About The Positioner

The Positioner is a ScriptUI panel for After Effects that aligns, pins and auto‑scales layers to the edges of a composition or to other layers. It supports ten scale modes, individual or uniform padding, and a Limit Size option that constrains width or height as a percentage. A companion tool, Box It!, creates self‑resizing text boxes, lower thirds, chat bubbles and similar elements. The panel works with After Effects CC 2024 and newer, provided the Expressions Engine is set to JavaScript. Install via the aescripts + aeplugins manager or manually in the ScriptUI Panels folder, then open from Window > The Positioner.

Features

• Pin layers to composition edges and to other layers’ edges
• Ten scale modes: Fit, Fit Width, Fit Height, Fill, Stretch, Stretch Width, Stretch Height, Shrink, Shrink Width and Shrink Height
• Padding applied uniformly or set individually for left, top, right and bottom
• Limit Size keeps width or height within a set percentage
• Box It! for self-resizing text boxes, lower thirds and chat bubbles
• Visual interface for fast layer positioning
• Works with rotation: layers stay locked to edges when rotated, and position offsets follow the layer’s rotation axis

Best for

After Effects artists who need responsive layouts, edge pinning and automatic scaling of layers, especially when building UI elements, lower thirds, or other content that must resize with design changes.