MANUAL / PLUGIN

Palf KiraKira

One directional cap highlight on every isolated alpha shape.

Installation

01
Quit Adobe After Effects completely.
02
Copy KiraKira.aex (Windows) or KiraKira.plugin (macOS) into the After Effects Plug-ins folder.
03
Start After Effects and apply from Effect > Palf > Palf KiraKira. If After Effects was already running, restart it so the plug-in loads.

Windows: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects <version>\Support Files\Plug-ins\
macOS: /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/Plug-ins/

Requirements: After Effects 2023–2026 / Windows / macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) or later.

Caution (macOS)

If macOS blocks the plug-in and it will not load, run the following command in Terminal (enter the path for your install), then restart After Effects.

sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/Plug-ins/KiraKira.plugin"

Caution (rejected-plug-in cache)

If a previous version failed to load once, After Effects on Mac may keep rejecting the plug-in from cache even after you replace the .plugin file. Hold Shift while launching After Effects to clear the plug-in cache; it may then load. Moving or renaming the preferences file aside before launch is fine too.

~/Library/Preferences/com.Adobe.After Effects.<version>.plist

How to use

01
Apply Palf KiraKira to an alpha-bearing layer.
02
In Basic, set Sparkle Direction, Keep Away from Edge, Sparkle Length, Corner Roundness and Soft Glow.
03
Set Highlight Colour, Opacity, Blend Mode and Output.
04
Use Advanced for Transparency Threshold, Cut Tilt and Skip Tiny Bits.

Parameters

Controls: Basic / Advanced. Default: Basic.
Sparkle Direction: Cap direction. Default −45 degrees.
Keep Away from Edge: Distance from the silhouette. Default 6.
Sparkle Length: Cap depth. Default 28.
Cut Face Puff: Bowing of the cut face. Default 0.
Corner Roundness: Cap-corner fillet. Default 30.
Soft Glow: Edge softness. Default 0.
Highlight Colour: Cap colour. Default white.
Opacity: Highlight opacity. Default 100%.
Blend Mode: Normal / Screen / Add / Overlay. Default: Screen.
Output: Composite / Highlight Only. Default: Composite.
Transparency Threshold: Component-topology threshold. Default 50%.
Cut Tilt: Cut-face angle. Default 0.
Skip Tiny Bits: Ignores smaller components. Default 64.

Tips

Use Highlight Only when compositing the cap separately. Transparency Threshold affects component detection, not continuous edge coverage. Raise Skip Tiny Bits to ignore small matte specks.

DEMO edition

The free DEMO offers the same controls as the full edition, with a red cross watermark on every output frame. The effect appears as “Palf KiraKira DEMO” (KiraKira_DEMO.aex / KiraKira_DEMO.plugin) and can sit alongside the full plug-in.