AXO Docs

Settings ​

AXO keeps each setting next to the thing it changes, so most of them live in the tab they belong to. This page lists what you can change, where it is, and what it affects.

Only one group belongs to no tab, and it has a window of its own.

Panel settings ​

≡ › Settings… at the top of the panel. You can also open it from ? › Settings… and from the notice that appears when a format needs an encoder.

Video encoder (ffmpeg) ​

GIF, WebM, AVIF and WebP are written by ffmpeg, a free encoder that is not part of After Effects. AXO looks for it on your computer; if it is somewhere unusual, set the path here once and it is remembered. Nothing else AXO writes needs an encoder. See Build › GIF, WebM, AVIF and WebP need ffmpeg.

The trial writes no formats that need an encoder, so in the trial this section says so and stays empty.

Export settings ​

Build › Export settings. The full reference is Export settings.

These apply to every comp in the project. A comp can override any of them from Settings on its own row, and a dot on the row shows that an override is there.

  • Output location: one folder for everything, or a folder per comp.
  • File name: how the written file is named.
  • Text: how text layers are written, and what happens to fonts.
  • Expressions: what is baked into keyframes and what is left as it is.
  • Layers: which layers go out, and how hidden and guide layers are treated.
  • Images: whether images go beside the file or inside it.
  • Audio: whether sound is packed into the file.

Which players you are judged against ​

Audit › Target players. See Audit › Target players.

A finding matters only if a player you ship to cannot draw it. Tick the players your file has to work in, and the severity of every finding is judged against them. Choose this before anything else: it decides what the audit calls an error and what it treats as a note.

Optimizer settings ​

Files › Optimize. The full reference is Optimizer.

  • Presets: Safe (nothing that can change the picture), Full (the lossy steps included), or Custom once your own mix matches neither.
  • Steps: each one switches on or off by itself, grouped by what it touches: images, numbers, keyframes, shapes, metadata, and the lossy group.
  • Check the picture after optimizing: renders the file before and after and switches off any step that changed what you see.

Your mix is remembered, so the next file starts where you left off.

Library settings ​

Library › Settings. See Library.

  • Backup: write the whole library to a single file, or restore one. A restore merges: what the library already holds stays as it is, and only what is missing is added.
  • Thumbnail cache: the drawn thumbnails. Clearing it frees disk space; they are drawn again.

Build and video settings ​

Build › Formats. See Build.

Which formats each build writes. For a GIF or a video, After Effects renders the comp's work area once, and every ticked format is written from those frames.

What you do not set ​

  • Light, dark or darkest. The panel follows the brightness you chose for After Effects in Preferences › Appearance. There is no theme switch.
  • Panel width. Dock it where you like; the layout works from 565 px wide.
  • Where your work is kept. Files rows are paths to your real files, and the files are never moved. Library items are copied into AXO's own data folder, so they survive the originals being moved.

AXO for After Effects