Writing good requests

You don’t need special words. Write the way you’d brief another editor. These habits make the biggest difference.

Say which layer

It can see every layer in your comp, but “the text” is ambiguous when there are six text layers.

• Good: Make the text bounce in.
• Better: Make the “Headline” layer bounce in.

If nothing is named yet, you can say “the selected layer”, or select layers in the timeline and say “these layers”.

Give timing in seconds or frames

“Quick” means different things to different people. Numbers don’t.

• Good: Fade it in quickly.
• Better: Fade it in over 8 frames, starting at 2 seconds.

“Starting at the current time” also works. It reads where your playhead is.

Describe the feel with motion words

It understands the vocabulary you already use: ease in, ease out, overshoot, bounce, anticipation, settle, snappy, floaty, linear, hold.

• Good: Animate the logo scaling up.
• Better: Scale the logo from 0 to 100% with a strong ease out and a small overshoot, settled by 20 frames.

Reference what’s already there

• Match the timing of the “Title” layer’s entrance.
• Use the same blue as the background solid.
• Do the same thing to every layer in the “Icons” precomp.

One idea per request, or a clear list

Small requests are easier to check and easier to undo, since there are fewer changes to step back through. When you do want several things, number them:

• Good: Make the title bigger and add a shadow and also slide it in and change the font.
• Better:

  1. Title font to Inter Bold, 96 px.
  2. Soft drop shadow, 30% opacity.
  3. Slide it in from the left over 12 frames with ease out.

Batch the boring stuff

Repetitive work is where it saves the most time:

• Stagger all selected layers by 2 frames, top to bottom.
• Rename every layer in this comp to something descriptive.
• Add a wiggle expression to the position of every star layer, 2 times a second, 15 pixels.

Ask it to look

It can render frames and look at them. Use that:

• Check frame 1:10 — does the text overlap the logo?
• Look at the whole animation and tell me where the timing feels off.
• Is the lower third inside title-safe?

Refine instead of restarting

If the result is 80% right, don’t undo and rephrase from scratch. Say what to change:

• Good, but the bar is too thick. Half the height.
• Less bounce.
• Keep everything, just move it 100 px to the right.

When it asks you a question

Sometimes it stops to ask, for example which of two layers you meant, or whether to replace an existing effect. A one-word answer is fine.

Things that don’t help

• Pasting ExtendScript or expressions for it to run. Describe the result you want and it will write what’s needed.
• Very long, essay-style prompts. A few clear sentences beat a page of context.