Petals

Petals supports After Effects and Illustrator 2022 and up. It's a CEP extension, so any version that supports the Extensions panel will run it without issues.

Yep, completely free. Every feature, no trial limits, no catch. Hit the "Download" button and start creating.

Download the ZXP file and install it using the free ZXP/UXP Installer by dragging and dropping it into the installer. Restart After Effects or Illustrator, and you'll find Petals under Window → Extensions. For the full guide, head over to the getting started page.

The core experience is the same. Palette generation, shuffling, saving, and applying colors all work in both apps. In After Effects, colors are linked via expressions for global control. In Illustrator, colors are applied directly to fills and strokes of selected objects.

Your colors are fully baked into the project file. Everything keeps working without Petals installed. You can hand the project to someone else and they'll see all the right colors when they open it. If they install Petals later, it picks up right where you left off.

Yes. Any palette you save to your library is automatically synced between After Effects and Illustrator in real time.

Of course. It's free, so install it on as many machines as you like.

Yes. Every update is free, forever. When a new version is available, you'll see a notification inside the extension with a one-click update.

Absolutely. Double-click any petal to open a color picker and set the exact color you want. You can also extract colors from existing layers in your comp or import palettes you've saved or exported.