AEP Parser Documentation¶

Welcome to the AEP Parser documentation! This library provides a Python interface for parsing Adobe After Effects project files (.aep).

About¶

AEP Parser is a Python library that parses Adobe After Effects project files (.aep), which are binary files encoded in RIFX format. The library uses Kaitai Struct to parse the binary format and provides a clean, typed Python API to access project data.

Installation¶

pip install aep-parser

Quick Start¶

import aep_parser

# Parse an After Effects project file
app = aep_parser.parse("path/to/your/project.aep")
project = app.project

# Access application-level information
print(f"AE Version: {app.version}")

# Access project information
print(f"Frame Rate: {project.frame_rate}")
print(f"Bits per Channel: {project.bits_per_channel}")

# Access project items
for item in project:
    print(f"Item: {item.name} ({type(item).__name__})")

Features¶

Full Project Parsing: Parse complete After Effects projects including compositions, footage, layers, and effects
Render Queue: Access render queue items, render settings, and output module configurations
Type Safety: Fully typed Python dataclasses for all AE objects
Comprehensive: Support for layers, properties, effects, keyframes, markers, and more
Python 3.7+: Compatible with Python 3.7 and above

Key Concepts¶

Project Structure¶

An After Effects project has a hierarchical structure:

App
├── Viewer
│   └── View
│       └── ViewOptions
└── Project
    ├── FolderItem
    │   ├── CompItem
    │   │   ├── AVLayer ───┐
    │   │   ├── TextLayer ─┤
    │   │   ├── ShapeLayer ┤
    │   │   ├── CameraLayer┤
    │   │   └── LightLayer ┘──▶ PropertyGroup
    │   │                       ├── Property
    │   │                       │   └── Keyframe
    │   │                       └── PropertyGroup (nested)
    │   └── FootageItem
    │       ├── FileSource
    │       ├── SolidSource
    │       └── PlaceholderSource
    └── RenderQueue
        └── RenderQueueItem
            └── OutputModule

Data Model¶

The library provides dataclasses that mirror After Effects' object model:

App: Application-level object (version, build number, active viewer)
Viewer, View, ViewOptions: Viewer panels and view settings
Project: Root project object
CompItem, FootageItem, FolderItem: Project items
AVLayer, TextLayer, ShapeLayer, etc.: Layer types
Property, PropertyGroup: Layer properties
Keyframe, MarkerValue: Animation data
FileSource, SolidSource, PlaceholderSource: Footage sources
RenderQueue, RenderQueueItem, RenderSettings, OutputModule: Render queue

API Reference¶

Browse the API Reference for detailed documentation of all classes and methods.

Contributing¶

Contributions are welcome! See the Contributing Guide to get started, or visit the GitHub repository for more information.

License¶

This project is licensed under the MIT License.