Core concepts

To get the most out of Plainly, it’s helpful to understand how the platform is structured around four key implementation pillars. These stages take you from design to delivery, and form the foundation for video automation built with Plainly.

Success pillars

Template design

Every video automation project starts with a template — a video design.

Plainly is built around After Effects, meaning you can use your existing After Effects projects as templates.
Templates can use any native After Effects feature, with no special setup or formatting required. However, do check out our After Effects best practices in order to correctly set up a template for video automation.
Once your template is ready, you need to pack it and upload it to Plainly. This becomes your Plainly project, which you’ll configure and render.

Outcome: A professional-grade video template, ready to be set up and scaled.

Pre-made designs available

Designs are pre-made projects created by the Plainly team. We created these so you can get started asap, without the need to create custom video designs. They have the same functionality as the custom projects, and you can use them in the same way.

You can use these freely with any Plainly subscription without any limitations. Most of them have multiple formats and multiple colors pre-defined.

Dynamic elements setup

The goal of the setup is to define which elements in the video should be dynamic — meaning, they’ll change between renders.

You can make text, images, video clips, audio, colors, effects and even layer settings (like visibility or font styles) dynamic.
You can use scripting to apply logic such as cropping, shifting, trimming, or spreading layers based on input data.
Once this configuration is done, it becomes a Plainly template — a reusable, structured version of your project with clearly defined render inputs.

Each project in Plainly can contain one or more templates, and each template defines how data will be mapped into your video design.

Outcome: A flexible template setup that accepts custom data for each render.

Render triggers

Render triggers are the mechanisms that initiate the rendering process. Plainly offers multiple ways to trigger renders, depending on your needs.

Single render — Fill out a form in the UI and click “Render”.
Batch render — Upload a CSV file with multiple rows of input data.
Integrations — Trigger renders from tools like Google Sheets, or custom no-code setups.
API — Send render requests programmatically using Plainly’s REST API.

Outcome: Your video is rendered in the cloud, at scale, with no After Effects running locally.

Video delivery

Video delivery is a process of distributing the rendered video once it is ready. Plainly offers multiple options for this, depending on your needs.

Manual — Download using the Web UI before the video expires.
Integrations — Send automatically to third party tools (e.g., Google Drive, S3, Vimeo, etc.).
Sharing link — Share using persistent links that never expire.
Webhooks — Get notified using a HTTP webhook.

Outcome: Videos are delivered to the right place, in the right format, ready to use.

Web UI or API?

Depending on your needs and use-case, you can choose to use the Plainly Web UI or the REST API to interact with the platform. The table below outlines what to choose for each stage of the process.

Stage	Web UI	API
Template design	Controlled by you: In-house designs, template marketplaces, agency partners, etc.	White-label: Give external users the ability to upload their own templates.
Dynamic setup	Set up yourself: Self-defined for each project.	White-label: Give full control of the setup to external users.
Render triggers	Manual, batch, or integrations.	On-demand by calling Plainly HTTP API.
Video delivery	Manual download, integrations or sharing link.	HTTP Webhooks.

Glossary

Here is a list of terms usually used in the context of video automation with Plainly.

Term	Definition
After Effects (AE)	A professional video editing and motion graphics tool by Adobe.
After Effects template	A video project created in After Effects that serves as the base for all renders in Plainly.
Plainly design	A pre-made project created by the Plainly team, available for use without custom design work.
Plainly project	A container in Plainly that holds your uploaded After Effects file and one or more templates based on it.
Plainly template	A configured version of a project with defined dynamic elements, ready for rendering.
Parametrization	The process of defining which elements in a template change based on input data.
Dynamic elements / layers	Parts of a template designed to change from one render to another — such as text, images, video, audio, colors, or layer behaviors.
Scripting	An advanced feature to control layer behavior (e.g., crop, shift, trim) dynamically based on input data.
Rendering	The process of generating a final video by combining a template with input data, rendered in the cloud.
Batch render	Rendering many videos at once by uploading a CSV file with different data rows.
Integration	A connection between Plainly and external tools like Google Sheets or Drive to automate rendering or distribution.
HTTP API	A REST interface that allows developers to trigger renders, manage templates, and retrieve videos programmatically.
API key	A unique identifier used to authenticate API requests.
Webhook	A callback URL that Plainly can call to notify you when a render is complete and a video is available for download.
Web UI	Plainly’s browser-based interface for uploading, configuring, rendering, and managing projects without any software install.
VideoGenius	A Plainly AI-powered video creation tool built on top of Plainly’s core functionality.