How to Use Claude with After Effects

Search for how to use Claude with After Effects and you find three kinds of answers: community MCP servers that build compositions inside After Effects, Claude writing expressions and scripts for you to run, and AI agents that make the motion graphic outside After Effects. This guide explains what each route does today and where to start.

The short answer: Claude can't operate After Effects on its own, and Adobe's connector for Claude doesn't include After Effects. If you need a finished motion graphic, such as animated titles, a product promo or an explainer, the quickest route is VideoStudio in Orkas: it renders the video, and you finish it in After Effects. If you need the work inside your own project as layers and keyframes you can edit, add a community After Effects MCP server to Orkas as a connector.

Can Claude use After Effects?

Not directly. Claude doesn't see or click through the After Effects window. Adobe's official connector for Claude, launched in April 2026, covers apps such as Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator and Express, but not After Effects. Adobe is also testing its own AI assistant inside the After Effects beta app, which is a separate product from Claude. As of November 7, 2026 we found no official Adobe MCP server for After Effects. Three routes work today:

• An agent makes the motion graphic outside After Effects. An AI agent on your computer turns a script, your footage or product images into a finished video with animated text and motion. After Effects imports the result like any other footage. This is how VideoStudio works, and it needs no plugin.
• Community MCP servers. Open-source projects let an agent create compositions, layers, keyframes and expressions in an open After Effects project. after-effects-mcp uses a small panel inside After Effects, while mcp-aftereffects needs no panel for one open copy of After Effects. Both are unofficial projects, not Adobe products.
• Expressions and scripts. Claude writes an expression or a script, and you paste it or run it in After Effects yourself. Nothing to install.

None of these routes looks at your composition the way you do. Agents work from what they can read, such as the script, layer names, property values and frames they render, so choices about timing, style and what feels right stay with you. Hand the agent the repetitive work and keep the creative calls.

Make the motion graphic with VideoStudio in Orkas

We recommend starting with VideoStudio, the video agent built into Orkas. Give it your script, clips, product images or logo and describe the result you want. It makes animated titles, kinetic text and explainer scenes, combines them with your footage, adds captions and music, and makes vertical versions for Shorts and Reels. If a scene needs a shot you don't have, it can generate one with the built-in Seedance 2.0 model, and it shows you the price and asks before it spends credits. It runs on macOS and Windows and needs no After Effects plugin.

1. Install Orkas and sign in. New accounts get 500 free credits for the built-in models, so you can start without an API key. You can also connect your own model provider.
2. Choose VideoStudio and add your material.
3. Describe the result: the length, the size and frame rate of your After Effects composition, the look, the text on screen and what should move.
4. Review the video and ask for focused changes, such as a slower title or a different order of shots. If you want to see the plan before it renders, say so in your request.

What you get back is a rendered video file, not an After Effects project. Its layers can't be edited in After Effects, and its background isn't transparent. If you need editable layers, use an MCP server instead.

A task to give VideoStudio

Add your clips and images, replace the brackets and send this to VideoStudio:

Make a [20-second] promo for [my product] from [these clips and photos].
Add animated titles with [these lines] in [my brand colors].
Render it at [1920×1080, 30 fps] to match my After Effects composition.
Keep text away from the edges of the frame.
Leave the last [2 seconds] free of text for my end card.
Show me the plan before you render.

When the video is ready, ask for specific changes, for example: "Hold the second title a little longer and swap the last two shots." VideoStudio changes that part and keeps the rest.

Finish in After Effects

Let the agent make the first version, and use After Effects for the work that needs your eye: tracking, 3D, effects, color and your brand templates.

1. Import the MP4 (File ▸ Import ▸ File) and add it to a composition with the same size and frame rate.
2. Add your layers on top, such as your end card, logo animation or effects.
3. Plan the captions. After Effects has no caption track like the one in Premiere Pro. If the video needs captions, ask VideoStudio to burn them in, or add its .srt file later in Premiere Pro.

Want an agent to build inside After Effects? Use an MCP server

If you want an agent to change your After Effects project itself, use a community MCP server. Orkas is an MCP client. Install the server by following its instructions, then choose Connectors in Orkas, then Add a custom MCP server, and add it as a Local command (stdio). You can also ask the Commander in a chat to add it, and you approve the command before it runs. Or connect your own Claude Code (choose Connect agents in the sidebar) and let it use the server.

• after-effects-mcp has the most stars on GitHub. It installs a bridge panel that you open in After Effects (Window ▸ mcp-bridge-auto.jsx), and it supports After Effects 2022 or later.
• mcp-aftereffects supports After Effects 2024 to 2026 on Windows and macOS and needs Node.js 24 or later. In Orkas, the command is npx and the arguments are -y and @kumoproductions/mcp-aftereffects, one per line. It has a read-only mode for checking a project without changing it: add AE_MCP_READONLY=1 under Environment variables.
• Before the first run, keep After Effects open with your project and turn on Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network in its Scripting & Expressions settings. If macOS asks whether Orkas may control After Effects, allow it.
• Save a copy of the project first, and ask for a plan before the agent edits. Anything the agent reads, such as layer names, expressions and file paths, goes to the model you use.
• Check each project's install steps and the After Effects versions it supports.

No setup: have Claude write expressions and scripts

For a single job, you don't need a connection at all. Ask an agent in Orkas to write an expression, for example a number that counts up to a value, or a script that renames layers or replaces text in many compositions at once. To use an expression, Alt-click (Option-click on a Mac) the stopwatch of the property and paste it. To run a script, save it as a .jsx file and choose File ▸ Scripts ▸ Run Script File. A script can change many layers at once, so save a copy of the project first.

Which route should you choose?

Questions

Can Claude use After Effects?

Not on its own. Community MCP servers let an agent build compositions, layers and keyframes in an open After Effects project, and an agent such as VideoStudio can make the motion graphic outside After Effects for you to import.

Is there an official After Effects MCP server or Claude connector?

We did not find one as of November 7, 2026. Adobe's connector for Claude covers apps such as Photoshop and Premiere but not After Effects, and the After Effects MCP servers that exist are community projects.

Do I need Claude Code or an API key?

No. VideoStudio runs in Orkas with the built-in models, and new accounts get 500 free credits. If you already use Claude Code or your own model provider, you can connect them instead.

Can VideoStudio give me an After Effects project or a transparent video?

No. It delivers a rendered MP4 with an opaque background. For editable layers in After Effects, use a community MCP server.

For the same approach with video editors, see How to Edit Videos with Claude in Premiere Pro, How to Edit Videos with Claude in Final Cut Pro and How to Edit Videos with Claude in DaVinci Resolve. To try it with your own material, download Orkas and start with VideoStudio.