… for Visual Effects

Tip #679: 9 Free After Effects Templates

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Cool Stuff to Improve Your Projects

This article, written by Annie St. Cyr, first appeared in PremiumBeat.com. This is an excerpt.

1. 9 Digital Distortions. The digital distortions template allows you to simply drag and drop your footage into the composition and play with the motion parameters to get Noise, Color Boxes, Flicker, Tuning, Turbulence, Pixel Blending, Rolling Bars, Chromatic Aberration, and Color TV Pixels.
2. The Anamorphic Look. The wider visuals of the anamorphic lens can add drama to your travel video or help draw focus to a character or element of a video you’d like to feature more prominently. This juxtaposition of usefulness has made the anamorphic highly sought after.
3. Free Action Effects. Fire is one of the most difficult elements to pull off digitally. This free Action Elements Pack can be used in any NLE or motion graphics software. Adjusting the scale, motion parameters and alpha channels will provide you with some solid fire and explosion effects. It’s better than any fire template I have seen. These elements look much more realistic and require much less render time.
4. Animated Fonts. With over 43 unique compositions, this animated font After Effects template can make any information much more invigorating. This skill is essential for your motion graphics tool kit. You never know when you might need a few animated letters or numbers to spice up your next edit.
5. VHS Distortion. Just like the digital distortions pack, this free After Effects template allows you to recreate the look of an old VHS tape. Once again, all you have to do is drag and drop your footage. You can even customize the text. This template does require you to download a free font as well.
6. Free HUD Elements. If you are looking for that futuristic HUD aesthetic this free After Effects template is for you. Below is a tutorial for how to create a Spider-Man: Homecoming-inspired look, but these HUD elements have a multitude of uses.
7. Dynamic Car Gauges. Now that so many car commercials have gone digital, every video editor needs digital assets for commercial work and promos. With these 16 free After Effects car gauges, you can easily create a custom gauge for your car work. The download also includes 9 free sound effects.
8. 20 Free Color Grading Presets. If you aren’t a color grading expert but want to add a great custom look to your footage, these 20 free AE color grading presets are fantastic. Each color grade adds a unique style and tone to your films and commercials. Check out all twenty presets in this video.
9. Split Layers.If you aren’t the best with motion graphics, this free After Effects template instantly creates split layers to splice up your images or video. You just drop your footage into the project and select which of the nine types of layers you want.