Welcome to Captyne

Captyne generates fully animated, word-by-word captions directly inside After Effects. No round-tripping, no manual keyframing. Here is everything you need to know.

Requirements

• Platform: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) — Mac support coming soon
• After Effects: CC 2019 through 2026
• RAM: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
• Disk Space: ~4 GB total (3 GB Whisper model + ~200 MB runtime)
• Internet: Required for initial activation only. Transcription is fully offline.
• GPU: Optional — CUDA-compatible GPU speeds up transcription significantly

The Captyne Workflow

Captyne follows a simple four-step flow across three plugin tabs: Transcribe, Style, and Tweak.

Step 1 — Transcribe

Captyne extracts audio from your composition and transcribes it word by word using Whisper AI.

Step 2 — Choose a Style

Switch to the Style tab and pick a caption preset. Each preset defines fonts, effects, animations, and layout.

Step 3 — Tweak

The Tweak tab gives fine-grained control before generating:

• Words per line — how many words appear together per caption line
• Line position — vertical placement in the frame
• Word roles — mark words as Normal, Emphasis, Style3, or Handwriting
• Manual corrections — fix transcription errors in the word editor

Step 4 — Generate Captions

Click Generate Captions. Captyne will:

1. Create a new composition in your AE project
2. Build the three-level null hierarchy
3. Create one text layer per word with correct timing
4. Apply your preset's effects and animations to each word
5. Place AE markers for every word for easy timing adjustment

Presets

Each preset is a JSON file defining fonts, effects, animations, layout, and style roles (Normal, Emphasis, Style3, Handwriting).

Creating Your Own

Use Capture Preset in the Style tab to save your current AE text layer styling as a new preset. Export and Import presets as .json files to share with other Captyne users.

Installed presets are stored in: %AppData%\Adobe\CEP\extensions\Captyne\presets\

Word Editor

After transcription, review and adjust every word before generating:

• Edit text — click any word to correct a transcription error
• Merge words — combine two words into one caption unit
• Set style role — click the L1–L4 number on a word to cycle roles: Normal → Emphasis → Style3 → Handwriting
• Adjust timing — drag a word's time handles to fine-tune when it appears
• Delete words — remove words you don't want captioned

Three-Level Null Hierarchy

Every generation creates a structured null hierarchy in your AE composition:

• CAPTYNE_MASTER — move to reposition all captions at once
• CAPTYNE_GROUP_XXX — one per caption line. Move independently. Effects here affect all words in that line.
• word_XXXX — individual text layers. Effects adapt to each word's exact width and position.

Marker-Driven Timing

Captyne places AE markers for every word. Each word's in/out animation is controlled by these markers.

1. In the AE timeline, find the marker for the word you want to adjust
2. Drag it left or right to shift timing
3. All animations automatically follow — no keyframe editing needed

Offline AI Transcription

Captyne uses OpenAI Whisper Large v3 running entirely on your machine. Your footage never leaves your computer.

Downloading the Model

• Use the "Download Captyne Model" shortcut on your Desktop (created during installation if you skipped the download)
• Or open the Captyne plugin, go to Transcribe, and click Download Now from the model missing card
• Or download manually and save to C:\Captyne\models\ggml-large-v3.bin

Performance Tips

• Modern CPU (Ryzen 5 / Intel i5+) transcribes ~2x real-time speed
• CUDA-compatible NVIDIA GPU speeds up transcription significantly
• Extract just the dialogue portion of your comp for fastest results

Plugin Tabs Reference

FAQ

Captyne doesn't appear in Window → Extensions

Restart After Effects. If it still doesn't appear, go to Edit → Preferences → Scripting & Expressions and enable Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network.

Transcription fails or produces no output

Check that the Whisper model is downloaded at C:\Captyne\models\ggml-large-v3.bin (~3 GB). Also ensure your comp has audio — Captyne won't transcribe silent compositions.

My preset shows "Missing Requirements"

The preset uses a font or plugin not installed on your machine. Install the missing item and try again, or choose a preset that uses only built-in AE effects.

Can I edit captions after generating?

Yes. Word layers are standard AE text layers. Edit text directly in AE, move markers to change timing, or go back to the Word Editor and regenerate.

My licence key isn't working

Make sure you're using the email you applied with. The key is machine-bound and only works on the machine it was activated on. If you changed hardware, contact support@captyne.com.

Support

Found a bug or need help? Please reach out — your feedback directly shapes Captyne.

• Email: support@captyne.com
• Include your AE version, Windows version, and what happened
• For crashes, attach the AE log from %AppData%\Adobe\After Effects\[version]\Logs\