In a chaotic world, at least layers can be in sync
Enter a BPM or tap a tempo to create a series of beat keyframes for aligning elements to a rhythm.
When it comes to starting a shot before finalizing the music or fitting a musical phrase within social limits, Beatgrid is the backbone.
Available for free 😚
howz it werk?
Timing layers and keyframes to a BPM should be easy, and now it is.
Dial in your tempo and create a new layer with keyframes to snap to.
Tip: hold shift as you drag elements in the timeline to snap to visible keyframes. Like the one's you just created.
Quick start
All the freebies are available lore.battleaxe.co after signing up for the blog/newsletter.
Use the included files to install in any number of ways to help you do your best work.
Install
Beatgrid may be used a few different ways, and there are a few different ways to install based on your workflow.
Manual
Tempo
Enter the BPM of a know track or tap it in by clicking the Tap button. After a few seconds the Tap tempo will time out, so if you need to start over, just wait and it will reset.
Pro tip: After clicking Tap for the first time, it will respond to the space bar press.
Time signature
Most pop music is written in 4/4 but 3/4 is included to create 3 quarter notes before restarting with the 1 beat.
Notes
Clicking the Quarter note button will create the Beatgrid layer with 4 keyframes (or 3 if you have 3/4 enabled) before starting over at the 1 beat
Clicking the Eighth note button will create the Beatgrid layer with 8 keyframes (or 6 if you have 3/4 enabled) before starting over at the 1 beat
Metronome
A Beatgrid layer comes with an audible metronome built from a Tone effect and expressions.
To mute this, click the 🔈 switch on the layer. It’s in with the visibility and solo switches. [👁️🔈⚪️🔒]
Snap to frames
Depending on your BPM, these beat keyframes might fall between keyframes in After Effects. Enable this checkbox to force beats onto the nearest frame.
Changelog
1.2.1
Nov 27, 2023
Changed
Beats are no longer constrained to the workarea and will be placed from comp start to end
Fixed
Support for the Extendscript expression engine
CC2022 compatibility
1.2.0
Nov 13, 2023
Added
Audio metronome
3/4 and 4/4 time
Quarter notes and Eighth notes
Colored keyframes for marking the first beat
Option to snap to frames or place beats between frames as needed
Changed
Cleaned up UI
Simpler use of keyframes
1.1.0
Sep 22, 2020
Added
Tap tempo button
Changes
UI redesign
Removed emoji for windows support
Removed the measure button for a single type of marker creation
1.0.0
Jan 14, 2020
Initial release