v2.5.x Battle Axe Overlord

After Effects and Illustrator CC2014+

2.5.1

Feb 14, 2025

Changed

Ai: rasterize file names include the Ai file name to reduce accidental file overwriting

Rasterized images will scale to match the Ae comp size if `Scale art to comp width` is enabled

Fixed

Figma: `Error on line 2912` when rasterizing elements with * in the layer name

Figma: skip images without hash references to avoid a crash

Figma: image mask rectangle detection

Precomp not trimming selected layers if the project expression set to extendscript

2.5.0

Feb 3, 2025

Added

Rasterize button in Figma and Illustrator

Figma: Gradient fills and background blur on text layers

Changed

Precomp button will now trim to the selected artwork without needing a group layer

Figma: Precomp frames option will build layers without a group guide layer

Figma: iOS corner rounding supported by converting rectangles to paths

Figma: Frame background image, fill color, and stroke support

More reliable Ae app switch

Improvements to opacity and blend modes for images, components and text

Figma: component instances apply scale and opacity

Fixed

Ai: sporadic MRAP error when building text

Ai: per-character text supports non-RGB color modes

Figma image masking

2.4.7

Jan 20, 2025

Fixed

Error on line 2866 when importing images from Ai

2.4.6

Jan 13, 2025

Changed

Figma component instances now apply scale and opacity

Convert rectangles to paths if corner smoothing (iOS rounding) is enabled

Fixed

Figma image opacity and blend mode not transferring

Ai guides not transferring

Ai oversize artboard stroke dashes

App switch taking too long

Ai per-character color modes (global colors) support

1.29

Jan 7, 2025

Fixed

Transfer not working after CC 2025

Swatch and guide buttons not working after CC 2025

Changed

Removed analytics

Updated links to documentation

2.4.4

Dec 20, 2024

Added

Figma Background Blur on text layers

Add gradient fills to Figma text

Offline activation

Fixed

Figma text layers causing the plugin to freeze

Pull shape updates from Ai getting stuck on loader

2.4.3

Dec 5, 2024

Added

App update loading animation

Fixed

Quotes in Figma file names preventing app connection

Figma frame stroke

Error on line 4444 if creating an Ai artboard without an open doc

Better handling for empty Ai groups

2.4.2

Nov 21, 2024

Changed

Frame roundness cropping with mask

Background image and fill colors for Figma frames

Fixed

Better image flipping support

Combine text fill and layer opacity

Error if a path layer is missing path data

Speed boost when app switch enabled

New Ai artboard from Ae comp

Stack order of precomp to selected layer

2.4.1

Nov 11, 2024

Hotfix

Unlock Scale art to comp width preference

v2.4.0

Released November 11, 2024

Battle Axe Overlord 2.4 Release Notes:

Added

• • Transfer elements as a single Ae layer

• • Scale art to comp width preference

• • Customize visible buttons in the Overlord app (Hosts section)

Changed

• • Update properties is now its own button

• • Collapse Transform precomps is a preference

Fixed

• • Non-English Ae was creating multiple Overlord folders when precomping

Licenses come with one year of feature updates, so purchases after November 11, 2023, unlock v2 and the Figma connection for free. If you purchased Overlord more than a year ago, renew or purchase a new license to get access to v2 and Figma, plus another year of feature updates.

v2.3.0

Released September 23, 2024

Added

• Image export from Ai
• Rasterize unlinked images in Ai file
• Relative path from AEP file

Changed

• Layers will be centered in comp if the artboard sizes do not match
• A new comp will be created if one isn’t open
• New comps will be created using the framerate of the open comp
• Clear the layer name Isolation Mode

Fixed

• More reliable preference loading in extension
• Error BridgeTalk is undefined

2.2.0

Released August 26, 2024

Added

• Ae app switch has returned

Changes

• New Ae layers are selected after creation
• Shape and group naming is more intuitive

Fixed

• Install extension update
• Missing extension in 2.1.1
• Image extension undefined
• Twirl closed layers
• Support live paint elements from Ai
• Better check for existing layer names in the comp
• Opacity on nested groups
• Blending modes on nested groups
• Decompose error when multiple layers selected
• App layout bug where updates overlapped one another

2.1.0

Released August 13, 2024

New

• Import Ai file button

Changes

• Option to launch the app in the background instead of seeing a popup every time you restart your computer
• The Overlord project folder may be nested up to 2 folders deep
• Extensions reload when updating from the app
• Parametric shape detection is now optional
• Clipping masks may be visible

Fixes

• Refined rectangle and ellipse detection
• Shape blending modes apply to shape groups
• Grouped shapes inner opacity is respected
• Box text alignment
• Oversize artboard text properties

New in 2.0

• Dependable Linear & Radial Gradient transfer
• Clipping masks become Ae track mattes
• Preservation of parametric rectangles & ellipses
• Support for text on a path
• Ai groups transfer as Ae shape layers
• Split Ai shapes to Ae shape layers with group layer controls
• Transfer guides
• Transfer swatches

1.26

Released: 2023-02-15

Added

• Disable app switch button to prevent opening multiple versions of Ae

Fixed

• Update license authentication system for better stability

1.25

Released: 2022-12-26

Changed

• Migrate off Gumroad license authentication (hotfix required for any keys purchased from gumroad.com)

1.24

Released: 2022-05-23

Fixed

• Extending the 1.23 macOS fix to Windows

1.23

Released: 2022-05-20

Fixed

• (macOS 12) Sending shapes from Ae to Ai
• Switch button
• Opening multiple versions of Ae

1.22

Released: 2019-07-23

Changed

• More intelligent handling of nested groups with center anchor point enabled
• Support for clipping masks with center anchor point enabled

1.21

Released: 2019-07-16

Fixed

• Removed debug code that introduced errors on line 1920 and 1178 on text layers with center anchor point enabled
• Bug that tried to download updates like the updatable version

1.2

Released: 2019-07-14

Added

• Both panels open is no longer required. Just open the one you like using. Thanks to Remco Jansen for the help on this.
• Native Ae guides support for CC2019+
• Support for All Caps text options by transforming text
• Support for Ai symbols with Break Symbols button
• Text layer blending modes
• Deauthorize button for removing license key from a shared machine
• Holding SHIFT when pressing the New Artboard/Comp, does the inverse –new Ai comp button (orange) becomes a new comp button (purple). Thanks to Lars Jandel for the idea.

Fixed

• Zeroing anchor points from v1.11 failed to fully move paths
• Center layer did not work on text layers
• Text not aligning when comp and artboard were different sizes
• Error when holding shift while a lower level property group is selected
• Text layer opacity
• Text layer rotation
• Holding shift when transferring text with a shape selected
• Prevent error when dropping file into panel

Changed

• Reintroduced an old behavior with a preference when updating shapes to respect comp position or local layer position
• Moved parametric shape positions to the group transform rather than the shape itself

Removed

• Updatable version has been removed for added stability

1.12

Released: 2018-03-20

Fixed

• Accidentally left some debugging code in v1.11 release
• Error on line 1745
• Error on line 1331
• Error on line 1822

1.11

Released: 2018-03-20

Changed

• Zeroing out the anchor point on paths and parametrics when Center Anchor Point is enabled
• Removed redundant fill opacity and replaced it with group opacity to reduce stroke transparency as well

Fixed

• Error on line 1247 – clipping masks on compound shapes
• Error on line 1247 – clipping masks on groups. Single clipping groups on a layer become layer masks to simplify layers.
• Text along a path isn’t supported but now the won’t make transfers fail
• Better detection of group blending modes
• Better detection nested group opacity

1.10

Released: 2018-02-27

Added

• Support for Ai gradient fills and strokes (yayayayaya)
• Update fill and stroke colors from Ai
• Support for clipping masks
• Factored in Ae layer Position/Anchor Point transforms when transferring to Ai

Changed

• Hidden Ai objects within a group will not be transferred to Ae

Fixed

• Text alignment
• Text leading (supported in Ae CC2017.2)
• Empty text layers broke the whole transfer
• Text not transferring from Ai CC2014
• Further corrected the addition of type name line breaks
• Smarter layer adding when Ae layers selected
• Moved parametric shape positioning into the parametric group itself to simplify keyframing and make converting to bezier much cleaner

Thanks: This update would not have been possible without the generous testing time of Kyle Martinez, Jeff Salvado, Drew Jackson, Nicolas Doretti, and Wojciech Piekarczyk.

1.03

Released: 2017-11-16

Added

• Support for Ai Spot Color tints
• Preference to use New Artboard button to create a new Ae comp from an artboard’s dimensions

Changed

• Created two install versions: Updatable and Stable. Updatable will allow the panel to be updated by opening Settings and downloading directly without needing to download, install or restart Ae/Ai. For users experiencing issues with the panel not displaying buttons immediately, the Stable version provides a less dynamic system of loading the required files. With Stable, Overlord updates will need to be downloaded manually from gumroad.com/library.
• Optimized Settings panel

Fixed

• Accidentally added line breaks to text layer naming which broke expressions that used a layer name
• Unnamed shapes were naming their shape groups “null”

1.02

Released: 2017-10-24

Added

• Preference in settings to disable app switching when pushing shapes to Ae. Some Windows users report Ae resizing when switching which is terribly annoying.

Fixed

• Layer blending modes (Color Burn, Color Dodge, Soft Light, Hard Light, Saturation, Color) failed to transfer
• Compound paths failed when explode modifier enabled
• Empty layer name when Ai=Ae when sending a single, unnamed layer. Now it defaults to an incremented layer name.
• Panel failed to resize on some systems (requires zxp install)
• Core CEP now overwrites existing bundle files
• Removed error when transferring Ai pattern fill/stroke

1.01

Released: 2017-10-18

Fixed

A glitch with the licensing unlock

1.0

Released: 2017-10-18 Public release

Overlord Installation instructions