Help centre
Using Cuemark
Everything you need to go from footage to finished captions inside After Effects.
Watch the full walkthrough: install, generate, style, and export subtitles in After Effects.
Installation
Cuemark is a CEP panel for Adobe After Effects. The panel appears under Window → Extensions after you install it and fully restart AE.
Full step-by-step instructions are on the download page.
Windows (recommended)
Download Keyweaver Installer from the download page and run Keyweaver-Setup.exe. It installs Keyweaver Manager on your PC (signed by Keyweaver Ltd). Open Manager from the Start Menu, click Install on Cuemark, then fully quit and reopen After Effects.
If Windows shows SmartScreen, click More info → Run anyway and confirm the publisher is Keyweaver Ltd. No admin password is required.
macOS
Download Keyweaver Manager (Keyweaver-Manager.pkg) from the download page, install it, then click Install on Cuemark in the catalog. Fully quit and reopen After Effects. ffmpeg is bundled for video transcription.
After installing, you must fully quit and relaunch After Effects. Restarting is required - closing and reopening a panel is not enough.
Your first generate
Open the panel
In After Effects, go to Window → Extensions → Keyweaver - Cuemark (on newer AE builds, try Extensions Legacy). You can start with guest trial credits, or sign in with your Keyweaver account.
Open your edit comp
Open the composition you want subtitles in (your main edit comp with video or audio - not the Cuemark Subtitles precomp). If several layers have footage, you will choose which layer to transcribe when you generate.
Click Generate Subtitles
On the Generate tab, click Generate Subtitles. A confirmation shows duration and credit cost (1 credit per started minute). Cuemark transcribes the audio, then builds native text layers in your comp.
Edit and style
The panel switches to the Text tab. Review and save cue edits, then use Presets and Style to change look and animation. Style changes apply to your AE layers automatically.
Captions are placed in a precomp called Cuemark Subtitles inside your edit comp. One undo removes everything cleanly. Older projects may still show Captio Subtitles until you generate again - Cuemark renames these automatically.
Credits & account
Your credit balance is shown in the panel header. 1 Keyweaver Credit = 1 minute of audio. Fractional minutes round up - a 5 min 20 sec file costs 6 credits.
Credits are only consumed when you generate captions. Re-applying a style, editing text, or switching presets costs nothing.
Top up or manage your subscription at keyweaver.io/account. The same balance works in the panel and on the website - sign in with the same email.
Open Cuemark in After Effects to try guest credits without an account. Sign up free for 40 Keyweaver Credits shared across Cuemark, Superconductor, Trillian, and Tamborine. After that, buy a credit pack or subscribe.
Generate tab
The Generate tab is where you kick off transcription.
Choosing source footage
With your edit comp active, click Generate Subtitles. Cuemark scans the comp for video and audio layers with files on disk. If there is one layer, it is selected automatically; if there are several, a picker asks which layer to transcribe. Duration and credit cost are shown in the confirmation before transcription starts.
Max words per line
Use the dropdown to control line length. The default is Auto (automatic line breaks). Pick a number to force shorter or longer lines. Change this and generate again to re-wrap the same transcript without spending credits.
Export subtitles (SRT / VTT / CSV)
After subtitles exist, the Generate tab shows Export subtitles with SRT, VTT, and CSV buttons. Exports use the text from your saved cues in the Text tab.
Re-generating
If you generate again on the same footage, Cuemark uses the cached transcript - no credits are deducted for a second generate. Credits are only consumed when the audio is transcribed for the first time.
Clips are limited to 15 minutes per generate. Split longer footage into sections. Audio uploads are capped at 4 MB. Cuemark extracts audio from video automatically on both Windows and macOS (ffmpeg is bundled in the installer).
Text tab
The Text tab shows every caption cue as an editable text box. Click a cue to scrub the After Effects playhead to that moment. Edits are not written to AE until you save each line.
Saving edits
Each row has a Save button that turns blue when you've made a change. Click it (or press Ctrl+Enter) to write the edit to the AE layer. You'll see a spinner while the layer updates.
Tips
- Transcription is highly accurate but occasionally mishears proper nouns, accents, or technical terms - the Text tab is the fastest way to fix these
- Editing text does not consume credits
- If you change the text case setting in the Style tab, it re-processes the original transcript - so editing in the Text tab first and then changing case is the correct order
Style tab
The Style tab controls the appearance of all caption layers. Most changes apply automatically after a short delay - there is no separate Apply button.
Typography
Use the font picker to browse installed fonts - each option renders in its own typeface. Font size, bold, italic, and text case (aa as generated, Aa title case, AA uppercase) are all controllable.
Colour
Set the text colour using the colour picker. For the background, toggle it on and pick a colour and opacity separately.
Background shape
Three shapes are available:
- Rounded - rounded rectangle that hugs the text (pill shape)
- Bar - full comp-width bar behind the text
- Lower third - a solid block across the lower portion of the frame
Outline and shadow
Text outline adds a stroke around each character. Shadow adds a soft drop shadow. Both can be toggled independently and coloured separately from the text.
Position
Choose bottom, middle, or top. Use the vertical margin slider to fine-tune placement from the edge of the frame.
Number of lines
Switch between 1, 2, or 3 lines per cue. The character-per-line count adjusts automatically - tighter wrapping at higher line counts.
Presets tab
Presets are complete style configurations - font, colour, animation, background - applied with one click. Ten built-in presets ship with Cuemark:
- Colour Highlight, Impact Words, Highlight Words, Word Banner, Box Cascade
- Word Stamp, Typing Words, Drop Words, Elegant Highlight, Bold Fade On
Applying a preset rebuilds all AE layers with the new style. This does not consume credits - only transcription does.
Animations
Fourteen animation types are available from the Style tab dropdown (including None). All are applied as native After Effects text animators - fully editable after generation.
| Animation | What it does |
|---|---|
| None | Static text, appears instantly at cue in-point |
| Roll | Words rotate in on the Y axis, word by word |
| Spotlight | Each word highlights in your accent colour as it's spoken, using word timestamps |
| Highlighter | Spoken words get a coloured highlight bar behind them |
| Impact | Each word appears as a separate full-screen layer timed to speech |
| Karaoke | Progressive word reveal synced to speech |
| Fade On | Each cue fades in softly over the cue duration |
| Drop | Characters drop in from above |
| Cascade | Characters reveal left to right with a blur |
| Drift Down | Cue drifts down gently as it fades in |
| Rise | Cue slides up from below the frame |
| Punch | Each word punches in with emphasis, timed to speech |
| Stamp | Each word stamps in with a scale pop |
| Typewriter | Text types on character by character per cue |
Spotlight, Highlighter, Impact, Karaoke, and Punch use word-level timestamps from transcription. They require a generate made after word-timestamp support was added. If an older generate lacks word timestamps, re-generate the captions.
Troubleshooting
Panel doesn't appear in Window → Extensions
On Windows or macOS, open Keyweaver Manager and click Install on Cuemark. Then fully quit and relaunch After Effects.
Video generate fails on Mac
Reinstall Cuemark from Keyweaver Manager - ffmpeg is bundled for video transcription. If it still fails, install ffmpeg with Homebrew (brew install ffmpeg) or generate from an audio-only file (MP3/WAV).
Blank white panel
Reinstall from Keyweaver Manager and fully relaunch AE. If still blank, right-click inside the panel and choose Inspect to see any JavaScript errors.
Generate fails with a network error
Check your internet connection. If you're on a corporate network, the firewall may be blocking outgoing requests to keyweaver-backend.vercel.app. Try on a different network or hotspot.
Transcription is inaccurate
Transcription accuracy depends on audio quality. For best results: use clean audio with minimal background noise, ensure the speaker is close to the microphone, and avoid heavy reverb. Use the Text tab to correct any errors after generation.
Captions are out of sync
Make sure the footage item in your AE project matches the file you intended to transcribe. If you've trimmed or sped up the footage in AE after generating, the timestamps will no longer match. Re-generate from the source file.
After Effects freezes during generate
Building many caption layers can take a few seconds. AE may appear to hang - wait for the status message to finish. If it freezes consistently, try a shorter clip (under 15 minutes) or fewer words per line.
Style changes don't apply
Make sure you have a Cuemark Subtitles layer selected or subtitles already generated. Style updates apply automatically; check the status bar at the bottom of the panel for errors. Text tab edits must be saved before they appear in exports.
FAQ
Still need help?
Email support
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