Best Free After Effects Plugins
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Whether you’re an After Effects veteran or an AE newbie, these ten plugins are a fantastic addition to your motion design toolkit.
Every motion designer has a few plugins they rely on to customize and enhance their day-to-day After Effects workflow. After all, plugins are a no-brainer way to save time and energy by simplifying complex functions.
If you’re ready to get more from Adobe’s powerful post-production software, add these ten essential After Effects plugins to your toolkit today. (New to AE? Here’s your fast track to a solid foundation.)
1. Trapcode Particular 4 (and Trapcode Suite 15)
Trapcode Particular (and the Trapcode Suite) has undoubtedly stood the test of time. Version 1 was released during the 2000s, and a little over a decade later, the plugin is still being updated and revitalized. The Trapcode Suite itself is in its fifteenth iteration.
Trapcode Particular is a particle system plugin that lets users create customized particles in After Effects — like smoke, rain, clouds, and dust. The plugin uses realistic physics, and it offers more functionality than the Particle World plugin that’s built into AE.
Adobe After Effects Free Download For Windows
Using Particular, you can create particle-based lines, shapes, and patterns in 3D space. The entire suite contains:
- Trapcode 3D Stroke
- Trapcode Echospace
- Trapcode Form
- Trapcode Horizon
- Trapcode Lux
- Trapcode Mir
- Trapcode Particular
- Trapcode Shine
- Trapcode Sound Keys
- Trapcode Starglow
- Trapcode Tao
Price: Trapcode Particular is $399, or you can purchase the entire suite for $999 via Red Giant.
2. Lockdown
Lockdown is the newest plugin on this list. Released just last year, the plugin has already made considerable waves within the After Effects community. Here’s why.
While motion-tracking capabilities have grown tremendously with each iteration of After Effects, the ability to apply a graphic to a warping surface and have it move appropriately remains incredibly challenging.
Lockdown seeks to eliminate this problem. With this After Effects plugin, you can track any moving and warping surface — a T-shirt, fur, a face — and apply a graphic element that distorts with that surface.
When the plugin was first announced, many called it a game-changer, and they weren’t wrong. If you’d like to read my full review on the plugin, you can do so here.
Price: $249 via aescripts.com.
3. Element 3D
Moving from a compositing software to a 3D modeling software is a big jump. Truthfully, they’re two different worlds.
Element 3D looks to bridge that gap by allowing users to upload and use 3D models within Adobe After Effects. If you don’t know how to use modeling software like Maya or Cinema 4D, Element 3D can help you import and edit 3D models quickly. The plugin works incredibly fast, considering all the functionality it brings to After Effects.
There hasn’t been a new update to Element 3D for some time. Version 2, released in 2015, included new features like ambient occlusion and lighting presets. However, even though the promo above is nearly eight years old, the material still looks good by today’s standard.
Price: $199.95 via Video Copilot.
4. Plexus 3
Plexus is a plugin that takes layers and breaks them up into smaller objects. It comes with .obj support, meaning you can import models from most 3D graphics software and have the objects broken up in 3D space. These 3D objects can serve as containers or forms for Plexus to use.
Rowbyte Plexus is a next-gen particle engine for After Effects that lets you create, manipulate, and visualize data in a procedural manner. Not only can you render the particles, you can create all sorts of interesting relationships between them based on various parameters.
But, more notably, Plexus can create the incredibly popular 3D-connected dots design (we see this used everywhere). Plexus allows for the use of 3D Bézier splines, meaning you can adjust lines in 3D space. All the 3D objects in Plexus also work with 3D cameras and depth of field.
Plexus 3 is a potent — albeit complicated — tool. If you’re looking to give your motion graphics an extra edge, Plexus is the plugin to do that.
Price: $249 via aescripts.com.
5. Newton 3
Admittedly, Newton is the only After Effects plugin on this list that I don’t own. However, for the last several years, it’s been sitting on my bookmark tab, patiently waiting to be purchased, as it’s a must-have for motion graphics artists.
Newton is a 2D physics engine for After Effects that allows users to apply real-world physics to 2D objects. More specifically, Newton can use gravity in several unique ways, including gravity scale, magnetism, and fixed rotation properties. Newton also allows users to create realistic physics-based rigs to simulate pivots, pistons, springs, and distance joints.
Price: $249.99 via Newton.
6. Optical Flares — Video Copilot
Create custom lens flares with Video Copilot’s Optical Flares package. Image via M Studio.
I was somewhat hesitant to include Optical Flares as a “must-have” plugin. I think adding digital lens flares was very much a product of the DSLR era for low-budget filmmakers who needed to make footage appear more cinematic.
However, it’s important to remember that optical flares aren’t just limited to producing J.J. Abrams-inspired material. You can use flares for all kinds of motion graphic elements. And, after all these years, not many plugins produce flares better than this package from Video Copilot.
With Optical Flares, users can create custom lens flares that work in 3D space. Optical Flares also comes with a preset library packed with realistic-looking flares that require no tweaks, and they’ve also introduced a pre-preset pack that starts at $45.
Price: $124.99 via Video Copilot.
7. Boris Continuum 2020.5
Boris Continuum is the Swiss Army knife of After Effects plugins. Inside Continuum Complete, users will find hundreds of plugin effects — glitches, generators, chroma key tools, lens flares, dissolves, and more — that serve a wide range of purposes for projects of all kinds.
Basically, if you’re on a budget, but you need a tool that can do everything, Boris Continuum Complete is your answer.
Price: $995, or $295 for an annual subscription via BorisFX.
(Hot tip: If you’re on an even tighter budget, you can find 100+ free motion graphic elements here.)
8. Deep Glow
With the number of After Effects plugins and scripts on the market, it can sometimes appear as if After Effects is but an empty vessel that needs additional purchases to make it functional. This is not the case.
If anything, with enough time and skill at your disposal, you can use After Effects to accomplish anything that a plugin brings to the table. That said, AE’s default glow effect is pretty underwhelming. It does an okay job, but nothing great outside of giving a text object a slight glow. This is where Deep Glow comes in.
Deep Glow gives you a realistic-looking glow right out of the box, as the illumination is accurately based on the inverse square falloff. Therefore, not only is this plugin great for motion graphics, it’s also terrific for those situations during compositing when it’s a struggle to match digital assets to recorded footage.
Price: $49.95 via aescripts.com.
9. Data Mosh
Glitch plugins have always been popular. In the late ’00s, YouTube was overwhelmingly populated with videos that utilized Video Copilot’s Twitch plugin (which does precisely what the name implies — twitchy glitch effects).
However, with Data Mosh, footage doesn’t simply glitch on an external level, it glitches internally on a pixel-and-color-info level, as if there’s been a processing error when recording the data. It’s a great tool for creating unique effects during transitions.
Price $39.99 via aescripts.com.
10. Render Garden
Render Garden is a different kind of After Effects plugin. It doesn’t produce anything you can use within your project. It doesn’t glitch footage, add particles, or create 3D renders. Instead, it speeds up render time for plugins that do.
With Render Garden, you’re going to get two to three-times faster renders. It splits your composition into several segments, then renders them to multiple background command lines, consequently, accelerating render time. And, unlike the regular render operation, when using Render Garden, you can continue to work in After Effects.
Price: $99 via Mekajiki (currently free during the COVID-19 pandemic).
If you’re looking for free After Effects plugins, well, here’s a page with thirty of them. Check out the resources below for even more time-saving, game-changing motion graphics action.
Cover image via Kit8.net.
Adobe After Effects is arguably one of the most widely used software for motion graphics. It is an Essential part of the workflow for many artists in video production.
Though It is a very efficient application and can really help you achieve many unthinkable effects. But an artist never gets enough . Everyone wants more.
That’s where 3rd party plugins and effects come into the frame. They extend the functionality of after effects and make it more convenient and easy to use. But what if you can enhance your workshop for free.Today we will look at best free after effects plugins for motion graphics.
5 Best Free After Effects Plugins to Add to Your Workflow
Here are 5 Plugins that can really make your life easier and make complex animations easier to do. You can download these after effects plugins for free.
5) Saber
Thinking of after effects , one of the first thing that comes to mind is video copilot.
Video Copilot has some amazing tools and training videos for after effects.It has wide range of tools and presets for after effects but what makes it more special is that it offers few free after effects plugins.
One of those is the Saber plugin. This is an amazing plugin that lets you create beautiful light sabers without doing much work. It has some quick and easy customization options to adjust its start – end size , add flickering and much more.There are around 40 preset that give you amazing looks right off the bat.You can also use saber for text and layer masks.
4) Animation Composer
Animation Composer from Mister Horse is best free after effect plugin for animating.
Actually it is library of motion presets and precomps that can be adjusted as per requirement. All the animations are non destructive which makes it convenient to use in busy projects where there are many layers.
It really makes animating fun and easy. One can focus on the art without caring about keyframes.You can change animations in any stage of the project without any hassle.
3) Flame
You may have seen those beautiful smokey fractal designs and thought about creating those.But creating those in after effects natively requires lots of work.If you want it to be quick and easy; then you need to spend some bucks for 3rd party plugins like trapcode mir that are dedicated for this kind of work.
But don’t worry ; Ae flame is a wonderful free option for that work.You can create lovely animated fractals with this effect without doing much work.There are quick customization options for colour ,intensity etc.
2) Duik
If you do character animation then there is nothing like Duik for after effects & that too for free.It lets you rig characters and animate them right inside after effects without too much hassle. Character animation in after effects requires very much work if you do this directly. But duik makes it really easy to do. It rigs in single click. It has all the options like forward and inverse kinematics,constrains and effectors. It really makes easy workflow for character animation. so, that even a novice can do that.
1) Orb
Another Gem from Video Copilot. This company kills it everytime they launch a new product. VC Orb is an amazing plugin to create real 3d spheres right inside after effects. Although it’s free but it’s capabilities put many paid plugins to shame.
You can create 3D planets within seconds and render them in no time.It uses physical shader which makes render look realistic. You can really design some amazing graphics with the help of amazing lighting and illumination options, 360° environment rendering and texturing.
So, that pretty much wraps up our list of 5 Best Free After Effects Plugins for Motion Designers. We found these free plugins really useful for motion design .
Though there can’t be an ultimate list. because there are so many options there. Many are free others are paid .
Best Free After Effects Plugins Free
So, This was our perspective on free after effects plugins that you can use to enhance your after effects workflow and take your work to the next level.Please tell us if you have experience of any other useful plugin for adobe after effects.