MotionSlap vs MoBar: two toolbars, one clear winner for your workflow
MoBar gives After Effects a customizable toolbar of scripts. MotionSlap ships 200+ tools, presets and expressions with Slap Search built in. Here's how the two AE panels compare for motion designers and VFX artists.
If you’ve gone looking for a way to tame the After Effects script sprawl, you’ve probably found MoBar — a customizable toolbar that lets you line up your scripts and tools into one bar. It’s a genuinely smart idea, and a beloved one: stop hunting through the File > Scripts menu, put your go-tos in a single strip within reach. For artists who’ve spent years collecting scripts, it turns a junk drawer into a tidy rack.
MotionSlap agrees with the goal completely — and pushes it further. It’s not just an empty bar you fill; it comes loaded with 200+ tools, presets and expressions, and adds Slap Search so you don’t even have to remember where you put anything.
Empty toolbar vs stocked panel
Here’s the fundamental difference, and it’s a big one. MoBar’s strength is also its ask: it’s a great frame, but you supply most of the picture. You gather the scripts, arrange the bar, and maintain it over time as your needs change. That’s perfect if you already have a curated arsenal and enjoy tuning your setup.
MotionSlap hands you the arsenal on day one — easing, keyframes, layers, shapes, colors, text, project cleanup, the whole everyday toolkit — and then lets you customize with Panel Builder and add your own scripts on top, all findable through Slap Search. It’s the difference between “here’s a rack” and “here’s a rack with 200 tools already on it, plus a search bar so you never have to scan the rack.”
The search advantage as your library grows
A toolbar is fast when it holds ten things. At fifty, you’re scanning. At a hundred, you’re scrolling and squinting. This is the quiet ceiling of any toolbar-based approach: it doesn’t scale with your collection. Search does. Type three letters, get the tool, go — whether you have twenty tools or two hundred. MotionSlap’s Slap Search is built for exactly that scale, and it searches your own added scripts too.
Where MoBar shines
If you love building your own toolbar from scratch, curating exactly which scripts make the cut, and keeping a minimal, hand-tuned strip — MoBar is a clean, focused way to do it, and there’s real craft satisfaction in a setup that’s entirely yours. Some artists prefer that blank-canvas control, and that’s a completely valid taste.
MotionSlap vs MoBar
| MotionSlap | MoBar | |
|---|---|---|
| Out of the box | 200+ tools included | Empty, you fill it |
| Search | Slap Search | Toolbar browsing |
| Presets & expressions | Built in | Bring your own |
| Custom layout | Panel Builder | Customizable bar |
| Add your own scripts | Yes, searchable | Yes |
| Scales with library | Search stays fast | Scanning gets slower |
| Price | $29 lifetime | Varies |
Bottom line
If you love building your own toolbar from scratch, MoBar is a clean way to do it. If you’d rather open AE and already have 200+ tools plus fast search waiting — and still be able to add your own scripts to the same search — that’s MotionSlap. 200+ tools. One panel. Twenty-nine bucks. You’re welcome.