Smooth lyric animation for music videos, straight from pasted lyrics — flat on screen or tracked into the shot. Setup takes about a minute.
Read this first: a .zxp file
is not double-clickable. Adobe retired their Extension Manager years ago and
never replaced it, so every third-party After Effects panel needs a free
installer. That's step 1 — it's quick, and you only ever do it once.
Installing
Download the free ZXP Installer and open it. (Same one for macOS and Windows.)
Drag LyricBlitz.zxp (in this folder) onto its window.
If it warns about an unknown publisher, that's expected — see below. Continue.
On Windows, if it can't write the folder: right-click the installer, Run as administrator, and drag the file on again.
Quit and reopen After Effects. It won't appear until you do.
Open it from Window → Extensions → Lyric Blitz.
Your first lyric video
Open your music video comp — or select your song in the Project panel and press New lyric comp.
Paste the lyrics, one line each. An .lrc or .srt file keeps its own timing.
Pick a style. Every tile is a live preview in your font and colours.
Select the song layer, play it, and tap * on the numpad as each line starts. (No numpad? Type the BPM instead, or press Rough in as markers and drag them onto the vocal.)
Press Blitz it. One Cmd+Z undoes the whole build. Every word gets a marker on its line — drag one to fix a syllable.
The Motion sliders keep steering every line after the build — speed,
stagger, distance, blur, overshoot, drift. Listen to the song for Beat Pulse
makes the words swell with the music. Leave Motion blur ticked; the moves are
made to be seen with it.
Want one line to stand out? Start it with a style in braces:
{fly} We don't stop.
Tracking lyrics into the shot
Tick 3D letters before you build (flat lines work too — Attach converts them).
Track the clip with Effect → Perspective → 3D Camera Tracker.
Right-click the points where the words should sit and choose Create Null and Camera.
Select the lyric layers and that Track Null together and press Attach to track.
The words land on the point, sized to read the way they did flat, and animate exactly the same.
Questions
"Unknown publisher" / "cannot verify the developer"
Expected, and safe to continue. The panel is signed with a self-signed
certificate — standard for independent tools.
What does the trial do?
It builds the first 6 lines of whatever you paste. Everything
else is open — all 59 looks, the word markers, the sliders, the camera track —
so you can judge it on a hook before paying. A key builds whole songs: press
Enter key at the bottom of the panel, paste it, Unlock. One key
covers two computers.
It installed but I don't see it
Fully quit After Effects and reopen it. Then look under
Window → Extensions, not Window → Workspace.
Which versions does it work with?
After Effects 2019 through 2026, macOS and Windows — the same .zxp on both,
Apple silicon or Intel.
Where does it actually install?
~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/ on a Mac,
%APPDATA%\Adobe\CEP\extensions\ on Windows, in a folder called
com.willrosekelly.lyricblitz. Delete that folder to remove it.
The font I want isn't in the list
The menu only shows fonts you have installed, so the list looks different
on Windows and macOS. Anything else you own: choose Other… and
type its PostScript name.
Will it damage my project?
A build only adds layers. Restyle only touches the layers you select, and
leaves your own animators, effects and expressions alone. Attach never changes
your camera or track null. "Remove mine" deletes only what the panel made.