AiBow Ink Parameter Guide

A few minutes here makes everything else much easier. AiBow Ink builds the image in three stages, and the groups in the Effect Controls panel map directly onto them:

When the image is not what you want, work out which stage the problem lives in — that narrows the parameters to touch immediately.

Everything is driven by density

Internally the frame is divided into a grid, and the plugin tracks how much ink each cell holds (its density). Color, opacity and glow are all functions of that density. If you only ever see one end of a color ramp, that means the ink is thin — the fix is Flow Rate, not the color controls.

Nothing appears at frame 0

Ink accumulates over time, so frame 0 is nearly transparent. On top of that the default Composite Mode is Ink Only, which hides the source layer too. This is not a bug — move the timeline forward 1–3 seconds.

Every frame re-simulates from the start

Each frame recomputes the simulation from frame 0 to the current time. That is what makes the result identical wherever you scrub to, and safe under Multi-Frame Rendering. The cost is that later frames take longer to render (see Making it faster).

There are 40+ parameters; these six do most of the work.

The Preset popup at the top loads a complete state — nothing from the previous preset lingers.

Presets never touch these: Emitter Point / Grid Resolution / Processing / Simulation Length / Master Opacity — they depend on your shot and your machine, not on the look.

Emitter Mode

How ink is emitted — one of the three modes below

Emitter Point

Bloom only. The emission center; drag it in the comp

Flow Rate

Amount of ink. Higher = denser. Default 50

Emission Radius

Width of the source. Default 15

Motion Impulse Scale

Injected velocity — the “push”. Default 10. At 0 the ink wells up quietly

Direction

Direction mode only: to Up / Down / Left / Right

The three emitter modes

Apply Layer Alpha to a layer with transparency around it (text, shapes). On a full-frame solid the whole frame becomes the source. Direction and Bloom ignore the layer’s shape, so a solid is fine there.

Switching modes greys out every parameter that mode does not read — anything greyed out can be ignored.

Grid Resolution

Simulation detail (128 / 256 / 512). Higher = more detail, slower. It also changes the character of the motion, so re-tune after changing it

Vorticity (Swirl)

Swirl strength. Higher = more curling. Default 40

Viscosity

Thickness. Higher = gooier. ⚠️ Above 0.1 roughly doubles the cost

Dissipation (Lifespan)

How fast ink fades. Lower = lives longer. Default 3

Gravity X (Wind)

Horizontal buoyancy — pushes only where ink already is

Gravity Y (Buoyancy)

Vertical buoyancy. Positive is downward

Turbulence

Organic noise forces. 0 = off

Turbulence Scale

Size of the turbulence swirls; smaller = finer agitation

Turbulence Detail

Octaves of turbulence (1–6)

Turbulence Speed

How fast the turbulence pattern evolves

Wind X / Y (Uniform)

Uniform wind across the whole frame

Gravity vs. Wind

Gravity pushes only where ink is (buoyancy-like); Wind pushes the whole frame uniformly. To move everything in one direction use Wind; to express weight or lightness use Gravity. At equal numbers Gravity reads stronger — that is by design (uniform forces are largely cancelled inside the fluid solve, density-weighted ones are not).

Where Turbulence shines

For anything that should look organic — smoke, fire — values around 60–150 transform the result. To let ink drift naturally, keep Gravity and Wind at 0 and let Turbulence do the work.

High Viscosity cancels out Gravity and Wind. If “I raised gravity and nothing falls”, set Viscosity to 0 first.

Palette Mode

How color is decided (three modes below)

Color Preset

The five ramps used by Gradient Ramp

Color 1–6

Used by Custom Colors. Color 1 (Core) is the dense center, Color 6 (Faint) the thin outside

Ramp Interpolation

How colors blend. Perceptual (OkLab) recommended — resists muddying

Contour Bands

Number of contour steps. 0 = smooth. 8–16 is the useful range

Band Softness

Softening of the contour steps

Edge Threshold (Crisp)

Density at or below this becomes fully transparent

Edge Softness

Width of the edge falloff. Lower it to make thin ink visible

Glow Intensity

Brightens dense areas (no spread — spreading is Bloom’s job)

Use Appearance Curve

Replaces the two edge controls with a curve (see below)

The three palette modes

If changing Color 1–6 does nothing, check Palette Mode — under Gradient Ramp the Color Preset ramp is used instead. This is the most common mix-up.

The five color presets

These are density-to-color maps. If the ink stays thin you will only ever see the left end.

Bloom Radius

How far the light spreads. ⚠️ At 0 there is no bloom at all

Bloom Intensity

Strength of the bloom

Bloom Color

Color of the bloom

Rim Width

Width of the rim line. 0 = off

Rim Color

Color of the rim line

Edge Darken (Paper Bleed)

Darkens the edges — like real ink pooling at the boundary as it dries

Texture Layer

A layer to use as paper/texture input

Texture Strength

How strongly that texture is applied

If raising Bloom Intensity does nothing, check that Bloom Radius is not 0. Glow Intensity(in Color & Style) only brightens — the one that actually spreads light is Bloom.

Composite Mode (how ink and source are combined)

To hide the original text, keep the default Ink Only. Turning off the layer’s eye icon removes the emitter itself and the ink with it. For shot-to-shot transitions use Reveal / Erase.

Master Opacity

Opacity of the ink only; the source layer is untouched. Default 100

Simulation Length (steps)

How long the simulation keeps running. Default 300. Beyond it every frame is identical (see below)

Processing

Auto / GPU (CUDA) / CPU. Leave it on Auto. Without an NVIDIA GPU it falls back to the CPU with identical results

The ink freezes past Simulation Length

Past the set value, every frame renders identically — the ink appears to stop. The default 300 is about 10 seconds at 30 fps and about 6 seconds at 24 fps; raise it for longer shots. It is also the render-cost ceiling: raising it costs more, but nothing beyond it does.

Bleed (Diffusion)

Spreads ink into neighbouring cells independently of the flow — the soaking-into-paper look. 0 = off. Useful range 1–20

Use Transition Progress

Drives progress from a slider instead of time (see below)

Transition Progress (%)

That progress value; keyframe it

Simulation Speed (%)

Overall speed. Default 100

Normally Edge Threshold and Edge Softness define, linearly, at what density the ink starts to show and when it becomes opaque. Turning on Use Appearance Curve replaces that line with a curve you can shape freely.

X is density (thin on the left), Y is opacity (transparent at the bottom). Drag the points to edit. While it is on, Edge Threshold / Edge Softness are greyed out — the curve has taken over.

To cut from clip A to clip B with ink:

1. Stack them A over B in the timeline
2. Apply AiBow Ink to clip A
3. Set Composite Mode: Erase (Ink Matte), Emitter Mode: Direction, Dissipation: 0, Use Transition Progress: on
4. Keyframe Transition Progress: 0 where the transition starts → 100 where it completes

The ink eats away A and reveals B underneath. With Use Transition Progress on, the slider — not time — drives the simulation, so it lands on the exact frame you choose and can run backwards (100 → 0). While it is on, Simulation Speed is ignored.

If it never covers the frame

1. Raise Flow Rate
2. Raise Motion Impulse Scale
3. Set Dissipation to 0 (it fades before covering otherwise)
4. Raise Simulation Length

In order of impact:

1. Lower Simulation Length — the biggest lever; cost is proportional to it
2. Set Viscosity to 0 — above 0.1 roughly doubles the cost
3. Lower Grid Resolution — 512 → 256 is a large saving (the look changes too)
4. Set Bleed to 0 if you are not using it
5. Drop the preview quality to 1/2 — the simulation cost is unchanged, but the display gets faster

A good workflow: work at 256 wide, switch to 512 wide only for the final render.

For purchase support, open a support ticket from the aescripts + aeplugins product page (“Need Support?”) — it reaches the author directly.

Including your After Effects version, Windows version, GPU (shown in About) and the settings in use (e.g. the Preset name) speeds things up a lot.