TillyGen and After Effects

What this is about

After Effects is the workshop for motion design and compositing: animated titles, tracked screen replacements, the explainer sequence between two filmed scenes. Its budget currency is time per shot, which is why the split between filmed and built must fall in pre-production. In the TillyGen storyboard, those shots get flagged: this frame is animation, this one composites a screen onto filmed footage, this transition carries the brand animation. The AE artist receives that as a list with frame references and knows the scope before opening a project — and the filmed plates get planned with the compositing in mind.

An integration is good when nobody talks about it any more: the data is where it is needed and nobody exports anything.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• Storyboard frames from TillyGen serve as layout references in AE comps — the intended composition exists before the first keyframe
• Shots flagged as VFX in the shot list generate the AE work list, with per-shot scope readable from the plan
• Plates that will carry compositing get planned with tracking markers and clean passes because the plan knew about the VFX
• Comp names carry the plan's shot numbers, so review feedback lands on the right composition without archaeology

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Flag every shot that is animation or compositing while the storyboard is being built in TillyGen — the flag is a budget decision, not a technical note.
2. Hand the AE artist the flagged shot list plus the storyboard frames as reference images; scope conversations happen now, on paper.
3. Plan the affected filmed shots for their compositing role: markers, clean plates, and enough padding around the framing.
4. Build comps named after the plan's shot numbers and use the storyboard frame as the layout layer underneath the first draft.
5. Review rendered shots against the storyboard intention first, taste second — intention disputes are cheaper settled against a drawn frame.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• VFX discovered in post: the plate was filmed without markers or headroom, and the composite costs triple what a planned one would
• Scope creep per feedback round — each review adds a small animation until the AE budget quietly doubles without a decision

With TillyGen

The storyboard in TillyGen is the contract for every built shot: what it shows, where it sits, what the filmed material must provide. After Effects executes that contract — and renegotiations go through the plan.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.