Matt Volp

@vanschneider OVENS. Too many functions, but only 2 or 3 buttons.

Which things or experiences in your life are or feel terribly designed, even to this day? Example: — TV remotes — Car touch screen interfaces — Shower controls (especially at hotels) — Thermostats (mostly) — Microwave interfaces What are experiences, products or little things that are repeatedly frustrating to use?

Fancied doing some writing about my sordid 20 year love affair with Adobe After Effects. Read it if you want. @tackstudio/20-years-later-my-love-affair-with-after-effects-4d0eb5ec05f0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@tackstudio/20…

Well well well…

@birk @ayushagarwal @polar_sh What kind of a name is Dodo payments anyway 🤷🏻‍♂️ the website looks like a Wordpress theme from the 2010s. Competition is great but there’s only ever one winner.

I apologise for calling you a clone – I shouldn’t have. It goes against how I want to operate, and how I perceive you. It was a backhanded joke in the heat of the moment that I do regret and apologise for. Competition is great, healthy & fun. So I welcome it and anything from public discourse, copying strategies/features to dunks, but it should be in the public arena. It crosses a line when infiltrating others communities and spaces, and this was one time too many from you. From joining our Discord to DM customers to engaging in threads between us and our community. So in a thread where I ask and engage with our community about feature requests for 2026, it felt too far for you to sell Dodo, and one time too many. So I reacted with a joke that I apologise for. Wish you guys the best and encourage the competition, truly. Just not in our communities vs. public arena. Just to adress your points raised here. 2/ You use Stripe too for processing: x.com/ak2maheshwari/… You make it sound like you’re a processor here vs. abstracting them which is dangerous and untrue. 3-5) Our strategy is to scale things proactively once a feature has been proven vs. over engineer it from day 1. Postgres is phenomenal and more than sufficient for that stage. We’re already & proactively working for scalability with other options. Similar to how Posthog did it themselves (Postgres -> Clickhouse). It’s a common evolution. 6) True, but we’ve always been transparent about this and part of our strategy early to focus on USD since it’s #1 in digital services/goods. Focusing more on abstractions, primitives, adapters and unique offerings vs. table stake. Now expanding into more currencies and other settlement layers etc, i.e table stakes. Just different strategies. 7) This is misleading. Acquirers and credit card networks enforce strict rules, acceptable use and suspension requirements that move upstream to everyone. We all have to comply and you too. This has less to do with what Stripe enforces vs underlying credit card networks that set the rules of engagement across our entire industry. 10) Agreed & same. Just from different angles. I genuinely wish you + team the best and for a good & healthy battle along the road. Just let’s do it in the public arena vs. diving into 1-1 conversations with customers. I’ll continue to ignore it otherwise, and apologise for the backhand joke this time around.

1/ Let’s separate OSS advice from payments reality. “Forking > cloning” is true for code. For monetization infra, the real question is who owns and scales the hard parts. 2/ @polar_sh is transparent that it relies entirely on Stripe for both payment processing and payouts. Their handbook references Stripe extensively and uses Stripe Connect Express for settlements. That is a valid starting point, but it matters when throwing around words like “clone”. 3/ On the tech side, Polar processes usage and billing events directly on Postgres. That may work early on, but anyone who has operated real usage based billing knows this model breaks fast at scale. 4/ High volume usage billing needs append only event ingestion, replayability, idempotency, and a clean separation between ingestion, aggregation, and billing. Using Postgres as both the primary datastore and the event processor quickly turns into a bottleneck. 5/ The first million events look fine. The next hundred million introduce locking issues, write amplification, slow aggregates, painful backfills, and migrations that teams usually underestimate until it is too late. 6/ On the product side, basic primitives like true multi currency support are not even available. Calling yourself a global monetization company while operating in a single currency world is disconnected from how global businesses actually run. 7/ On the business side, being fully Stripe native also means inheriting Stripe’s constraints. Country coverage, payout flows, account freezes, and policy decisions still sit upstream. That limits how much control you actually have as a Merchant of Record. 8/ There is nothing wrong with building on Stripe. Many companies start there. But calling others “clones” while running on the same rails, same processor, same payout stack, limited currency support, and a non scalable event model feels more like marketing than substance. 9/ At @dodopayments, we focus on boring but necessary depth. Scalable event ingestion, proper ledgers, multi currency from day one, tax and compliance that does not collapse at volume, and settlement systems that survive real world edge cases. 10/ Builders do not win because of sarcasm. They win because the infra holds when volume, complexity, and regulators show up. That is the bar we choose to build for.

@robertpopper I just rewatched FND after many years and thoroughly enjoyed every second. I must admit the finale caught me off guard though, I was 19 when S1 aired and now I’m 34 with my first kid on the way 🥹 Thank you for making such an incredible show!

I could never.

@CaseyLabatt @aescripts Yes, we are moving away from aescripts and going it alone. We’re relaunching all of our tools on tackstudio.co very soon — including Align Pro 2.

You know, @aescripts confuses the hell outta me. They’ve enjoyed huge success despite their tired and clunky website becoming somewhat of a meme amongst its users, only to relaunch it this week with something that resembles a Wordpress theme from the 2010s. Is it just me? 🤯

@_nicdean @aescripts Yeah, there’s no denying its success. I was just expecting more from the recent relaunch — it doesn’t seem to have added much value. In fact I feel like it’s even more disjointed than it was before.

@MattVolp @aescripts Free ZXP Installer + plugin manager app, solid customer support, quality>quantity product catalog, routine marketing ad spend on behalf of indie devs, and 10+ years of trusting customers will do that

@jamesm 🫠

What's something that annoys you more than it should? I'll go first: headings in title case.

@workbenchtv No freakin’ way.

OK, so...in yesterday's video (youtu.be/1B31fiicASY) we went over an issue in AE that's been driving me slowly insane. If you have an issue with AE hanging, at least in my case, it seems to be down to AE trying to switch workspaces to whatever you were using when the file was saved. Hit this pref (that I've always wanted anyway) and that should fix it. Shout out to @editorarbor for being the first to mention it to me!

Hey @rive_app team, I don't know if this is in your future plans, but I need to say: We need PLUGIN support and RIVE FILE PACKS ecosystem! I believe this is something that everyone can agree on: Rive has huge potential, but currently, it doesn't generate revenue unless you're working on your own projects or as an individual freelancer. We need both plugins and Rive file packs to create a revenue stream and increase popularity for both you and us. The Solution: Plugin Ecosystem & File Bundle System As a motion designer and developer, I have dozens of ideas for Rive. I've spoken with my friends, and all of them hate manual, time-wasting processes. Plugin needs: We don't want to do repetitive manual tasks like staggering keyframes, batch renaming layers, or cloning assets. We need handy, time-saving automation tools. File bundle needs: If a developer needs an icon pack, instead of searching for individual icons or creating them from scratch, they could purchase a complete pack and use it immediately without any time loss. This is a win-win opportunity for everyone: For Rive: - Take a percentage fee from each plugin and file pack sale - Generate revenue for future features and updates - Increase platform popularity and user engagement For Developers/Designers: - Create plugins or Rive file packs and earn money - Build a sustainable income stream - Share expertise with the community For Customers: - Save time with plugins and Rive file packs - Access professional workflows and ready-to-use assets - Time = Money Marketplace Enhancement Suggestions 1. Plugin Section: - Add a dedicated plugins section to the marketplace - Allow developers to publish and sell their tools - Implement a revenue-sharing model 2. Template & File Packs: - Currently, the marketplace only supports single-file uploads - Add support for file bundles/packs - Allow bulk purchasing options Other design apps exist, but they can't reach as many people because they don't offer extensive plugins and templates like Figma does. Rive has the opportunity to do this better. I have thousands of Lottie files on various marketplaces. I share them as multiple packs, and customers love them because they find everything they need in one pack. Last Words... You just need to open the gate. The community is ready to build, create, and contribute to making Rive the most powerful and user-friendly animation platform available. Thank you for reading. Onder

@StevenBartlett loyal watcher of DOAC, but if you’re open for constructive feedback — the lighting/brightness/grading of your special episodes (like DOAC Debates) could do with a bit more polish. It’s very jarring going between cameras and it makes for a difficult watch.

At this point you’re just being difficult, Roland. It’s semantics and you know it. If somebody has the ability to not pay anything for it, then it’s free. I appreciate your content on here around motion systems and such but this sort of negativity towards others in our industry is not a good look. @renicovanwyk it’s a great first step — getting on aescripts can be difficult so I’m looking forward to see what you come up with next.

@MattVolp @aescripts Yesterday, you said it was a Name Your Own Price script. Now you say it's a free script. I can't take you seriously.

NEW: AE Purger. A simple tool for clearing cache and purging ram within After Effects. aescripts.com/ae-purger/ #aftereffects #aescripts

@broadcastGEMs @aescripts It is a free script, Roland.

@MattVolp @aescripts You teach newcomers good principles. This is a personal project type of work and would be better put out as a FREE Script. Anyone who buys this and then realizes everything is essentially a shortcut actually puts a bad mark on the DEV. The community is more important than anyone.

@renicovanwyk @broadcastGEMs @aescripts For sure! Welcome to the club. Hit me up at any point if you get stuck or whatever — I’m always happy to chat about this stuff!

@MattVolp @broadcastGEMs @aescripts Hi Matt, thanks for the comment. You are correct this is my first script. I used it for a few months and decided I would share it so that others can try it and see if it is something they would use. I use it a couple of times daily. Cheers.

@broadcastGEMs @aescripts Meh, it’s NYOP and is probably somebodies first foray into scripting — I’d say it’s fine. We should be encouraging newcomers to our industry!

@aescripts All these commands are available via Shortcuts and have been so for a very, very long time too.

@mysteropodes This looks cool, but I’m struggling with the name — Shapper or Shaper?

The progress on Shapper is going well; I hope to release it by February! Still need to tackle the promo, help guide, and tutorial. Stay tuned! 😄

@malnaus @FakeGreenDress It’s truly unbelievable that this has been approved from one of the biggest design and tech software companies in the world. Reminds me of the awful ‘dark mode’ app icons on iOS now. Design seems to be going backwards.

I can't be alone on this. The new After Effects 25 UI is such a downgrade Now that every effect has a highlight, it looks like everything is selected. The visual constrast is awful. I pray someone is working to improve this in the near future @FakeGreenDress