Crit Bridge

Crit Bridge moves work between Figma and After Effects.

Select a frame and Crit Bridge reads it into a small JSON file. Open that file in After Effects and the frame is rebuilt as real, editable shape and text layers with their original names, positions, sizes, fills, strokes, corner radius and opacity, scaled to your composition. No flattened PNG, no rebuilding the screen by eye.

Palettes travel the other way. Paste a palette exported from After Effects and it becomes real paint styles in your file's colour library, plus a labelled swatch row on the page.

What it reads and writes: the plugin reads only the frame you select, when you press the button. It writes paint styles and a swatch row only when you ask it to import a palette. It sends nothing anywhere. There is no network access, no account and no API key.

The After Effects side is a separate free panel called Crit Studio, linked below. Crit Bridge does not install or require anything inside Figma beyond itself.

Not rebuilt in After Effects: vector paths, boolean shapes, images, effects and auto layout. The plugin lists what it skipped rather than failing quietly. Fonts used in Figma but not installed on the After Effects machine are named in the import so you can install them, instead of being silently substituted.

Built for design students, free to use.