Crit Panel
Colour decisions, made where the work happens.
GitHub ↗
CRIT Studio · Independent by design
Hyderabad, India ↗
Plugins for After Effects and Figma, and apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac. We turn the friction in everyday work into thoughtful tools. Designed and built by a practitioner. Shaped by the people who use them.
- Plugins
- 03
- Apps
- 04
- In the studio
- 02
Our tools
Real problems. Considered responses.
Plugins · After Effects & Figma
Install once. They work inside the software you already use.
CRIT Bridge
From the design frame to the timeline. Keep your decisions intact.
Figma ↗
Settle
Give a layer weight, then keep the keyframes.
GitHub ↗Apps · App Store
For iPhone, iPad and Mac. Download and they are yours.
Colour Studio
Experience colour first. Now with Play: 12 colour missions and an exhibition of your own.
App Store ↗
Bearing
A field camera that records how accurate the location actually was. The shutter never waits.
App Store ↗
Markshift
Convert files on your Mac: lean Markdown for AI, or Word, PDF, spreadsheets and images. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Mac App Store ↗
Kachik
Point. Shoot. Make it yours. A camera for setting your own look: colour from places across India, a year from 1996 to now, saved as your signature.
App Store ↗In the studio · Not public yet
In use privately, or still being built. Ask if you want to see one.
Crit
A course companion that helps students think through the work, with a coach that asks rather than answers.
Screen Check
Make the green screen decisions while you can still move something.
The studio
A designer’s eye. A maker’s instinct. A teacher’s questions.
CRIT Studio is a one-person studio rooted in creative practice and the classroom. The work starts by noticing a recurring difficulty, then making something people can try. Sometimes that becomes an app. Sometimes a plugin, a resource, or simply a better way of working. The form follows the problem.
Run by Kamalanarayanan Kamalakannan in Hyderabad. He spent three years as a compositor on international features, kept the practice going after leaving the industry, and now leads Communication Design at Woxsen University’s School of Arts & Design.
How the work happens
Four steps, shown in the tools.
In practice · Bearing
A field photo says where it was taken, but not how sure the phone was. Bearing starts from that gap: record the accuracy, not just the pin.See the tool ↗
Notes from the studio
Releases, builds and what changed.
- Sep 2026App Store Kachik is out on iPhonePoint. Shoot. Make it yours. A free camera for building your own look from places across India and years from 1996 to now. No feed, no account.↗
- Sep 2026Update Colour Studio 1.3 adds PlayTwelve colour missions across three rooms, a personal exhibition, and a cleaner look for iPhone and iPad.↗
- Sep 2026Update Bearing 2.0: the shutter never waitsInstant capture, motion-corrected position, offline place names with DIGIPIN, Muted Capture and a Capture Record PDF anyone can check.↗
- Sep 2026Update Markshift 2.0 converts anythingWord, PDF, spreadsheets and images join Markdown for AI, with a fidelity rating for every file. Still offline.↗
- Sep 2026Release Settle v0.2.2 is out, open source2D physics for After Effects. Eight material presets, bakes to plain Position and Rotation keyframes. MIT, on GitHub.↗
- Sep 2026App Store Bearing arrives on iPhoneA GPS field camera that records how accurate the location actually was, and seals every capture on the device.↗
- Sep 2026Mac App Store Markshift is out on the MacIdeated in April, shipped in September. Documents into clean Markdown on your Mac, with the word and token count shown before anything reaches a model. Free.↗
- Aug 2026App Store Colour Studio arrives on iPhone and iPadThe studio's first App Store release. Learn colour by doing it first.↗
- Jul 2026Figma CRIT Bridge v1.0.1, stableMoves a Figma frame to After Effects as real layers, and brings a palette back.↗
- Jul 2026Build Crit Panel v1.9.0: open student buildNo licence gate. A studio build adds the AI layer for teams that want it.↗
Let’s talk
What keeps getting in your way? ↗
Collaboration & ideashello@critstudios.com
Something not working?support@critstudios.com
Licensing & studio buildslicensing@critstudios.com
ConnectLinkedIn ↗