and approve the new code.

“Not approved”

Someone clicked Deny on the approval page. Click Try again to get a new code.

“No connection to PlentyLabs”

The panel could not reach PlentyLabs. You are still connected. Check your internet connection and try again. If your company network blocks some sites, ask your IT team to allow api.plentylabs.com.

“PlentyLabs is not answering”

PlentyLabs sent an error. Wait a moment and try again. If it keeps happening, email us the error number.

The panel asks me to connect again

Your connection ended, most often after a week without use or because it was revoked. Click Connect and approve the new code. Your work is not affected.

“The connection could not be saved”

The panel could not write its connection file. It works until you close After Effects, and then asks you to connect again. Check that your user account can write to the folder above.

“After Effects 26.0 or later can import SVG logos”

Your version of After Effects cannot import SVG files. Update After Effects to place logos.

A logo arrived without its text

After Effects turns the shapes in an SVG into shape layers, but not its text. The original vector layer is still in the composition, switched off. For a full logo in shapes, use a logo file where the text is converted to outlines.

“The download did not finish”

Check your internet connection and click the asset again.

“PlentyLabs no longer has that asset”

The asset was deleted from your PlentyLabs library after the list loaded. Search again to get the current list.

Still need help?

Email us at support@plentylabs.com (send an email). Tell us which app you use, the email address of your PlentyLabs account, what you did, and what happened. If you saw an error message, copy it into the email. If it has an error number, include that too.

Guides for the other apps are on the Support page. How we handle your data is in our Privacy Notice. The rules for using PlentyLabs are in our Terms of Service.