effectcraft/crates/aep/tests/fixtures/tools

Generator of the combined test projects

The test projects of the corpus (opt-in, the folder named by EFFECTCRAFT_AEP_FIXTURES) were made from scratch with Adobe After Effects 2026, driven through an After Effects MCP server (its batch.run of atomic operations; eval.run, i.e. running ExtendScript, is disabled on that server, so the tables below are written in MCP operation terms and small Node scripts turn them into batch.run lists). Each file holds one composition per case, named like the case (../CASES.md); every case composition starts as a duplicate of the base composition 000-base (1920x1080, 25 fps, 5 s, black, one red 1920x1080 solid L) and adds the case's change (and the chain of cases it was made from).

Paths in the scripts are written <corpus>/...: a local working folder outside the repository that holds an empty project (combined/gen/empty-work.aep, a copy of the corpus's empty.aep), the test media the footage cases import (synthetic/test-media/: a png, a WAV, png and OpenEXR sequences, an mp4, Targa, Photoshop, Illustrator and EPS stills, all made by the contributor), the earlier single-case files some cases are merged from, and the contributor's own animation presets (presets/). Set them before running.

Files

file	what
effects.jsx	effects cases (the trimmed table of the cases the tests use) and the templates 000-base, 520-solid-M-grey-960x540
to-mcp.js	turns effects.jsx into ops/batch-NN.json
masks.jsx, shapes.jsx, styles.jsx	masks, shapes and styles cases (styles also 963, 964, 985, 340, 734)
mss-to-mcp.js	turns one of those three into ops/<family>/batch-NN.json and merge.json
layers-comps.jsx, keyframes.jsx	layer / composition / transform / matte / blend-mode cases, and key / ease / expression / stretch cases; each runs under Node and writes its own batches; layers-comps.jsx also holds the .aep / .aepx pair
text.jsx	text cases; runs under Node and writes its batches
fam-common.jsx, fam-to-mcp.js	shared helpers and translator of the families 3d.jsx, footage-precomp.jsx, markers.jsx, settings.jsx (settings: one project per group of cases, settings-a/b/c)
scrub.py	fixture hygiene of a saved .aep: footage alias paths replaced by neutral ones of the same length (C:\fixtures\...), host name HOST000..., neutral ascend counts, the XMP packet replaced by the base project's
layers-comps-scrub-aepx.py	the same XMP swap for the .aepx of the pair
patch-text.py	the byte edits of the text cases 732 and 733 (see below)

Run order (per file)

1. Make sure After Effects shows no dialog. Save the open project somewhere harmless first (opening a project over a dirty untitled one raises a Save As dialog), then open <corpus>/combined/gen/empty-work.aep.
2. Translate the table (node to-mcp.js ops, node mss-to-mcp.js <family>, node layers-comps.jsx <outdir>, node keyframes.jsx <outdir>, node text.jsx <outdir>, node fam-to-mcp.js <family> setup then ... cases <out> ids-<out>.json) and run the batches in order with batch.run (template batch first; check failed is 0 after each).
   • Footage cases: import the media first (project.import_file); the translators take the new item id (stepsItemId, or the tagged ids of the setup batch) and write the footage batches.
   • mss-to-mcp.js: after the template, merge each project of merge.json (project.merge) and rename its comp as listed; after the cases delete the src-* comps.
   • A keyed multi-dimensional property is read once (property.get) before the save, or After Effects does not write the first key's speed (the tables do this where the case needs it).
3. Save the project (ae_save_project); for the pair, save as aepx-pair.aep and right after as aepx-pair.aepx.
4. Text only: python -I patch-text.py text.aep text-patched.aep makes the same one-byte edit of a paragraph slot in the text documents of 732 and 733 as the earlier single-case files (built as case 517; the slot is not reachable by scripting).
5. Scrub: python -I scrub.py <saved>.aep <fixture>.aep <base project>.aep (and layers-comps-scrub-aepx.py for the .aepx). Set SCRUB_FORBID to the local folder and machine names that must not remain; the script fails if one does.
6. Strip the colour profiles: cargo run -p effectcraft-aep --example stubicc -- <fixture>.aep <fixture>.aep.new (and the .aepx) replaces the working-space profile (and the profile of imported images) by a stub with the same description and no colour data. It stops without writing if a profile cannot be replaced. Then scan the final files independently (the corpus repository's tools/aep/inspect-embedded.py). Do not save the projects with working space None instead: the importer reads the working space's name from the profile, and the settings cases (sRGB, Rec.709 Gamma 2.4, gamma) test exactly that.
7. Check: every case composition must import like the earlier single-case file (the tests in ../../ are that check; ../CASES.md lists the cases).

Project settings have one value per project, so the settings cases are split over three files. In a fresh save After Effects 26.2.1 no longer writes the working-space profile name, only the profile data; the reader then takes the name from the profile's own description.

The three preset cases (963, 964, 985)

Curves and Mesh Warp keep their data in an arbitrary-data parameter that no scripting call can set, so these three cases are made by applying an animation preset (layer.apply_preset) to layer S (steps.png) of the presets base 984 (solid B over S, no L). The presets are the contributor's own, made by hand in Adobe After Effects 2026 (Windows) on 2026-10-19: add the effect to a solid, set it as described, select the effect, Animation > Save Animation Preset, delete the effect. No Adobe preset, sample or asset was used or copied; each file holds only that one effect with the values set by hand. They are not decoded anywhere in the importer or the tests: only their effect on the saved project (read back from the projects) is.

preset	made by	used by
curves-red-mid-down.ffx	Curves, channel Red: the middle point dragged down (file: Red curve (0,0) (128,44) (255,255))	963
curves-rgb-two-points.ffx	Curves, channel RGB: a point at about 1/4 dragged down, one at 3/4 up (file: (0,0) (62,24) (194,230) (255,255))	964
meshwarp-3x3-center-right.ffx	Mesh Warp, Rows 3, Columns 3, the lower-right inner vertex dragged about 100 px to the right in the Composition panel	985

Three more presets were made the same way for earlier experiments (cases 961, 962, 965), whose projects are not part of the test set: curves-default.ffx, curves-rgb-mid-up.ffx, meshwarp-default.ffx. The three presets of the test cases and their SHA-256 sums are part of the corpus (presets/):

f6ce60a8ed0fa786625078f61995e1184ef0b016efaeeb0b4ae6337831697821  curves-red-mid-down.ffx
e3992190150366b01859e32adcb9bbe2e0ef492bd2259a8b7e85b571afeca24f  curves-rgb-two-points.ffx
4a0cd5a0e52d8d14ee0f895b0a3e054199d399094b410a7b2a620eb484d5cba8  meshwarp-3x3-center-right.ffx

Inputs that are not available outside the contributor's machine, and what replaces them: the presets base 984 is an intermediate project of the contributor (solid B over S, noise reference; it is merged into the styles project and not shipped on its own); steps.png is a contributor-made sRGB PNG (grey ramps, no embedded profile, see ../CASES.md case 902). The presets can be applied to any project that has a layer S; the case compositions of the corpus are the reference, not a byte-exact rebuild.

fx-switch.aep is not generated: it is the base project with two Gaussian Blurs (Blurriness 40) on L, added through the MCP server, the first switched off by hand in the Effect Controls (the server has no operation for the fx switch), saved once and scrubbed with scrub.py.