Adobe After Effects is the industry-standard software for motion graphics and visual effects. However, creating professional level effects can be extremely time consuming. This is where After Effects templates come in handy!
What are After Effects templates?
After Effects templates are pre-made project files designed by motion graphic artists. They allow you to simply drop in your footage and swap out text layers to create high-quality motion graphics like intros, outros, slideshows, and more.
The huge advantage of using templates is the time and effort they save. These pre-built projects have hundreds of hours of complex work and keyframing already done for you. Simply add your personal assets and render for professional effects in minutes versus hours!
Most Popular Types of AE Templates
Here are some of the most useful and versatile template styles:
Opener Templates: Perfect for video intros and presentation openers. Often feature exciting dynamics like glitch effects, light leaks, and transitioning graphic elements.
Titles Templates: Adds polished and kinetic typography for your videos, promotions, and event sequences. Great for slideshows.
Logo Reveals: Creatively showcases branding and logos with elements like smoke, light rays, liquid, particles.
Transitions: Includes dynamic transitions like warp zooms, grid flips, disintegration effects to transition between video clips.
Infographics: Transform boring data into engaging motion infographics to better connect with your viewers.
Element and Shape Builds: Build up graphic SVG shapes and elements like icons for slick motion.
Photo and Video Displays: Spice up boring photo and video presentations with parallax and 3D effects.
Social Media Templates: Designed for vertical videos, posts, Instagram stories, YouTube intros tailored for different platforms.
And many more: Glitch effects, sci-fi huds, cinematic film intros, news broadcasts and loads of unique, creative styles!
Top After Effects Template Sites
These are some of the best and most popular marketplaces for premium AE templates:
Envato Elements
- Over 500,000 digital creative assets available
- Unlimited downloads – single monthly subscription
- Diverse library of templates for intros, social posts, logo reveals etc.
- Easy to search and customizable, well organized
- Downsides: Mixed quality, some technical skills needed
Motion Array
- Specializing in motion graphic templates for AE users
- New assets added daily, over 5500 AE files currently
- $99 basic plan offers 100 downloads per month
- Beginner friendly templates with detailed tutorials
- Great options even for very specific needs
Storyblocks
- Ideal one-stop shop with over 5 million royalty-free stock media options
- After Effects templates section offers some unique creations
- Download individual items or get unlimited with subscriptions
- Also explore their massive libraries of video, images, music + more all for commercial use!
FilterGrade
- Niche site focusing solely on creative After Effects projects
- Stunning collection with focus on cinematic film style templates
- Downsides: smaller selection size, some very stylized items
Some other great AE template marketplaces worth checking out: MotionVFX, Artlist, MotionElements, Videohive
When choosing templates, watch the preview videos on site listings to ensure it fits your project visually. Also check reviews and ratings posted by fellow users.
Tips for Using After Effects Templates
Here are some pro tips to use templates effectively:
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Look for easy customization: Prioritize templates with lots of editable parameters via custom controllers so you can modify colors, fonts and adapt things with ease.
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Mind the codecs: When exporting in AE, use h.264 codec for video previews. However, we recommend ProRes 422 export codec for final renders to retain image quality.
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Learn the basics of AE first: While templates don‘t require advanced skills, knowing basics like compositions, timelines and keyframes will help tremendously in using projects seamlessly.
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Install required plugins: Download any extra plugins listed if needed for the templates. Common ones: Element 3D, Optical Flares, Trapcode Suite.
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Allow sufficient render time: After Effects projects involving lots of high-res media, effects and transitioning elements will require longer render times – often hours instead of minutes.
Using the unlimited creative possibilities opened up by After Effects templates will make your videos stand out and give you a cutting edge instantly! With these tips and resources you‘re now ready to explore the many template options out there for your next video project.
