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 10/11 (64-bit) or macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon only)
• 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 activation and cloud providers. Offline transcription runs 100% locally.
• GPU: Optional — CUDA-compatible GPU speeds up offline transcription significantly

The Captyne Workflow

Captyne has three tabs: Setup, Preview, and Account. The main workflow lives across Setup and Preview.

Step 1 — Setup & Transcribe

Everything you configure before transcribing lives in the Setup tab, top to bottom.

Reveal Mode

Controls how words are revealed in the AE timeline:

• Group All At Once — every word in a phrase appears together
• Cumulative Words — words reveal one by one within each phrase
• Cumulative Lines — each line reveals as a whole unit
• Single Word — one word at a time, each replacing the last

Transcription Providers

• Offline / Local (Free) — Whisper Large v3.1 on your own machine. Private, no usage cost, works without internet after model download.
• OpenAI — Whisper-1 — OpenAI's cloud Whisper. Requires your own API key.
• Groq — Whisper-large-v3 — Fast cloud Whisper via Groq. Requires your own API key.
• AssemblyAI — Universal-2 — High-accuracy cloud model. Requires your own API key.
• Managed API — Deepgram Nova-3 ✦ — Captyne-hosted, no key needed. Uses your plan's monthly quota.

Step 2 — Preview & Edit

After transcription, Captyne automatically switches to the Preview tab. This is where you review word groupings and make edits before generating.

• Word chips — each word appears as a chip. Groups are separated visually. The timing badge on each group shows its duration.
• Merge words — hover between two words in the same group and click the chain icon ⛓ to combine them into one unit
• Split a group — hover between groups and click ✂ to enter split mode, then click the word gap where you want the split
• Move a word to another line — use the ↑ / ↓ chevron buttons on each word chip to move it to the line above or below
• Set word role — click the role badge on a chip (Normal / Emphasis / Style3) to cycle through roles. The chip colour updates to match.
• Edit word text — click a word chip's text to correct a transcription error inline
• Word Grouping toggle — switch between Auto grouping and Manual grouping using the toolbar toggle
• All Caps toggle — enables ALL CAPS output without editing individual words

Step 3 — Generate Captions

When the preview looks right, click Generate Captions at the bottom of the Preview tab. Captyne will:

1. Build the three-level null hierarchy in your AE comp
2. Create one text layer per word with correct timing
3. Apply your selected preset's effects and animations to each word
4. Place AE markers for every word so you can drag to adjust timing

Presets

Each preset defines fonts, effects, animations, layout, and style roles (Normal, Emphasis, Style3). They appear in the top card of the Setup tab.

Creating Your Own

Click + New Preset in the My Presets section. Captyne creates a tagged template comp in AE — design your caption style freely inside it, then click ⊙ Capture Preset in the plugin to save it.

Use ↑ Export / ↓ Import to share presets as .json files with other users.

Installed presets are stored in:
Windows: %AppData%\Adobe\CEP\extensions\Captyne\presets\
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/Captyne/presets/

Emphasis Strategy

The Emphasis Strategy card in the Setup tab controls how words are assigned the Emphasis style role before generating.

• Default (Last Word) — the last word in each group automatically gets the Emphasis role. Good for most caption styles.
• AI Decide — the transcription model identifies the most important word per phrase and marks it for emphasis.
• Manual — no automatic assignment. Click role badges in the Preview tab to set emphasis yourself.

Interactive Preview

The Preview tab shows a live word-by-word view of your transcript grouped into caption phrases. Everything here feeds directly into Generate Captions.

Group Controls

Between each group there is a gap zone. Hover over it to reveal two inline buttons:

• ✂ Split — enters split-pick mode. The group gets a red border and word gaps become clickable red bars. Click any gap to split there, or press Esc to cancel.
• ⛓ Merge — merges the group above with the group below into one phrase (only available when a group below exists).

Word Controls

Each word chip has controls on hover:

• Role badge — cycles Normal → Emphasis → Style3 on click. Chip colour matches the role.
• ↑ / ↓ chevrons — move the word to the line above or below within its group
• ⛓ between chips — hover between two words and click to merge them into one chip
• ✕ on merged chips — unmerge a previously merged word pair

Active Highlight

Active Highlight is a runtime-only feature available in the Preview tab. It changes how the currently-speaking word looks during playback — useful for karaoke-style or real-time caption overlays.

Enable it with the toggle, then configure:

• Font colour — colour of the active word during playback
• Stroke — optional outline on the active word, with configurable width and colour
• Bounding box — optional coloured box behind the active word

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 phrase. Move independently. Effects applied here affect every word in that phrase.
• word_XXXX — individual text layers. Effects adapt to each word's exact width and position.

Marker-Driven Timing

Captyne places AE markers on every word layer. Each word's in/out animation is driven by those markers — drag one to shift timing without touching keyframes.

1. In the AE timeline, expand a word layer and find its marker
2. Drag the marker left or right to shift when that word animates in or out
3. All animations follow automatically — no keyframe editing needed

Offline AI Transcription

Captyne bundles Whisper Large v3.1 running entirely on your machine — your footage never leaves your computer.

Downloading the Model

If the model isn't present, the plugin shows a Whisper Model Not Found card at the top of the Setup tab with three options:

• ⬇ Download Now (~3 GB) — downloads directly from inside the plugin with a progress bar
• 📋 Copy Download Link — copies the URL so you can download with your browser or a download manager
• Run the "Download Captyne Model" shortcut on your Desktop (Windows only, created during installation)

The model is saved to:

• Windows: C:\Captyne\models\ggml-large-v3.1.bin
• macOS: ~/CaptyneRuntime/models/ggml-large-v3.1.bin

Performance Tips

• Modern CPU (Ryzen 5 / Intel i5+) transcribes ~2× real-time speed
• CUDA-compatible NVIDIA GPU speeds up transcription significantly on Windows
• Apple Silicon GPU is used automatically on Mac (Metal acceleration)
• Trim your comp to just the dialogue section for the 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

If using Offline, check that the model is downloaded (the plugin shows a card if it's missing). Also ensure your comp has audio — Captyne won't transcribe silent compositions.

My preset shows a warning badge

The preset requires a third-party plugin or font 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, drag markers to change timing, or go back to the Preview tab and click Generate Captions again.

How do I activate my beta key?

Open the plugin in After Effects, go to the Account tab, enter the email you signed up with, and click Check Status. Your key is filled automatically.

My licence key isn't working

Make sure you're using the exact email you applied with. 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, OS version, and a description of what happened
• Windows crashes: attach the AE log from %AppData%\Adobe\After Effects\[version]\Logs\
• Mac crashes: attach the AE log from ~/Library/Logs/Adobe/After Effects/