2.20.0

Added

• set_text ranges style part of a text in the same call (After Effects 24.3+): a word in the accent colour, a bold name, one outlined line. Each range is match (every occurrence of a string) or start / end character indexes, with font, size, color, stroke, faux styles, caps, tracking, scale or baseline shift. This used to take a text animator built through several add_property calls. Every range is checked against the text before anything changes.
• get_text lists the parts styled differently from the first character (ranges, only the fields that differ), so a model sees part styling before it changes the text.
• import_footage imports several files at once (paths), a layered PSD or Illustrator file as a comp of its layers (as: comp / comp_cropped), and sets the footage's interpretation as it imports: fps (image sequences come in at 30 fps whatever they were rendered at, so a 24 fps render played too fast), loop and alpha. folder files the imports in a project folder (made if missing). Every file is checked before any is imported.
• set_item, a new tool: rename a project item, set its comment or label, move it into a folder or back to the top level, change a footage item's fps / loop / alpha, or swap its file (or image sequence) for every layer that uses it.
• Footage in get_project shows its fps, and items inside a folder show folder_id.
• save_project clean: true removes footage no comp uses before saving (imports never placed, sources left behind by replace_source), and says how many (removed_footage).
• A wrong argument name now says which one was meant: Unrecognized key: "stagger" (did you mean stagger -> stagger_seconds?). The suggestion is a known synonym (the timing tools name the same idea stagger, stagger_seconds and offset_seconds) or a near spelling, so a model fixes the call on the first retry. It costs nothing in the tool definitions.
• find_sound_cues events: the model says what moments mean (importance 0-1, a label, optionally the sound) and the tool keeps the timing: the nearest motion cue takes the importance and keeps its frame-exact time; an event with no motion becomes its own cue; importance 0 keeps a moment quiet. The meaning comes from the model and the timing from the rules, which a music and sound-effects planner needs.
• duck_music dips: stretches of near-silence, e.g. 0.35 s before a reveal (measured live: -100 dB through the pause, then the impact). A dips-only call keeps the ducks as they are.
• set_layer audio_fade (in / out seconds) and sequence_layers audio_crossfade: equal-power fades, so one music cue crossfades into the next without a dip in level (measured live: within 0.4 dB through a 2 s crossfade).

Changed

• stagger and shift_layers say which one moves keys and which moves whole layers, and point to sequence_layers.
• duck_music ducks by -6 dB by default (was -10): the usual range under narration is 4-8 dB.
• find_sound_cues ranks cuts low on their own, so a hit on every cut is no longer the default; story events raise the cuts that matter.
• Volume keys can be set under the ducking expression (set_keyframes refused them, and its hint said to clear the expression, which removed the ducking). Springs are still refused there, since they would replace it.

Fixed

• set_text with new text now says when it removed part styling (ranges_cleared: true): After Effects gives every character the first one's style when the text changes. Passing the same text no longer reassigns it, so part styling survives.
• find_sound_cues cues a scale pop when the layer arrives (97% of the way), not at its last key: with a spring or snappy ease the last key is where it only settles, up to 15 frames after the hit. An entrance that pops and fades in is now one cue instead of two competing ones. Found by building a 12-second documentary reveal and checking where the impact belongs.
• The after-render check no longer calls a dark title card with a line of text a black picture (and no longer suggests a GPU failure for it): a frame now counts as black only when 99.9% of it is dark.