Questions, answered honestly

Yes. Honestly, go for it. It will cost you more in time and tokens than you think though.

When you are still untangling weird polygon math at 1am, MatterAE will already be done and still be $35. That is genuinely the whole pitch.

The marketplace thought so. They are both 2D physics, sure, but so is a dropped phone. Newton is a deep, polished, powerful tool with years behind it. MatterAE is the fast, cheap one that lives in a panel and bakes keyframes. Different leagues, very different price. Longer answer here.

"Duplicate functionality." A physics plugin already existed, apparently. I have decided to wear it like a badge. It is literally in the headline up top.

No. Same plugin, same download, same key. MatterAE 2 arrived as a normal update and your license just keeps working. The upgrade fee is $0, which is also the plan for the next one.

Three big things. Animators: stackable procedural motion (wiggle, float, orbit, swarm and friends), up to 8 per layer, no keyframes needed. The Timeline: an AE-style keyframe editor in the panel, so you can arm gravity, wind or any animator slider with a stopwatch and animate it over time. The Shape Studio: draw physics shapes right in the panel instead of importing them, including a shape emitter. The changelog has the full list.

Real keyframes, in a brand new comp. Once it is baked there is nothing live left. You can hand-edit every keyframe, render as normal, even uninstall the plugin, and the animation stays exactly as it was.

Both. Shape layers and masked layers come in as their exact outlines, and a still image with transparency (a PNG cut-out, say) is traced automatically: MatterAE reads the pixels and builds the collider from the visible silhouette, no masking needed. Separate elements in one image each become their own colliding part. Opaque photos and video work the way they always have: draw a mask on them and that becomes the shape.

Not anymore. The Shape Studio lets you draw rectangles, ellipses, polygons, stars or freeform shapes right in the panel and simulate them straight away, colors and all. A Studio-only project bakes into a fresh comp of its own and never touches an existing composition. Importing real AE layers still works exactly as before, and you can mix the two.

You get the whole plugin for free. Every feature works: all five modes, collision groups, markers, chains, springs, pins, the lot. You can simulate as long as you like in the preview. The one thing you do not get for free is baking past 3 seconds. The $35 unlock lifts that. Same plugin, same engine, one limit removed. The free tier goes by Lite, in the panel and on Gumroad. See the breakdown.

Yes, and it is genuinely free, not a discount. The full plugin with the bake limit lifted. Download Lite first, then apply with your school email; if your school is already recognized, the key lands in that inbox within minutes, and it goes into the same License field a paid key uses. Not recognized yet? A human reviews it, usually within a day or two. It runs until the next 31 October and renews with the same form. Meant for learning and coursework, not paid client work. Apply on the education page.

After Effects 2020 and up, on both macOS and Windows.

No. MatterAE is signed, so After Effects treats it as a verified package and loads it normally. No PlayerDebugMode, no Terminal on Mac, no registry edits on Windows. You just need a free ZXP installer to put it in place, which takes about a minute. Install guide here.

No. Pay once, every update included. Not small print either: MatterAE 2 was a free update for everyone who bought 1.x. That is the deal.

No. Once you bake, you are left with plain keyframes. The plugin is not part of your render. It makes the animation and then steps out of the way.

Yes, on all the client work you like. The only thing you cannot do is resell or hand out the plugin itself.

Because it does about 90% of everyday mograph physics, not 100% of everything. The price matches the scope. The expensive tools earn their price on the other 10%, and they are worth it when you actually need it.

Good, that is how it gets better. Send it over on the bugs and requests page.