Pixmap Plugin After Effects (2025)

PixMap brings high-end texturing capabilities to the AE timeline:

is an essential plugin for motion designers and VFX artists who rely on 3D elements. By enabling UV texture mapping directly in After Effects, it transforms the compositing workflow, providing high-end control over texture manipulation without the bottleneck of re-rendering. If you are interested, you can find the plugin on itch.io.

Set to Repeat for tiling textures or Clamp if you only want the texture to appear once. Benefits of Using PixMap

Map any video, image, or composition onto that 3D model inside AE. Pixmap Plugin After Effects

Set your viewer window to Half or Quarter resolution while blocking out timing.

The first step happens outside of After Effects. In your 3D application (like Cinema 4D, Blender, or Maya), you need to render a special UV "pass." This pass should look like a brightly colored, distorted checkerboard or a flat representation of your 3D model’s layout. This image sequence contains the coordinate data that Pixmap will read.

Pixmap allows you to define an exact pixel grid resolution (e.g., PixMap brings high-end texturing capabilities to the AE

Distributes color inaccuracies more organically, resulting in a softer, grain-like retro texture.

The Pixmap plugin for After Effects is a specialized rendering and stylization tool. It allows users to map, index, and manipulate pixel data based on custom grids, palettes, and source layers. Unlike basic pixelation filters that simply degrade image resolution, Pixmap treats pixels as data points. This enables complex operations such as:

The most compelling reason to incorporate PixMap into your workflow is . Faster Iteration Set to Repeat for tiling textures or Clamp

If you are new to the concept, UV mapping is the process of projecting a 2D image texture onto a 3D model’s surface. The plugin's small footprint (the plugin file is only about 25 kB) and intuitive interface have made it a favorite among motion designers seeking to streamline their workflow.

: Re-texture 3D elements in real-time within the After Effects timeline. Transformation Tools