Tools I actually use — a working producer's toolbox

tools i actually use.

A working producer’s shelf — the outside tools I reach for on real jobs.

Why each one earns the space, and where to get it. No affiliate links, no sponsorships — just the stuff that’s genuinely good, mostly free, and mostly made by one person who needed it.

I make the tools I need and can’t find. These are the ones other people already made — the thing they needed, built, and gave away. That’s the whole spirit of Starting Frame, so the least I can do is point you to them.

Project setup

Post Haste

by Digital Rebellion

Free Mac + Windows Desktop app

Stamps out a clean, consistent project folder structure from a template — client, project, date, every subfolder — in one click.

why i reach for itEvery job used to start with me rebuilding the same folder soup by hand, and I'd still end up hunting for where the footage went. Post Haste kills that: one template, one click, and the whole project skeleton is there — named the same way every time. Boring, free, and it saves me on every project.

Get Post Haste →

Textures & 3D

JSPlacement

by Windmill

Free Runs in browser 8K output

A pseudo-random 8K displacement / height-map generator — instant technical “greeble” surfaces and sci-fi detail for 3D and After Effects.

why i reach for itWhen I need a surface to read as technical — panels, circuitry, dense sci-fi greeble — JSPlacement spits out an 8K displacement map in seconds. Drop it on a plane in Blender or into After Effects and you get detail you'd lose your mind trying to model by hand. The old desktop app isn't maintained anymore, but a web version still rips.

Open JSPlacement (web) → Original desktop app by Windmill: windmillart.net

more soon. This shelf grows as I add the tools I keep reaching for.

tools i actually use.

the shelf

Post Haste

JSPlacement

the ones I couldn’t find, I built.