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A mystical portal between the apps you use daily
Overlord is the thickening of the aether between the silos of visual creation. It is the unspoken language of the cosmos that breathes life into vision.
Illustrator, Figma and Photoshop all talking to After Effects as if they belonged together all along.
That's impossible
Unlock a new world of elemental wonder from your art files
Photoshop layers
Transfer what you need with flexible layer stacks, instead of reimporting PSDs and rebuilding as designs change. Create editable Ae elements like:
Adjustment layers
Masks
Clipping
Layer
Vector
Layer styles
Text layers
Gradients
Figma layers
Based on the original Illustrator layer transfer, building Ae layers is now possible from both the web and desktop Figma apps. Frames come into Ae like they were designed, and pixel density is calculated on the fly to match the Ae comp.
For complex groups (icons, components, etc), Rasterize them down to a single image.
It's even possible to bring in components as Essential Graphics precomps.
Editable text
Text layers from Photoshop, Illustrator, and Figma now become Ae text layers, ready to edit. With per-character styling:
Kerning
Color
Font/weight/style
Color
Illustrator can even draw text on a path. 😎
Illustrator Gradients
Unlike the standard Ai file import (which converts gradients to a grey shape layer), linear and radial gradients build just like you expect them to.
Note: Freeform and mesh gradients cannot be drawn by Ae shape layers but you can Rasterize those shapes to a PNG.
Bonus actions
To support layer building, Overlord can also manage:
Precomping and decomping groups
Parametric rectangles and ellipses
Matching artboards and comps
Clipping masks
And much that was once lost from Illustrator:
Color swatches
Guide layers
What's new?
Frame sequences
Timelord is gone, but its essence has been born anew.
Export layered image sequences from Photoshop with complete flexibility over layer count and work area segments.
Now with Photoshop
After Effects has imported PSDs since the dawn of time. But once your design is inside of Ae, the flexibility stops.
Overlord now creates real Ae layers from Photoshop layers with masks, gradients, text and styling ready for animation.
Voices of the elders
Buy once and use it until the heat death of the universe, or while all your creative apps and hardware support it. Whichever explodes first.
Overlord will keep working even if you choose not to renew it.
perpetual
license
We will release new features as long as moving layers between creative apps is challenging. When you buy an Overlord license, you get the current version and one year of feature updates.
Do you see a new feature that could make your work and life better, but your license purchase is more than a year old?
It's super easy.
Is your work still flowing with the copy you bought in 2020? cool. no pressure. Renew when it makes sense for your workflow.
Common questions
Creative
Is my art private?
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Absolutely
Our transfer systems run locally and is totally private. Designs never leave your machine; no one can ever see what you are working on.
No AI is ever trained on your work -from anything you ever buy from Battle Axe. It's kind of a bummer that we have to say that.
Is the Figma plugin free?
↓
Yes, but you need the Overlord app
Use the Figma marketplace to add the Overlord Figma to your workspace and open it in your current file. This will connect to the Overlord desktop app and let you transfer Figma elements to After Effects.
An active license for Overlord is required to connect between the apps. Renew your license to unlock all the newest Overlord features and connections as soon as they are available.
Technical
What did you use to build this?
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Cross platform app developed with Tauri and Svelte.
We love building Adobe Extensions with BOLT CEP from Hyper Brew. The Figma plugin was made possible with BOLT Figma.
Why is Overlord an app?
↓
So we can build more cool stuff
Version 1 (and most of what we've built so far) has been based around the Adobe ecosystem. This is great, but there are some hard limitations to it. We have a lot of ideas for how to make it easier to connect with other apps, and interact with the system in more intuitive ways.
See the roadmap for a look at where we're taking this.
Read more about why we're making the change.
Does this work with __?
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Probably
Overlord works with After Effects and Illustrator CC2022+, Photoshop 2025+, and the current version of Figma.
It runs great on Apple Silicon and Windows.
Is an internet connection required?
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No
The standard authentication method uses an internet connection to unlock, but after that, Overlord runs entirely offline.
If an initial internet connection is not possible, it is also possible to authenticate with a mobile device.
What happened to AEUX?
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It's dead
Well, it's open source so I guess it's just no longer maintained. AEUX was a free tool Adam built while working at Google. In the years since he was moved to different projects and eventually left Google, the project became a little dated. It still works ok for some things, but it is no longer supported.
AEUX for Figma was born from the research that built Overlord v1, and Overlord v2 builds on the patterns that worked well in AEUX, but we can proudly proclaim: Overlord v2 is better than AEUX in every way.
License
Is it a free upgrade?
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Depends when you bought v1
The purchase of a license gets you one year of feature updates. Purchases made after July 29, 2023 are eligible for a free upgrade to v2. Simply download and your key will unlock v2.
Subsequent feature releases are available if purchased within a year of their release.
Is this a subscription?
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Ew, no
We are pretty allergic to subscription payments around here. When you purchase Overlord you are buying it in its current form (like a pair of shoes). With that you are also getting one year of feature updates.
After a full journey around the sun, if everything is working great and meets your workflow needs, you don't need to purchase any updates to keep using Overlord. If, after the celestial orbit, we have released some killer new feature that you need to solve things, then you will need to purchase an update to get that.
Can I use it on 2 computers?
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Sure
The license is similar to Creative Cloud and may be used on up to 2 machines by the same user.
Be sure to deauthorize the machine to open up a spot for the new machine. It is also possible to remotely deauthorize a computer if you do not have access to it.
