PinRig

Getting Started

Overview

PinRig is an After Effects panel for building design systems on top of your layers: pins, construction guides, measurements, bounds, layout grids and text tools. Everything it creates is live - the graphics follow your layers when you move, scale or animate them.

This guide goes through the panel tab by tab. For each tool it tells you:

• SELECT: what to select in After Effects before you click
• SETTINGS: where the options are
• RESULT: what happens

A few general tips:

• Every tool works on the ACTIVE composition. Open a comp and click inside its timeline first.
• Hover over any button to see a short tooltip. You can turn tooltips off in Settings.
• A "› Settings" line inside a block opens the options for the whole block. A gear icon (⚙) on a tile opens the settings for that one tool.
• Rigs stay editable after they are created. Select the rig layer and open Effect Controls: color, pin size, stroke width, offsets, dash and trim are sliders there.
• If something goes wrong, a red message appears in the top right corner of the panel. The copy icon copies the full text (handy for support), the X closes it, and it also hides by itself after a few seconds.
• Everything can be undone with Ctrl/Cmd + Z in After Effects.

Install and Activation

Install

• .zxp file: install it with any ZXP installer (for example Anastasiy's Extension Manager or ZXP Installer), then restart After Effects.
• .zip file: unpack the folder into the Adobe CEP extensions folder: macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/ Windows: %APPDATA%\Adobe\CEP\extensions\ Then restart After Effects.
• Open the panel from Window › Extensions › PinRig AE.
• If the panel stays blank or does not appear, run the file from the "support" folder once: "Allow Plugin For Mac.command" or "Allow Plugin For Windows.bat", then restart After Effects.

Activation

On first launch PinRig shows the activation screen.

• Standalone license: paste the license key from your Gumroad purchase and click "Activate".
• WhatStudio Hub subscription: click "Open Hub", sign in there, then click "Refresh Access" in PinRig. The license is tied to this computer. After "Clear Cache & Reset" in Settings the panel returns to this screen.

Top Bar

Search (the magnifier next to the title)

Type the name of any block - Pin System, Measurements, Textures and so on - to jump straight to it.

Tabs

Workflow, Main, Tracking, Text, Presets, Settings. You can show them as icons only or names only in Settings.

Blocks

Every block has a drag handle (the dots on the right). Drag a block to reorder the tab to your taste; the order is remembered.

Main

Overview

The core tab: pins, bounding boxes, guides, measurements and the actions that manage the rigs you created.

Pin System

BLOCK SETTINGS ("› Settings")

Control Settings - where the sliders for a new rig live:

• Layer: the rig layer holds its own controls. Simplest, one layer per rig.
• Shared Null: one control null drives every rig you make with this setting, so you can restyle them all at once.
• Individual Null: each rig gets its own control null next to the layer.

Effect Driving - what the rig follows:

• Layer Based: the rig follows the selected layer. This is the normal mode.
• Null Control: the rig follows control nulls instead of a layer. Nothing needs to be selected; PinRig creates the nulls, and you move them by hand or animate them. Good for free-standing diagrams and mock measurements.

Pin Style - Default, or Custom: Click "Custom" to open the pin editor.

• Style tabs at the top: click to switch, "+" adds a new style, the × on the active tab deletes it, right-click a tab to rename it.
• "drag & drop comp": use your own artwork as the pin. Drop (or select and click) a SHAPE layer to take its outline, or a PRECOMP / a comp from the Project panel to use the whole comp as the pin. For a comp PinRig asks how to keep it: "This Project Only" - the style points at that comp in the current project; "Save as Template" - PinRig saves a copy of the comp for itself, so the style also works in other projects.
• Vertex Pins / Bezier Pins: square pins, or pins with handles for Bezier paths.
• Stroke and Fill colors, Fill on/off, Pin Size, Roundness, Stroke Width. For Bezier pins also Handle color, Circle color and Circle Scale.
• "Reset" returns the current style to the defaults. The chosen style is used by every pin tool from now on.

TOOLS (click a tile with the right layers selected)

Basic Pins

SELECT: a shape layer path, or a layer with a mask.

RESULT: live pins on every path vertex. They follow the path, even when it is animated.

Settings: Basic / Trim Path Link - with Trim Path Link the pins appear together with a Trim Paths animation, as if the path is being drawn.

Bezier Handles

SELECT: a Bezier path (shape layer or mask).

RESULT: pins plus the tangent handles of each vertex, the classic "vector editor" look.

Settings: Pin Style for this tool.

Link Lines

SELECT: two or more layers.

RESULT: a movable center null with live lines to every selected layer.

Bounding Box

SELECT: one layer.

Settings: Path / Layer / 3D Layer, plus a style (Clean, Cross, Safe Space) and a line style (Solid or Dashed).

RESULT: a live box around the layer with corner pins. 3D Layer adds a 3D box with direction arrows. With two or more layers selected you get ONE box around all of them, always with straight corners.

Mesh Bounds

SELECT: one layer, or several layers.

Settings: Orthogonal / Freeform - right-angle outline, or a tighter "net" outline. Detection: Alpha - the outline follows the real artwork; BBox - the outline uses the layer rectangles only. BBox is much faster on very complex shapes and never fails on them. Line style: Solid or Dashed.

RESULT: one live outline around everything selected, with pins in its corners. The outline is recalculated every frame, so it follows the layers while they move. On the rig layer: the "Mesh Offset" slider in Effect Controls pushes the outline away from the artwork, like Guide Offset for comp guides.

Mask Shape

SELECT: one layer.

RESULT: a shape that matches the layer bounds, handy as a mask source or a background plate.

Margin

SELECT: one layer.

RESULT: margin guides around the layer (a box inside a box). The gap is a slider on the rig.

Comp Guides

SELECT: one to five layers.

Settings: Bounds or Circle lines, and markers: none, Crosses (+), Circle (○) or Null. Line style: Solid or Dashed.

RESULT: guide lines through the edges of the layers across the whole composition - the "blueprint" look. The "Guide Offset" slider on the rig moves them in and out.

Edges

SELECT: one layer.

RESULT: corner marks around the layer bounding box, with length and roundness sliders on the rig.

Selection

SELECT: one layer.

RESULT: a selection-style highlight with side handles, like a design tool selection.

Corner Radius

SELECT: a rectangle shape layer.

RESULT: live corner radius indicators that update when you change the roundness.

3D Extrude

SELECT: one shape layer.

RESULT: Front and Back copies with live depth edges under one 3D controller, so you can rotate the whole thing.

Measurements

Block settings are the same Control Settings and Effect Driving as in Pin System. In Null Control mode each measurement tool also shows a small counter (Edge Length Nulls, BBox Nulls, Coordinate Nulls, Angle Nulls): that is how many control nulls will be made.

Edge Lengths

SELECT: a shape path.

Settings: Format: pixels (512 px) or N units (proportional numbers).

RESULT: a live length label on every edge.

BBox Edge Length

SELECT: one layer.

Settings: Sides: Top, Right, Bottom, Left, any combination.

RESULT: a dimension line with extension lines, arrows and the measured value on each chosen side. Offsets, arrow size, text offset and decimals are sliders on the rig.

Vertex Coordinates

SELECT: a shape path.

Settings: Format: 512 or 512 px.

RESULT: live X, Y labels on every vertex.

Vertex Angles

SELECT: a shape path.

Settings: Format: 90° or 90.00°.

RESULT: live angle labels in every corner.

Bezier Coordinates

SELECT: a Bezier path.

RESULT: live labels for the handle coordinates.

Transform Tracking

SELECT: one layer. In Null Control mode nothing - PinRig makes a control null and tracks that.

Settings: Which values to show: Position, Coordinates, Scale, Rotation, Size, Opacity.

RESULT: a text layer above the object that shows its live transform values while it animates.

Logo Guides

Straight Lines

SELECT: a layer.

RESULT: straight construction lines through the logo, in the classic brand-guideline style.

Arc Lines

SELECT: a shape or vector logo layer.

RESULT: PinRig looks for circular construction in the shape and draws live arcs and circles for it.

Styles

Save the look of a rig and reuse it.

Save: select a PinRig controller (or a rig layer with its own controls) and click "+". Give the style a name.

Apply: select one or more PinRig rigs and click the style card. The card shows how many controls the style carries. Delete a style with the × in its corner.

Custom Presets

Your own multi-step setups, written as JSON.

• Click "+", then "Copy Prompt" and paste the prompt into any AI chat. Describe what you want ("bounding box, edge lengths and comp guides on the selected layer, shared null").
• Paste the JSON the AI returns into the field (or drop a .json file), give it a name and click "Add preset".
• Click a preset card to run it on the current selection.
• The pencil icon opens the preset for editing, the × deletes it.

Actions

Precomp / Unprecomp

SELECT: one or more layers (or precomps for Unprecomp).

RESULT: precompose, or bring layers back out. The trash icon next to Unprecomp also removes the empty source comp.

Update Effect

SELECT: a PinRig rig layer.

RESULT: the rig is rebuilt from the original layer with the current settings - handy after you changed the style, the line style or the layer itself.

Remove Rig

SELECT: a PinRig rig layer.

RESULT: the rig, its labels and its control null are removed.

Bake to Keyframes

SELECT: a PinRig rig layer.

RESULT: the live expressions become plain keyframes. The rig stops following the layer, but it is lighter and safe to hand off to someone without the plugin.

Unlink Control Null

SELECT: a PinRig rig layer.

RESULT: the current look is kept and the link to the control null is removed, so the null can be deleted.

Separate Layer

SELECT: one or more groups inside the Contents of a rig layer.

RESULT: those groups are extracted into their own layer, for example to animate one guide separately.

Workflow

Overview

Build a chain of PinRig tools once and run it with one click.

Creating A Workflow

1. Click "+ New Workflow".
2. Type a name.
3. Pick the steps. The four tabs are Pins, Measurements, Text and Styles. Double-click a tile, or drag it into the list below, to add it. Drag the items in the list to change their order, and use ↑ ↓ × on each row.
4. A ⚙ on a row opens the settings for that step. For steps with pins (Basic Pins, Bezier Handles, Bounding Box, Mesh Bounds) there is also a "Pin Style" choice: Default or any style you saved in the pin editor.
5. Control Settings at the bottom decides where the controls go for the whole workflow: Layer, Shared Null or Individual Null.
6. Click "Save".

Running A Workflow

SELECT: the layers you want it applied to. Click the workflow card. PinRig runs every step in order. If one step could not be applied, the others still run and the error tells you which one failed.

Workspaces

• The "+" next to the workspace tabs creates a second page, for example one for logo work and one for UI work.
• Right-click a workspace tab to rename it, and use the × on the tab to remove it.
• Inside a workspace the big "+" adds any block from the other tabs (Pin System, Measurements, Textures and so on), so your favourite tools sit on one page.

Tracking

Bounding Box Tracking

Creates nulls that stick to the corners of a layer.

SELECT: one layer.

SETTINGS: Null (plain tracking nulls) or Comp Line (points for guide lines). Click "Create Nulls".

RESULT: nulls pinned to the layer bounding box; parent anything to them and it follows the layer.

Vertex Tracking

Creates nulls for the vertices of a shape.

1. SELECT one shape layer and click "Analyse". A preview of the shape appears with a dot on every vertex.
2. Click the dots to choose which vertices you need, or use "Select All" / "Clear Selection". The × in the corner closes the preview.
3. Choose the mode: Parent Null - the nulls follow the vertices. Use them to attach other elements to a moving shape. Control Null - the other way round: the nulls drive the vertices, so you can animate the shape by moving nulls. This mode needs Bezier paths; for Rectangle, Ellipse and Star PinRig converts them first.
4. Click "Create Nulls".

Text

Quick Effects › Font Family

SELECT: one text layer.

Settings: All, Regular or Italic.

RESULT: copies of the layer in every weight of the same font family, ready to compare or animate.

Text Guides

Typographic guides for a text layer.

SELECT: one text layer.

SETTINGS: the metrics you want - Baseline, X-Height, Cap Height, Ascender, Descent, Height, Space. Guide Extent draws them across the whole comp ("To Comp") or only across the text ("To Bounding Box"). Click "Generate Guides".

RESULT: live guide lines that follow the text, including when you retype it.

Weight Morph

Morphs one text layer into another, for example Light into

Bold.

SELECT: two or more text layers (or shape layers). They are used in the order they sit in the timeline, top first.

SETTINGS: Morph Duration in frames. "Step Offset" makes the letters morph one after another, with its own frame value, and "Invert" flips that order. "Loop" makes the morph play back and forth forever. Click "Create Morph".

RESULT: one shape layer that morphs through all the selected layers; the originals are switched off.

What it needs: after PinRig converts the text to shapes, all

layers must end up with the same number of paths and points. In practice that means the same text and fonts whose letters are built the same way. If they do not match, PinRig cancels and the error message lists both layers with their font, point count and text - the usual causes are a missing font that After Effects replaced, a different version of the same font, faux bold/italic, or a different project Text Engine.

Presets

Animation › Bounding Reveal

SELECT: one or more layers.

Settings: Direction (Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Right, Bottom Left) and "Add Cursor".

RESULT: the layer is revealed by an animated bounding box, the design-tool "drawing a frame" look. With Add Cursor a cursor drags the frame.

Layout Guide

Columns, Rows or Grid System for the whole composition.

SELECT: nothing.

Settings: Number of columns and rows, Gutter X / Y, Margin X / Y, and "Add AE Guides" to also place native After Effects guides.

RESULT: a layout grid layer you can keep in the comp while you design, with the numbers still editable on the layer.

Guides › App Icon Safe Space

SELECT: nothing.

RESULT: the app-icon grid: safe area, corner radius and circle construction, for designing icons to the platform rules.

Textures

SELECT: nothing (or a layer to place it above). Grid Texture, Dot Texture, Stroke Dot Texture.

RESULT: a background texture layer with color, spacing and size sliders in Effect Controls.

Settings

Interface

Size (- / +): scales the whole panel. Color Style: W? Style, Blue, Mint, Amber, Rose, Violet, Black & White, or your own color.

Display Style

Cards: Icons & Name, Icon Only or Name Only. Tabs: the same three options for the main tabs. Show ToolTips: the hover hints. Impact Clicks: the small click animation in the panel.

Daily References

A design reference every day. Turn it off if you don't need it.

Plugin Feature Highlight

"Replay Quick Tour" shows the intro tour again.

Cache

"Clear Cache & Reset" returns PinRig to a clean first launch: settings, saved styles, presets and the license key on this computer are removed, and the activation screen comes back.

About Pinrig AE

Version number, "More about PinRig", "Leave feedback" and "Join

Discord", plus the What? Studio links.

Tips and Troubleshooting

Common Questions

Nothing happened after a click

Check the red message in the top right corner of the panel - it says what was missing, usually the wrong selection. Press the copy icon if you want to send it to support.

The rig does not follow my layer

Rigs are linked by layer name. If you rename the layer after building the rig, select the rig layer and press "Update Effect", or rebuild it.

Mesh Bounds is slow or misses the shape

Switch Detection to BBox in the ⚙ - it uses layer rectangles instead of scanning the artwork. Use the "Mesh Offset" slider on the rig to push the outline away from the art.

Too many labels or pins

Every rig has sliders in Effect Controls: Pin Size, Stroke Width, Guide Offset, text size and Trim Start / End. Trim is the quickest way to reveal a rig in an animation.

Handing the project to someone without PinRig

Select the rig layers and press "Bake to Keyframes". After that the graphics no longer need the plugin.

Starting over

Remove Rig removes one rig with everything it created. Clear Cache & Reset in Settings resets the whole panel.

Need help? Use "Leave feedback" or "Join Discord" in Settings. Created by What? Studio - 2026