Script by rebane2001, logo and promo assets by Danny Perry

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Download Boxcam 2 | Promo Video | Tutorial Video

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About this project

Boxcam 1 was a free tool I released back in July 2018. The November of the same year I discontinued the first version and released Boxcam 2 for $19.99 on aescripts, collaborating with Danny Perry for new promo assets.

7 years later, in 2025, I decided to discontinue the paid version of Boxcam 2 and open-source it for everyone to use for free. I did so for two reasons - I think design tools should be accessible to everyone, and I was fed up with having to deal with support tickets and updates.

We're only getting paid in publicity now, so give the promo video a like, tell your friends about Boxcam, and check out what Danny's up to.

Usage Guide

Downloading and installing

Head to the Releases and download the latest .jsx file.

To install it, move the downloaded file into your ScriptUI Panels folder:

• Program Files/Adobe/Adobe After Effects/Support Files/Scripts/Script UI Panels (Windows)
• Applications/Adobe After Effects/Scripts/Script UI Panels (Mac OS)

What does it do?

Boxcam lets you create a 2D box, which will act as a camera.
Everything inside of the box will be visible in the final result.

Usage

After installation you should find Boxcam.jsxbin under the Window menu in After Effects, open it and you’ll get the Boxcam panel.

To use Boxcam, you’ll have to first create a Boxcam camera in an existing Composition, then create a new Composition that will contain the output of the Boxcam.

Creating a Boxcam camera

You can create a new Boxcam by clicking the button. If you wish to instead convert an existing layer to function as a Boxcam, hold ctrl while clicking.

Using the camera

You can transform and animate the Boxcam in almost any way you want - scale, position and rotate - you can even use anchor points or parent it to other layers. What is seen inside of the Boxcam is what will be seen in the final output.

Multiple cameras

If you want to have multiple Boxcams in a single Composition, you can! Just make sure all your Boxcam layer names start with “Boxcam”. Just like normal After Effects 3D cameras, the topmost active layer will be the active camera.

Creating the output Composition

To see the output of the Boxcam, you will need to create a new Composition that contains your original Composition. The easiest way to do it is just to click on the button.

Custom resolutions

Let’s say your working comp has a resolution of 4096x4096, but you would like your Boxcam to output in 1920x1080 instead. This is what the custom resolutions feature is for.

Click the button and enable "Use custom Boxcam size".

You can now enter custom resolutions you’d like to use.

After setting a custom resolution, you can create your Boxcam as usual, the resolution of your Boxcam and the output Composition will match the resolutions you picked.

If you want to update an existing Boxcam’s custom resolution, just ctrl+click the button.

If you want to update an existing output Composition, ctrl+click while being in the Composition.

Using an existing Composition for the output (obsolete)

While it’s not recommended to use an existing Composition for the output, it can be done.

Add the source Composition with a Boxcam in it to the existing Composition, select the layer with your source Composition and ctrl+click the button in the Boxcam panel.

Note: The resolution of the existing Composition will be set to match the resolution of the Boxcam.

KBar

New in version 2.1 is KBar support.

To use it, just add the JSX file in KBar and set the argument field to one of the following:

• create_boxcam
• turninto_boxcam
• create_output_comp
• update_output_comp
• custom_res_menu
• custom_res_set
• view_licensing

Notes

If you can’t see the border around a Boxcam, you can either add a background layer to your Composition or disable the Adjustment Layer switch of the Boxcam layer.

Support

Since I am offering Boxcam 2 for free now, I'll provide support on an as-is basis. If you think you've found a bug or something to improve, open an issue on GitHub.

Changelog

v2.8 - Jul 2, 2025

• Remove licensing-related code.
• Make Boxcam 2 open-source and available for free.

v2.7.1 - Jul 8, 2024

• Minor licensing framework fix.

v2.7 - Jul 7, 2024

• Updated the licensing framework to fix issues.

v2.6 - Mar 28, 2021

• Updated the licensing framework to fix issues.
• Fixed an issue where scaling would sometimes not animate properly on trimmed clips (ctrl+click the Output Composition button to apply this patch in old comps made with previous Boxcam versions).

v2.5 - Aug 29, 2019

This update is recommended for all macOS users, as the script might otherwise stop working after updating to macOS 10.15

• Upgraded licensing framework to support macOS 10.15 'Catalina'

v2.4 - Jun 13, 2019

• Fixed bug when moving Boxcam output layer in time in CC 2019 (Thanks Maxim Ivanov for letting me know!)
• Fixed bug when ctrl+clicking the Create Comp button
• Verified that all the versions from CS6 to CC2019 still work properly

v2.3 - May 28, 2019

• Added a button to hide the Licensing button
• Minor UI code changes
• Minor improvements to the readme PDF

v2.2 - Feb 15, 2019

• Added a "Help and activation" button to the main UI This can be disabled by setting the "cleanUI" parameter to 1 in the After Effects prefs file (this is just a temporary solution, for now)

v2.1 - Feb 12, 2019

Boxcam now supports KBar, awesome!

• Added support for KBar
• Updated PDF to include information about KBar
• Minor code improvements

v2.0 - Nov 26, 2018

Boxcam 2 is a major upgrade with a completely redesigned responsive UI that we are sure you will love.

If you purchased Boxcam 1 you will get a discount towards Boxcam 2 equal to the amount you paid for v1. Simply login to the same account and the discounted price will be automatically shown on the product page.

And if you upgrade before November 30, 2018, you can use code CYBER during checkout to save an additional 25%

(2025 editors note - Boxcam 1 was set your own price, so I thought it would be fair to offer the newer version for cheaper to those who chose to pay for a free product)

• Completely redesigned the UI to be responsive, intuitive and user-friendly
• Made new and better documentation and tutorial video
• Added support for multiple separate Boxcams in the same Composition
• Added support for partial-time Boxcams
• Added an intuitive one-click button to create the output Composition
• Improved updating/applying Compositions
• Fixed new compositions not appearing in the correct folder
• Other minor improvements and bugfixes

v1.3 - Nov 6, 2018

This update is just a hotfix for any issues CC2019 might bring, but there will be a new and improved version of Boxcam with a ton of changes out soon!

• Made compatible with CC2019 (still works with older versions)
• Fixed a bug with borders not working correctly

v1.2 - Aug 19, 2018

• Fixed a bug that incorrectly set Boxcam's border size when using custom resolutions

v1.1 - Aug 13, 2018

Hi! I've been really happy with the reception of Boxcam and I couldn't be happier to see the workflow of so many After Effects users simplified. One of the main problems I noticed was users experiencing difficulties when using different resolutions for their compositions. Today I'm introducing a new version of Boxcam with support for custom resolutions to address that. For an example, you can now easily create a Boxcam of the size 1920x1080 in a composition of the size of 10000x10000. Check out the update below!

• Added support for custom resolutions (for an example, you can now create a Boxcam of the size 1920x1080 in a composition of the size 10000x10000)
• Added a button to access said custom resolutions
• Improved handling of resolutions
• Improved error messages to be more descriptive (especially the ones about resolutions)
• Improved the included PDF by adding/fixing information and including a section for the new custom resolutions
• Made button label text dynamic, it will now look better at smaller panel sizes

v1.0 - Jul 17, 2018

• Initial release