Cursor Rig Studio
Make custom cursor rigs for After Effects.
BETA v0.6.1
Public BETA
Buy at a reduced price during the beta and help shape the future of Cursor Rig Studio.
Why call it a public beta?
The tool works today, and its rigs are ready for real projects, but it has not been battle tested. I want the people using it to help find bugs and shape the finished version.
How long will CRS be in beta?
About 6 to 12 months
How will 1.0 differ?
Version 1.0 will have more quality-of-life features, polish, bug fixes, and features you ask for. There are also a handful of features already planned, including: presets that mirror real cursor sets more closely (prioritizing Windows-like and macOS-like), more varied built-in presets, more ways to customize the icons, and improved support for importing custom icons.
What works now?
The plugin is fully-featured with four tabs: Setup, Customize, Interact, and Export. There are 15 customizable icons, 2 customizable click animations, many presets, and a system for creating, editing, and saving your own presets. The tool can be used to create a wide variety of mouse cursor rigs.
Will the price change?
Yes: The price will increase when version 1.0 is released. The exact price of 1.0 is still TBD. Buy during the beta to get 1.0 and every future 1.x update for free.
How can I help?
Send Feedback/Bug Reports right from the tool’s settings menu. Those messages go straight to my business email.
What is it?
Cursor Rig Studio is an After Effects plugin that lets you customize mouse cursor icons and export them as single-layer animation rigs. The rigs you make are yours to keep and share (please see the license agreement for details). The plugin is not needed to use the rigs because they are just shape layers with expressions.
Check out the web demo
Pick and shape your icons
There are 15+ dynamic icons to choose from
- Set up: Choose your icons, or start from a preset, a file, or a layer
- Customize: Each icon has simple sliders for adjusting its shape
- Icons Within Icons: Some icons have multiple "substates" — similar icons grouped inside of them
- Badge Icons: Any icon can sit beside any other icon as a small badge — like a Wait Ring or Wait Pinwheel paired with a Pointer
- Custom Icons: Import any shape layer or bake any dynamic icon to adjust its path points and tangents by hand (NOTE: this feature is still a work-in-progress so expect bugs)
Animate the click
Every marker on the layer plays the click animation
- Animate: Use the graph editor in the Interact tab to animate the rig's scale and add a "circle pop"
- Keyframes or Expressions: Your click animation can be baked as expressions or exported as keyframes
- Marker Driven: Layer markers set the start frame of a click
- Test Drive: While the Interact tab is open, your cursor becomes the rig's cursor in the viewport so you can get a feel for its appearance
Keep what you like
Save presets to speed up your workflow
- Rig Presets: The Rig Preset Manager allows you to save, browse, and export full rig presets like virtual trading cards
- Icon Presets: Save and export your favorite icon customizations
- Built-in Presets: Cursor Rig Studio currently ships with 3 built-in presets to get you started
Take it into After Effects
One click puts a finished rig in your comp, ready to animate.
- Export to New Layer: Add your rig to the active composition
- Update/Replace Selected Layer: Replace any layer with your rig
- ScriptUI Panel: Make your own dockable panels with buttons for creating your favorite cursor rigs
- Export as SVG: Don't need a rig? Export raw vector files any time
Compare versions
| Feature | Web Demo | Basic Cursor Rigs | Cursor Rig Studio | Supporter Edition | Supporter Upgrade* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price during the beta | Free | Free | $24.99 | $29.98 | $4.99 |
| Price at 1.0 | Free | Free | TBD | TBD | $4.99 |
| The Basic Cursor Rigs | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Create custom cursor rigs | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Export rigs, SVGs, and ScriptUI panels | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Free updates through every 1.x version | – | – | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Preset card effects (foils) | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom themes | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
*The Supporter Upgrade adds the Supporter extras to a Cursor Rig Studio you already own. It works by giving you a second license key that unlocks the extra features. Those who purchase the Supporter Edition only need one license key for everything.
You need
- After Effects 2025 or later, Windows or macOS
- The free aescripts ZXP/UXP Installer (steps come with the download)
License, in short
- One person — up to three computers
- Share your presets with anyone
- Share your rigs with your team and clients; they need no license to use them
- Don’t resell the plugin, the rigs, or your key
FAQ
Do people I send a rig to need the plugin?
Nope. Each rig is a single shape layer with custom effect controls and a bunch of expressions. Nothing needs to be installed to see or use a cursor rig.
Client and commercial work?
Yes. Read the full license agreement for details.
Does it phone home? (Does the plugin track me in any way?)
Only to check that your license key is valid. Also, when you send feedback via the feedback/bug-report form, the plugin sends that feedback to my email address through the internet.
The plugin does not track you in any way.
I own the free Basic Cursor Rigs. Are they changing?
The Basic Cursor Rigs are still free, now rebuilt from the plugin so they stay current. The updated versions are very similar to the original.
If you ever choose to buy Cursor Rig Studio, you can use it to customize your old rigs at any time. With the "Modify Existing Rig" feature in the Setup tab you can add, remove, and change icons while maintaining all of your keyframes on that layer. Please send me a bug report via the settings menu if you run into issues.
Already bought this? Get your download link
You’ll get one zip file containing:
- Two ready-made rigs (Basic and Lite)
- A ScriptUI panel with a button for creating each rig
- A KBar file with a button for creating each rig
- The license agreement
- A README in TXT and PDF formats
You’ll get one zip file containing:
- The Cursor Rig Studio panel (.zxp)
- A Standard Edition license key
- Everything in Basic Cursor Rigs
- The license agreement
- A README in TXT and PDF formats
You’ll get one zip file containing:
- The Cursor Rig Studio panel (.zxp)
- A Supporter Edition license key
- Everything in Basic Cursor Rigs
- The license agreement
- A README in TXT and PDF formats
You’ll get one zip file containing:
- A Supporter Upgrade key: add it to the Cursor Rig Studio you already own to unlock the Supporter extras
- The license agreement
- A README in TXT and PDF formats
PLEASE NOTE: You still need a Standard Edition key to export