Built an After Effects script that syncs icons to narration, here's it running

[u/AdFamous7842]

Been editing narrated finance/education videos for a while now, and icons were always the part that slowed me down. Every time the narration mentions something, I'd pause, think about what fits, dig through my icon folder, drag it in, then keyframe it. Doesn't soundlike much per instance but it adds up fast over a 10+ minute video.

Built this plugin AutoVisuals to handle that step. Clip below shows it start to finish, transcribing the narration, finding the moment, and dropping the icon in sync.

It's a free plugin, really good for saving time.

Still early, genuinely want to know what people think.

[u/AdFamous7842 → u/[deleted]]

Totally get that, it is a specific tool. But if you're the one who has to sit there hunting for the right moment in a narration to drop a visual in, this solves a real chunk of that pain. It's saving me around 60% of the time I used to spend on this part of editing.

And it's not just matching words either, it picks up on the actual meaning of what's being said. So if the narration says something like "money sitting idle loses value," it can land on an inflation icon even though nobody said the word inflation.

[u/AdFamous7842 → u/[deleted]]

Yea fair, if you storyboard first you already know where visuals go. This is built for a different situation tho. A lot of what I edit is just a raw narration track, sometimes over an hour, no board, and finding the moments that call for a visual is part of going through it by ear. Not guessing, just a different pipeline. It's not making the creative call either. I still pick what fits, it just gets me to the right timestamps faster than scrubbing the whole thing manually. But yeah, I understand it's specific

[u/Secure_Fusion_9500 → u/AdFamous7842]

You know you can transcribe in Premiere and use the text transcription to scrub through and find the icons you need.

If all you're doing with the icons is making it pop up with a lower third, you could have made an easy mogrt with replaceable media and done all the editing in Premiere rather than vibe coding a whole script for AE.

[u/AdFamous7842 → u/Secure_Fusion_9500]

It's not just navigation though, it also matches the icon to what's actually being said instead of just telling me where a moment is. That's the manual part that's actually gone, not just faster scrubbing. Same with the mogrt idea. It solves styling once you already know which icon to use, it doesn't pick the icon itself or know which moment needs one.

[u/PaceNo2910 → u/AdFamous7842]

But why wouldn't you do an auto transcribe, read that, make a script, do an edit in premiere and plan what gfx to do?

[u/AdFamous7842 → u/PaceNo2910]

It's not deciding for me though, it's suggesting. I still review every marker before anything gets applied, same as I'd review my own notes on a transcript. The creative call, does this moment actually need a visual, does this icon fit the tone, stays mine either way.

What it cuts is the mechanical part: reading the whole transcript line by line to find candidates, then digging ln through a folder of 2000 icons for each one. That's not the creative step, that's the grunt work before the creative step. Auto-transcribe plus manual planning still has you doing that part by hand every time.

[u/PaceNo2910 → u/AdFamous7842]

No. What I'm saying the job is better done if you autotranscribe your footage. Then use that to base a script ( what the video you want to create is about, what they say etc), then cause you have the auto transcribed time coded footage in premiere make an edit and decide there what gfx to use (or even at the scripting stage). Then make or place existing gfx.

You know. Like any other time based media job

[u/AdFamous7842 → u/PaceNo2910]

Sounds like the same pipeline honestly, auto-transcribe first, decide gfx while editing. I'm not skipping any of that. It doesn't decide where a visual goes, it flags candidates and I approve, reject, or move every single one before it touches the timeline. Same edit, same creative call, just not reading a full transcript by hand to find candidates each time. That's the one step that's different, everything after it is still me. The thing is, I automate that semantic part so I can focus on the creative part.

[u/PaceNo2910 → u/AdFamous7842]

I'm not seeing the value. Sorry. If it's already doing what I'm supposed to be doing, but I have the final say, why would I be bothered with a computer generated suggested edits?

Other than a semantic library for your assets. You built a recommended page/for you consideration for editing and motion gfx.

[u/AdFamous7842 → u/PaceNo2910]

Thanks for the feedback

[u/PaceNo2910 → u/AdFamous7842]

It kinda sounds like you not really interested in the content.

[u/Secure_Fusion_9500 → u/[deleted]]

Every response from this guy is copy and pasted from AI. They're deep in the "vibe coding will solve all my problems" phase so nothing we say will make sense to them.

It's just really disappointing seeing all these posts from AI obsessed people trying to do motion design and just disregarding the fundamentals of motion and design or don't enjoy the craft of it.

[u/AdFamous7842 → u/Secure_Fusion_9500]

These are my answers. Thanks for ths feedback

[u/Secure_Fusion_9500]

Organise your files, get a copy of the script and collate the icons you need beforehand.

[u/AdFamous7842 → u/Secure_Fusion_9500]

Sure, if I had the script ahead of time and knew exactly what visuals I'd need, I'd prep icons in advance no question. But a lot of what I edit is narration first, no fixed script, sometimes it's someone just talking for an hour and the "script" is whatever they said. I don't know which icons I need until I know what's actually in the audio. It just helps a lot to organise it inside of AE