Introduction
Alright — here we go. First edition.
I’ve wanted to do this for a long time: a simple, useful newsletter that brings together what I’ve been watching in motion design, AI creative work, and software. It’ll take a few issues to find its rhythm, but I’d rather start than overthink.
I’ve also just launched a new site with Simon Ziri — finally a proper home for courses, the podcast, and tutorials. Still early days, but it feels good to have somewhere solid to build from.
Motion & Design
A bit late to mention it, but After Effects quietly added a really handy “Quick Offset” feature a while back — lets you shift layers and keyframes faster. Worth catching up on if you missed it. Although I have my own scripts for this and occassionally use Skew Pro by Goodboyninja, it's nice to have this native. Release notes
In Cavalry, you can now import other scenes as assets and use them like pre-comps — they stay linked, which is brilliant. And there are a bunch of new effects and updates to the API. I keep seeing the Spherize filter pop up in people’s work; seems to be having a little moment. Release notes
Also spotted something cool from the Canva Creative team: they’ve started releasing open-source tools for Cavalry. The first one’s called Quiver, which lets you fire Figma designs straight into Cavalry — I think it even handles images. Very cool start. Overview
And one more to watch — Riveo, a new motion/video tool from Forge & Form. Haven’t tried it yet but it looks promising. Site
AI Creative
This one’s still a live experiment for me. I’m being asked to explore AI-generated video for real projects now, and I’ll be honest — I’ve got mixed feelings. I’ve spent years learning to craft things by hand, and suddenly these tools promise to do that with a prompt but feel very very janky and imprecise. It also just feels lik feeding the noise machine.
But when I feel that edge — that mix of resistance and curiosity — it usually means I’m about to learn something. So I’m treating AI less as a replacement and more as a paradigm I’m still figuring out. Sometimes it’s magic, sometimes it’s junk. The work now is about learning how to move better with it.
A few practical things I’ve been exploring in this area:
- Reformer Pro Audio — a great example of human-AI interplay done right. You make the sound yourself — your breath, your voice, whatever — and the AI turns it into targeted Foley. Keeps the play and control in your hands. Krotos Reformer Pro
- Weavy — a node-based workspace for AI image and video generation. I’ve been testing more node-based setups lately; it’s a huge difference useing AI like a modular design tool rather than a black box. Weavy
- Higgsfield.ai — I heard about them supposedly having "controllable camera moves" (i'll believe it when I see it 4 times in a row 😉). I haven't checked them out properly yet but their homepage is worth a scroll — packed with prompt ideas and visual cues. higgsfield.ai
To re-iterate. I’m not trying to become an AI bro here... just trying to keep abreast of it all and share the practical things I find in this newsletter.
Software
I used to get excited for Apple keynotes. Now I get that same buzz for OpenAI Dev Day. In fact, way more.
This year they are set to announce Agent Builder — a visual way to create AI agents without writing code. Livestream →
I’ve been building a lot in Cursor. Mostly it's headless scripts for AE & Cavalry. I want to share these more and have an embroyinc area on this site that's about sharing them... but it's time consuming to put each script on Webflow.
Over the weekend, Ispun up a small site — cavalrytools.com — to collect and share the scripts I’m making. It’s rough and might change completely, but it’s nice having a place to drop experiments. Watch this space 👀
Inspiration
Not much this month. I'm going to make a habit going forward of logging what I watch/listen to.
But a few things I had on my list to share in my first newsletter. f you like reading about how things get built:
- Stripe Press keeps publishing sharp books and essays around systems and software. Stripe Press
- Dan Hollick’s Making Software is shaping up to be a deep, long-form dive into how software really gets made. Still early, but ambitious. I saw him at Config this year. He's a great speaker and educator. https://makingsoftware.com/
Closing
A few bits before I go:
- The new site’s live (though some parts in progress). Let me know what you think!
- New Cavalry tutorial on random-number blending: YouTube
- Quick studio setup short: link
- Recent animation work for AILP: LinkedIn
Thanks for reading! If you're reading this elsewhere and want to subscribe to this newsletter, head to my website. You'll find it in the header and footer. https://www.jackvaughan.com
