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Use the Canto Adobe Connector with After Effects


The Canto Adobe Connector enables you to access your Canto account directly from within Adobe After Effects.


Make sure that you have installed the latest version of our Canto Connector in order to use all the described features.


This is an add-on integration. Please contact your account manager or submit a support ticket for pricing.


Restriction: You need to be signed in using an administrator's account or be granted the respective permission by an admin in order to use these functions.


How to navigate to the Connector within After Effects

Window > Extensions > Canto Connector


How to sign in to Canto from within After Effects

  1. In Adobe After Effects, navigate to Window > Extensions > Canto Connector.
  2. Select your Canto URL from the pop-up menu and confirm this selection.

  3. There are two options to sign in, depending if your user account has been created in Canto or in your Identity Provider (using SSO).

    Login using Canto account: 
    Enter your Canto account credentials and click on Sign In if your user account has been created in Canto.Login using SSO account:
    Enter your tenant name only and click on Login with SSO if your user account has been created in your Identity Provider.

  4. Select the desired environment from the drop-down menu. Confirm this selection and grant access to your Canto account by clicking Allow.

  5. If everything works, you will receive the following confirmation:

  6. You can now close the window and return to Adobe After Effects.


In the next section you will learn how to open the Connector in the application.


How to use the Adobe Connector

Make sure you are signed into Canto (via Window > Extensions > Canto Connector).


How to add an asset to your After Effects project

Note: Files from your Cold Storage cannot be added.

  1. With the Canto tab open browse through the Folder Tree to look for the asset(s) you would like to add to your project.
  2. Select the desired folder/album.
  3. Click on the arrow to hide the folder tree in order to view more files at once.
  4. Alternatively, you can perform a Global Search by selecting the magnifying glass or filtering your files by keywords, tags, and approval status by clicking on the filter-icon next to the search bar.
    Note: For performing a search with exact match, please put the file name in quotation marks (" ").
  5. Hover over an asset and click on the circle in the top right-hand corner of the asset to select it.
    Tip: You are also able to select multiple files.
  6. Click Import to add the asset to your current project.


How to switch to a portal/workflow 

  1. Within the Connector, navigate to Configuration > Logout.
  2. Sign in again and select the environment you would like to be displayed in your Connector.
  3. Click Allow

Functions Breakdown 

Canto Tab

No asset selected  

  1. Hide/display folder tree
  2. Global search
  3. Filter
  4. Folder tree sorting options
  5. Refresh folder tree/album content
  6. File types (all files, images, videos, audio)
  7. Thumbnail size
    Note: Not supported in list view. 
  8. View options
  9. Folder/album content sorting options


With asset(s) selected

  1. Import selected asset
  2. Deselect all assets
  3. Currently selected asset
  4. Clickable marker for adding asset to current selection (gets displayed when hovering your curser over an asset)
  5. Metadata preview


Detailed single asset view

  1. Previous asset
  2. Next asset
  3. Close preview
  4. Import asset into After Effects


Upload Tab 

  1. After you saved your file locally, you may upload it back to Canto as a New Version of the original asset
  2. Or you may upload the edited asset as a New File in your Canto library
  3. Browse your computer to locate the file(s) you want to upload into Canto
  4. Upload the asset into your Canto library


Configuration Tab

  1. Shows you your user name
  2. Launch Canto in your web browser
  3. Clear cache removes downloaded files from your local drive.
  4. Configuration is divided into three tabs (see below - General Tab; Tooltip & Preview Page Tab
  5. Logout/change your Canto environment (see further information above - How to switch to a portal/workflow)
  6. See which version of the Canto Connector you are currently using


General Tab

Here you can set the default resolution for the import.

You may want to assign a different location for your assets' cache. Be sure to follow the instructions prompted and to close and restart the extension for the changes to take effect.

Tooltip & Preview Page & List View Tab

Here you can configure which metadata fields you would like to see when hovering over an asset's thumbnail or when previewing the asset.


Filter Panel

Here you can configure your filter panel layout. Simply move any field from the available section over to the displayed section by clicking on the plus symbol. In order to remove a field from the displayed section click on the X.

You can arrange the order of your displayed filter options via drag & drop and determine whether a field should be displayed collapsed or expanded by default.

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