Quick Guide

Cult Translator — Translate Text Inside After Effects

Documentation

Version 1.0 • Updated 2025
Works with Adobe After Effects 2021+

📘 Overview

Cult Translator is a tool for Adobe After Effects that automatically translates text layers using GPT-powered localization. It is designed for motion designers, video editors, content creators, and localization teams who need a fast and accurate way to translate motion graphics directly inside After Effects.

This documentation covers installation, setup, usage, troubleshooting, and best practices.

🧩 What Cult Translator Does

Detects all text layers in the selected composition
Translates them automatically using GPT
Supports 100+ languages
Handles non-Latin and non-Cyrillic scripts (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, etc.)
Allows additional context to refine translation accuracy
Runs entirely inside After Effects — no external tools needed

🔐 License Terms — Single-Computer Activation

Each Cult Translator license is valid for one computer only.

A single license activates the script on one physical device (macOS or Windows) and is linked to that machine. This means:

✔ You can reinstall or update After Effects on the same computer

Your license will continue working normally.

✔ You can use the license offline (after initial activation)

The license remains valid as long as the machine does not change.

❌ You cannot use one license on multiple computers

For example:

Desktop and laptop → requires 2 licenses
Studio workstation shared by multiple editors → each editor/device needs a license

✔ If you replace your computer

You may request a license reset by contacting support at contact@cultextensions.com.

This policy helps protect the tool from unauthorized sharing and ensures continued development and updates.

🛠 Installation

1. Download the package

Download the installer from:
👉 https://cultextensions.com

You will receive a .zip file containing:

CultTranslator.jsx
license.json (generated automatically after activation)
README.txt

2. Install the script

Open After Effects

Go to File → Scripts → Install ScriptUI Panel…

Select the file:
CultTranslator.jsx

Click Open

Restart After Effects

Open it from:
Window → Extensions → Cult Translator
or
Window → Cult Translator

That’s it — the script is now properly installed as a dockable ScriptUI panel.

3. Enable script permissions

Inside After Effects:

Edit → Preferences → Scripting & Expressions →
✔ Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network

Restart After Effects.

🔑 Activation

1. Run the plugin

Open After Effects →
Window → Cult Translator

The panel will appear. Your license is applied automatically.

🌍 How to Use Cult Translator

Step 1 — Select the composition

Choose the main comp you want to translate.

Cult Translator will automatically detect text layers inside the selected comp.

Step 2 — Choose the source and target languages

Dropdown menus allow you to choose from 100+ languages.

Default target language: Spanish (Spain)

Step 3 — (Optional) Add Context

The Context field helps the script translate with higher accuracy.

Examples:

“This is a tutorial for a tech company.”
“Keep product names in English.”
“Translate this for a marketing ad.”

Step 4 — Click Translate

Cult Translator will:

Scan all text layers
Send each sentence to GPT
Replace each with the translated version
Preserve:
- Font style
- Text alignment
- Transform properties
- Keyframes

📘 Glossary Support (PRO)

Ensure terminology consistency across all languages.

Glossaries bring your workflow to professional localization standards by enforcing the correct translation of:

product names
technical terms
brand-specific vocabulary
recurring phrases
spelling variants
forbidden translations

When a glossary is active, Cult Translator automatically replaces terms according to your file, raising first-pass accuracy to 90–95% and drastically reducing review work.

Supported Glossary Formats

You can upload terminology files in:

.csv
.txt
.tsv

When a glossary is added, the script marks it as active and applies terminology rules during every translation.

🧩 Glossary Generation (PRO)

Create new glossaries instantly from your AE compositions.

Instead of building a glossary manually, Cult Translator can scan your entire composition and generate a terminology file automatically.

This is ideal for:

starting a new localization pipeline
preparing internal reference glossaries
aligning terminology across teams
onboarding new linguists
accelerating multi-language production

How Glossary Generation Works

Cult Translator scans all selected text layers.
It identifies recurring terms, product names, brand elements, and key phrases.
It generates a glossary file (CSV) ready to use, share, or edit.
You can immediately load it as a Glossary Support file in the next translation.

Glossary Generation saves time, improves consistency, and helps teams standardize their terminology from the very beginning.

🧠 How the Translation Works

Cult Translator sends each text layer as a structured request:

Source language
Target language
Context
Layer-specific content
Special characters

GPT returns:

Clean translation
Script-specific characters
Correct spacing
Natural phrasing
No added quotation marks
No metadata or JSON

The script then updates each corresponding layer.

📝 Supported Languages

Cult Translator supports more than 100 languages, including:

English
Spanish (Latin America, Spain)
Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal)
French
German
Italian
Chinese (Simplified + Traditional)
Japanese
Korean
Arabic
Hebrew
Persian
Hindi
Thai
Vietnamese
Russian
Ukrainian
Greek
Polish
Turkish
Dutch
Norwegian
Swedish
Danish

Right-to-left languages are supported if your font includes RTL glyphs.

🔤 Font Requirements

Most Latin/Cyrillic fonts work automatically.

For CJK or RTL languages, we recommend:

Simplified Chinese: Noto Sans SC
Traditional Chinese: Noto Sans TC
Japanese: Noto Sans JP / Kozuka Gothic
Korean: Noto Sans KR
Arabic: Noto Naskh Arabic / Amiri
Hebrew: Noto Sans Hebrew

If a font does not support the necessary characters, AE will show empty boxes (□).

Change the font manually before or after translation.

📂 Folder Structure

After installation, the script may create:

Documents/
    CultExtensions/
        CultTranslator/
            license.json
            logs/

These store:

License data
API key
Error logs

❗ Troubleshooting

❌ “Nothing happens when I click Translate”

Check:

Preferences → “Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network”
You saved your GPT API key
The panel has permission to write the license.json file
Your license is active

❌ Non-Latin characters appear as boxes

Your font does not support the character set.

Try a font variant (free).

❌ GPT returns incomplete or broken sentences

Add more context:

“This is for an educational video. Maintain natural tone.”

❌ Script UI panel looks broken

Reinstall into ScriptUI Panels folder.

📦 Changelog

v1.0

Initial release
Added support for 100 languages
Recursive comp scanning
Context-aware translation
Non-Latin text support
Improved formatting preservation
Batch translation feature

📬 Contact & Support

For help, bug reports, or feature requests:

Email: contact@cultextensions.com
Website: https://cultextensions.com