What It Does
TimeMachine is an all-in-one plugin for building retro, glitch, and generative art looks in After Effects and Premiere Pro. Rather than stacking multiple effects to approximate a CRT screen or ASCII output, it consolidates 10 distinct generation engines and a full post-effects panel into a single plugin. Note: the product has been marked as discontinued on aescripts.com, though it may still be available for purchase.
Key Features
Dithering Suite. Four dedicated dithering engines cover Error Diffusion, Ordered Dither, Pattern Dither, and Blue Noise, with over 60 presets total. Useful for print emulation, old game console aesthetics, and stylized animation frames.
Power Grid (ASCII Generator). A tile-based character renderer that supports thousands of Latin and East Asian characters, plus the full modern emoji catalogue. Works for classic terminal looks as well as more abstract, graphic treatments.
Oscilloscope. Converts the image into bright traced lines resembling a vector display. Particularly well suited to music visuals, HUD graphics, and sci-fi terminal interfaces.
Quad Tree. Breaks the frame into variable-size blocks based on image content, producing a processed, structural look that differs from standard pixelation.
Waveform Scanlines. Reconstructs the image using radio-signal-style horizontal striping, good for broadcast and scanned-media references.
Vector Trace. Pulls the image into lines and contours for sketchy or plotter-style results.
Modulation. A uniform modulation algorithm with one-click animation support for rhythmic or beat-synced distortion.
RGB Channel Split Control. Red, green, and blue channels can be processed independently, making it straightforward to dial in color misregistration, offset fringing, and broken-screen aesthetics without the channels fighting each other.
Post Effects Panel. A finishing layer that sits on top of any generation engine. Includes CRT Simulation (scanlines, mask, beam controls), Dot Matrix (for LED boards and scoreboards), Chromatic Aberration, Signal Distortion (tape wobble, tracking damage, channel drift), and Vibe Glow, a GPU-accelerated glow built specifically for TimeMachine’s outputs.
Who It’s For
Editors and motion designers working on music videos, title sequences, retro-themed brand content, or experimental short films will get the most out of this. The ASCII and oscilloscope engines are particularly handy for sci-fi HUD work. The signal damage and CRT tools suit anyone recreating VHS or broadcast tape aesthetics without building the look from scratch.
Pricing
TimeMachine uses a pay-what-you-want model on aescripts.com. You set the price at checkout. The product is currently listed as discontinued, so availability may be limited.