After effects iPhone template. 10 Best Adobe After Effects Templates for Jaw-Dropping Visual Effects

Best Adobe After Effects Templates for Jaw-Dropping Visual Effects

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Why design all after-effects from scratch when you can use Adobe After Effects templates to do them better and faster?

As we all know, Adobe After Effects continues to be the gold standard in editing in the post-production world. From films to games to YouTube/social media videos, Adobe’s powerful software helps elevate creative and cinematic brilliance in compelling motion graphics, stunning VFX digital effects, and VFX compositing.

By now, if you have looked at a screen even once in the past 20 years, you’re sure to have come across a video with after-effects designed by Adobe. Almost all videos rely on some kind of after-effects to add a sense of flair and uniqueness. From special events to corporate presentations to films to product promos, after-effects are everywhere!

Why Consider Adobe After Effects Templates

However, creating after-effects can be a really time-consuming process. Not to mention the number of skills each transition or motion graphics is going to require. This is where Adobe After Effects templates come in!

They are pre-built and ready-to-use project files where you can swap placeholders with relevant video and image assets. In fact, they can help you transform an ordinary piece of footage into an extraordinary one.

Likewise, they maximize efficiency and are in no way limiting. With intelligent color pickers, controllers, and numerous customization options, they let you personalize all aspects of the template to suit your project at hand.

Whether you want to boost your brand or up the quality of your video content, here are the best Adobe After Effects templates that take your video content up a gear.

Motion Array

Want to take your videos to new heights? Motion Array After Effects templates for Adobe are high-quality and easy to use. over, they come with specific tutorials to help you build impact-driven projects.

With trendy, energetic animations, editable text layers, and slick transitions, Motion Array’s after-effects templates can be found for various categories. They include but are not limited to photos/videos, text, logos, slideshows, and intros.

What’s more, Motion Array templates come with a special intelligent color controller that lets you match any style quickly and efficiently. You can also choose after effects for Adobe by sorting resolution (2K, 4K, 5K). Or by orientation (horizontal, vertical, square) and versions of After Effects CC.

Envato Elements

You might not have the time to design stunning after-effects for your visual projects and videos all the time. But that’s okay if you rely on after-effects templates designed by experts.

Envato Elements After Effects templates are a good starting point for you to create engaging projects and keep up with deadlines. That’s because Envato’s after effects templates have editable layers to help you customize them.

You can start by adding your content within placeholders. However, if you want to create communication that’s on-brand, you can explore further layers and change fonts, colors, and branding elements.

From brand reveals to slideshows to opening and closing sequences, Envato’s templates are brightly colored, bold in style, and can help you enhance your personal brand or project at hand.

The extensive library of templates hosts product promos, broadcast packages, titles, video displays, and infographics to choose from. In fact, you can explore After Effects templates by sorting them through usage.

Whether you need them for Instagram or YouTube, a birthday invite, or a wedding invite, Envato’s After Effects template choices are many and versatile.

If you would rather not use any plugins while editing the After Effects templates, Envato Elements also has templates that require no plugins. With a monthly or annual subscription, you can get access to unlimited template downloads.

From restaurants to retail to weather forecasts to elections, Envato’s Elements’ after-effects templates are available for different purposes and domains.

MotionElements

MotionElements has over 28,000 After Effects templates to help you unleash your creativity and create campaigns, sequences, and projects that are lead-generating. With an effortless and intuitive interface, you can search for MotionElements templates in different styles.

That’s what makes it different from other After Effects template pages. To give you an idea, you’ll find styles like cute, flat, pop, luxurious, retro, and high-tech, among others.

Plus, MotionElements also offers some free templates if you’re not quite ready for a subscription yet. With modern creative typography options, slideshow choices, and verticals, the templates can simplify the process of video creation immensely.

These templates are compatible with both Mac and Windows. Not only that, you can change the intensity of the effects or choose relevant music tracks to go with it.

Videvo

Looking for premium After Effects Adobe templates that can be easily integrated? Videvo might be the place!

Create infographics, animations, outros, overlays, and social media videos through Videvo templates. over, they’re fully customizable. From bright and dynamic AE templates to light and fresh ones, the templates are eye-catching and skillfully animated.

Available in HD, these templates can be downloaded for use once you register. You can download a preview to see if this works for your project at hand.

From templates for creative typography to logo openers to minimal or maximal slideshows to corporate company presentations, you’re sure to find a diverse range of after-effects here! If you need help with simple transitions, map animations, or corporate infographics, Videvo’s templates are free.

After all, these Adobe After Effects templates come with a Creative Commons 3.0 license, where credit should be attributed to the original author. You can use them in both personal and professional projects.

Storyblocks

Adobe After Effects templates by Storyblocks help you add skillful motion graphics to your videos without having to design them from scratch. So, they are simple, seamless, and can be personalized for the most remarkable VFX results.

Choose from a variety of AE categories, like intro, business, logo reveal, presentation, slideshow, typography, cinematic, photos, and promos. What’s unique about this after effects template resource is it has collections of templates to choose from.

To give you an idea, there are CS4, CS5, Apple Motion 5, logo reveals, business presentations, intros, infographics, and flat icon-based templates to help you work with your video fast and fantastic.

Editing on Storyblocks is easy: you just have to swap out the placeholders. And replace them with personalized items like texts, logos, and video/photo assets. You can also use stock photo and video options approved for commercial use.

MotionVFX

Why box yourself to a few sets of generic transitions when you can open things up with MotionVFX templates? You’ll find unique selections of templates: flowing electrons template, colorful medley, expressive typography, double exposure opener template, or even hi-tech intro templates.

Use mystery intro templates with distortions, glitches, and stylized footage. Or, for energetic animations, choose the parallax flip template to have a footage-oriented modern template.

You can also use folding albums and beautiful picture/video compositions to celebrate or commemorate your special day. From birthdays to weddings to anniversaries, these templates can help you add a clean and neat look. You can introduce your company to the world with a modern presentation, create a cinematic trailer, or a sports intro.

Whatever your goals are, MotionVFX templates for Adobe After Effects can help you take your motion graphics a notch higher.

Shutterstock Elements

ShutterStock’s newest video element gallery is Shutterstock Elements. Here, you’ll find Adobe After Effects templates that elevate your projects. With thousands of transitions, lens flares, and video effects, their templates are easy to use for all major video editing programs.

You get numerous options to choose from 9 video kit libraries, 18 VFX libraries, 5 transition libraries, 5 film overlay libraries, 8 lens flares libraries, and 3 HUD UI libraries.

Make stunning projects with lower thirds and line icons to add style, flamboyance, and finesse to your AE-related projects. In fact, you can add a sense of your personality with customizable branding elements in vlogs, corporate presentations, and online social media videos.

FilterGrade

Don’t have the time to create after effects but want ones designed by experts? FilterGrade’s templates come in numerous categories: intro/outro, slideshow, lower thirds, and trailers.

Quite reliable and impressive as a resource for Adobe After Effects, FilterGrade has retro and funky visuals you could use, vintage or modern. Plus, on the lookout for incredible titles, impressive typographies, and cinematic effects?

Need a slideshow for fashion? A modern action intro, or a film opener, or a glitch promo? You’ll find it in FilterGrade’s extensive library collections between popular, handpicked, and latest. Most effects templates are priced between 30 – 100, and FilterGrade often runs discounts to make them.friendly.

Artlist

Creating the perfect videos with line icons, titles and motion graphics shouldn’t be hard with Artlist templates. This Adobe After Effects template resource has a large, easy-to-navigate library.

What started off as a music library that could help you with soundtracks and audio for videos, Artlist has a premium of 400K assets for successful storytelling through video.

With apps, plugins, royalty-free music, footage, and sound effects, you’re sure to find everything you need right here. Their AE templates are versatile, suited to specific domains, and perfect for creating a seamless workflow.

With dynamic titles, playful footage, glitches, distortions, artistic backgrounds, and gradient graphics, Artlist AE templates let you explore the full extent of your creative bandwidth without compromising on quality or diversity.

Explore a range of parallax flip slideshows, modular sliding split-screen videos, abstract chrome-type stories, holographic glitches, and so much more.

MonsterOne

Trying to make a unique product video with all the jazz without the hassle? MonsterOne‘s sure to have all the Adobe After Effects templates you’re looking for. Now, you might be wondering why’s MonsterOne unique.

MonsterOne’s 1808 AE templates employ all 6 essential tools of powerful AE: VFX, compositing, keying, trailer, infographics, and animated logos. With entirely customizable placeholders, compatibility with all major editing apps, and no need for plugins, the templates are exceptional.

You can find product promos, video displays, broadcast packages, titles, backgrounds, logo reveals, and transitions to enhance your videos. Plus, you can find video AE templates for businesses, services, corporate, sports, special events, holidays, technologies, and kids.

Explore wavy logo reveals, trailer titles, eclipse designs, app promos, and glossy kits. Be spoiled for choice! Their interactive UI helps you sort Adobe AE templates by searching for trending, popular, newest, and undiscovered items.

Summary

Adobe After Effects templates and related resources act as a catalyst for video editors and filmmakers to explore unlimited possibilities in terms of cinematic brilliance. When creators fall back upon AE templates, they end up saving time and creating stunning visual and motion graphics-based videos.

The resources we have cited are reliable with responsive interfaces and have a vast, extensive library of professional-grade elements designed by experts. Choose the one that’s right for your project, keeping in mind plans, pricing, and categories.

You may also explore Adobe Audition audio editor’s stunning all-in-one audio editor platform.

These templates include hundreds of free elements to use in any project. Combine for even more options, and some you can use in any NLE!

One of the best ways to improve your After Effects skills is by taking apart templates and seeing how other people create projects. Whether you’re seasoned in the program or a beginner, these free After Effects templates are a tremendous asset to your editor’s toolkit.

Well, how about nine FREE After Effects Templates for you to use and learn from. Spoiler alert, there are more than nine. sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves!

9 Digital Distortions

This 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.

These are nice for any screen replacement in your film, especially televisions and security monitors. They can also satisfy the craving for that VHS vibe you’ve been searching for.

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.

In this super-handy video, you’ll find a quick demo of the free After Effects template and how to adjust the parameters to get the exact feel you need for your project.

You can also just drag-and-drop your footage as-is, and you’ll still have a pretty solid and refined anamorphic crop.

Before we move on to the next freebie, I just want to shed light on ANOTHER freebie that, for some reason, I find fits well with the anamorphic look above.

Our friends over at Film Bodega (you’ll see more from them later in this article) created a fog overlay freebie that’s honestly too good to be free.

Here’s the trailer for the freebie. Find the download link below!

Free Action Effects

Fire is one of the most challenging elements to pull off digitally. This free Action Elements Pack can be used in any NLE or motion graphics software. It’s better than any fire template I’ve seen.

Adjusting the scale, motion parameters, and alpha channels will provide you with some solid fire and explosion effects. These elements look much more realistic and require much less render time.

FREE Ice Effects and Snow Overlays

No matter the time of year, you might have to edit or work on an “inter” inspired project involving snow and ice. This pack of 18 snow and ice overlays is the perfect solution to any VFX or overlay request you might get from production.

If you need a brief overview for applying these to your shot within After Effects, check out the breakdown below.

How to use the overlays in After Effects:

• Import your folder of overlays.
• In the composition, you want to add the snow or ice overlays—drag your clip of choice down into the composition.
• Now, select the blend mode of choice for your particular scene or design. I recommend Add or Screen mode. Sometimes using Overlay or Hard Light can yield an exciting result.
• If you’d like to customize the color or contrast of your overlay, I recommend using a Curves effect to play with the contrast. This will help with the blending process and overall believability of the effect on your shot. Also, if you’d like to change the color, I recommend the Hue/Saturation effect. You can find both in the Color Correction section of the effects drop-down. A little goes a long way with changing the color of ice and snow. that’s all I’ll say.

The team at Film Bodega made this pack, so be sure to check out their freebie page for more gems like this one.

Animated Font

With this animated text download, you can incorporate ’80s-inspired neon text into your videos and motion designs.

Whether you use the pre-rendered text elements or customize the elements inside of After Effects, these animated elements look professional and clean, which will wow your clients and audience.

With over 43 unique compositions, this animated font After Effects template can make any information 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.

You’ll need to have Helvetica Neue installed on your machine to use this free After Effects template.

8 Bit Pixel Art

While this tutorial isn’t exactly one of our freebies, we’ve included a free project file in the description of the tutorial. This will bypass the tutorial and give you the effect right away.

However, if you want to learn how to create this effect yourself and apply these customizations to your own project, be sure to watch the tutorial!

Initially, we included a VHS After Effects template with this section, and 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. Check out this tutorial on how to get the most out of this Free VHS template.

Check out the RocketStock freebie we released a few years ago if you want another free effect. Find it below!

Free HUD Elements

If you’re looking for that futuristic HUD aesthetic, this free After Effects template is for you. Below is a tutorial for creating a Spider-Man: No Way Home-inspired look, but these HUD elements have many uses.

For any sci-fi scene, you need HUD elements. These are perfect—it’s just about finding the right situation and setting for them.

Dynamic Car Gauges

Now that so many car commercials have gone digital, as they use computer-generated cars, every video editor needs digital assets for commercial work and promos.

Even if you’re just creating a spec ad or a proposal for a car ad, with these 16 free After Effects car gauges, you can easily create a custom gauge for your car work. The download also includes nine free sound effects.

20 Free Color Grading Presets

If you aren’t a color grading expert but want to add an extraordinary 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.

Bonus: Split Layers

See, I lied! We couldn’t just list nine when we have so much to offer! 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.

As long as you guys love these lists, we’ll keep putting them together. Check out the RocketStock blog for even more free elements and free AE Project Files.

This post was originally published in October 2015. It has been updated to reflect changes in the industry.

A few more filmmaking assets, resources, and advice for you:

FREE Top 15 After Effects Templates to Power Up Your Video [2023]

Adding templates to an After Effects project may be a great way to make your videos look more professional. A template designed for the After Effects software is a fully customizable AE file that is well organized and it enables users to easily enter text, change colors, or design elements.

Downloading and using some of the many available After Effects Templates will surely enhance your videos and give them a fresh visual style.

Here are the 15 best places on the Internet that provide a large number of different After Effects templates.

New to video editing? Then you should consider Wondershare Filmora, which is a powerful but easy-to-use tool for users just starting out.

With Filmora, you can apply some built-in effects/templates to your video footage or find some specially designed special effects from the Filmora Effects Store.

Watch the video below to check one special effect named Blockbuster.

Best After Effects Templates Resources

Motion Array

Motion Array is a platform that offers access to thousands of different AE templates. Creating an account is free of charge, but Free Account users don’t have access to all the templates available. You can also use fractal generators to automatically make beautiful fractals.

Download Free After Effects from Filmstock for Thousands of Templates

Filmstock is a one-stop shop for royalty-free video effects, music and sound effects, stock video footage, and more stock media.

You can download both free and paid after effects templates for Adobe After Effects on Filmstock as well as some free stock video and photos and royalty-free music and sound effect.

Visit the Free After Effects Templates on Filmstock and explore more creative resources for your video.

Premium Beat

Even though Premium Beat is primarily a website that offers Royalty-Free Music and Sound Effects, their blog is a great source of information about the best AE templates. Their articles also feature links to download templates so users can find out more about the template before downloading it.

VideoBlocks

Besides being one of the best places on the Internet to look for the latest AE templates, VideoBlocks also offer access to a wide variety of stock footage and backgrounds you can use in your projects.

Editorsdepot

Editorsdepot features more than 500 different templates available to the website’s visitors, which gives them the freedom to select the template that best serves their needs. Downloading AE templates from this website is free of charge.

Videezy

Choose from hundreds of AE templates available on Videezy that will make your intros or other motion graphics look like a professional designed them. Accessing the full range of the website’s services will require you to create an account.

Shareae

Shareae offers much more than AE templates because visitors and members can also download Sound Effects or Stock Footage. The website also provides AE tutorials to its users who want to learn more about this software.

Freealleffect

If you are looking for Openers, Logo Stings, Titles, 3D Elements, or Infographics the Freealleffect is the right place for you. Furthermore, After Effects users in need of assistance with their project can find valuable tutorials on this website.

FootageCreate

If you would like to download AE templates from this functionally designed website you will have to create an account. However, it is worth it because you will be able to choose from a large number of different AE templates that can make your videos more appealing to their audience.

99templates

Don’t be confused by the name, because the 99templates website offers much more than just 99 After Effects templates. All content can be downloaded for free, but if you are using AdBlocker you might have to disable it because 99templates has strict ad policies.

RocketStock

Rocket Stock is a place where you can find rich template resources. Every month, you can get a freebie easily by signing up. From 4K space elements to poly titles, you can find the best free After Effects templates without too much effort. If you want to have more choices, it also offers a premium template. However, if your requirements are not high, the free effects can totally meet your needs.

Modern Angles 4K Slideshow

It includes 4K slideshow effects. If it has the image, it has a placeholder, so you can change it easily. The scenes are layered from left to right. The FPS is 24, which can meet most users’ needs.

Simple Scenery Clean Lower Thirds

If you like clean and modern lower third video effects in After Effects, check this free after effects templates. It has built-in instructor, so just follow its direction to customize text font, color, and more.

Diamond Wedding Slideshow

If you have a wedding, this after effects is perfect for you. This elegant slideshow template includes 6 images. If you want to change the built-in images, just follow the instruction in the video to better your own image slideshow.

Marvel Lookalike After Effects Template

These After effects are in marvel style. For an image, you need to insert your own image to replace the previous one. If you like superheroes, or like some cool effects, you’d better check this one.

Hi-Tech Cinematic Trailer

This effect is in cinematic style. You can change the text color and font, so you can find a font that is suitable for your video. The whole effect looks high-tech. If you like this kind of free After Effects template, check it out!

What Is Adobe After Effect? How About It?

Adobe After Effects was created in 1993 and then acquired by Adobe as one of its video editing products since 1994.

Like Filmstock, It’s also a very common digital visual effect used in the post-production process of video making for films, TV, MP4, etc.

You can use After Effects to make your video with better effects by keying, tracking, compositing, and animation.

As a big name in the industry, most people like it. But there are also many other products with the same powerful After Effects you can try, and some of them are free.

Can I Get Adobe After Effects for Free?

Adobe After Effects costs are based on different plans you choose but starts with 20.99 USA dollars per month. Below are their price:

But if you can’t afford After Effects and still want great effects for your video, I recommend you a very good Adobe After Effects Alternative: Filmstock

Conclusion

Above is a list of the 15 best websites and tools to find After Effects templates that will almost suit all your demands.

However, if you are tired of using After Effects Templates, why not choose Wondershare Filmora Template Mode? It is a brand new mode released by Filmora that can power up your story. It is easy to use compared with After Effects.

Tips for Saving and Sharing Projects in After Effects

You know that feeling when you open up an old After Effects project and you see dreaded color bars?

Yeah, we’ve all been there. You can try using “Find Missing Footage” but we all know it’s far from a magic pill.

Let’s fast forward through the repetitive task of locating each piece of missing footage in the project panel. Maybe you don’t even know where to start because you are faced with a project panel full of footage that was from the last thirteen iterations of the project. What a mess!

Maybe you are super organized as you work and dutifully delete every old bit of footage from the project the second you take it out of the comp. Maybe I’m batman.

likely, you get a lot of rush changes that have to be done yesterday. As a result you FOCUS on getting the render out and vow to worry about file organization later. Three weeks later when the client needs to add yet another ad disclaimer you’re screwed.

Well friends, I’m happy to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way. After Effects has some great little tools for organizing and archiving your files that will make future you want to travel back in time to hug current you.

Organizing your files

After Effects has some hidden gems for taking that project that’s been through 46 revisions back to the clean organized state we all dream about. These amazing tools can be found in the “File” “Dependencies” menu.

COLLECT FILES

This might be my favorite organization feature in After Effects. This swiss army knife of commands will go out and find every bit of footage used in the project. It will copy them all to one place and organize them according to your project panel folder hierarchy.

Long story short, you can make your entire project organized in just a few mouse clicks. Badass.

CONSOLIDATE ALL FOOTAGE

Ever end up with multiple sources for the same clip? This tool will fix that.

Consolidate All Footage finds redundancies in your project source files and removes the copies.

Have two identical copies of a company logo in your project? This tool will delete one and source them both to the first (if the interpret footage settings are the same for both). If they are different, After Effects is going to assume you have a good reason for it and leave well enough alone.

REMOVE UNUSED FOOTAGE

This does just what you might expect. It removes all those references to imported source files that maybe didn’t make the cut. If it’s not used in a comp, out it goes.

REDUCE PROJECT

This one is super awesome for sharing parts of a project. Say you have a whole package and you want to share just a comp or three with another collaborator.

You can select the comps you want to share and this tool will remove everything not used in the selected comps from the project. Just make sure to save a copy, this way you don’t reduce everything for yourself too.

• Select the comps to be shared
• Reduce Project
• Collect Files
• Send to the next Motion Designer

Archiving your files

Did you finish the project and now you want to save it somewhere on the “just in case” hard drive? I suggest using a combo move. No, I don’t mean up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start, select, but this is almost that good.

First, use “Remove unused footage” to neaten up your project. Next, go to “Collect Files” and check out the first pull-down menu. My favorite is the “For All Comps” option. But if you want to pull out one comp to pass on to the next person the “For Selected Comps” option is for you.

If you are one of those Motion Designers with a really organized render queue there’s an option for you too.

Once you hit the “Collect” button, After Effects will ask you where you want to save it. This is the time to create a fresh clean folder for the project. After Effects will work some magic and then present you with a freshly saved version of the project. This new project will only contain the footage files needed for the project. Boom! You are now an organized Jedi.

SAVING BACKWARD

We don’t love to do it, but sometimes you need to be able to go back to older versions.

Well this can be a little bit trickier than you might think. Good ole After Effects will only let you save back one version. So if you need to go from CC 2017 back to CS6, you’re going to have to install previous versions to get all the way back.

This is of course trickier in the age of the Creative Cloud, so instead I recommend beginning your project in the old version to avoid back-saving if possible.

OPENING OLDER VERSIONS

This is a bit less complicated than saving backwards, but it’s still not quite as easy as you might hope. If you’ve been in the game for a while you might have projects that are too old for your current version to open. In that case, you will need to install an older version of After Effects.

Lucky for you, we have created a handy dandy cheat sheet for all the backwards and forward compatibility you might need. You can download it below!

Collaboration Tools

If you’re like me, you frequently collaborate with people that are not in your immediate physical location. There are tons of tools for collaborating from afar. Here’s a few of our favorites:

Cloud STORAGE AND COLLABORATION

The “big three” of Cloud data storage options are Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. They are all basically big virtual hard drives for your project files. You can sync between different systems (all three will sync between iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows), invite other users to collaborate, and they are all free to use up to a certain amount of storage. Use up the free storage and you can select from various levels of paid plans.

Google integrates tightly with Google apps. Likewise, OneDrive integrates well with Microsoft Office apps. Dropbox doesn’t make any special apps like those, so that can be a good or bad thing, depending whose apps you are most down with. Pick one, set it up, add your files, invite your collaborators, and voila… everyone can see all the things.

CREATIVE Cloud LIBRARIES

I think it would be pretty difficult to find a motion designer who doesn’t use Adobe software. Given that, the Adobe Creative Cloud Libraries can be a great collaboration tool. They let you share things in libraries, but in an Adobe tools centric way. You can share brushes, images, videos, fonts, templates and other assets for a specific project, team, company, or client.

The thing that makes this extra cool is that you can access the shared libraries right inside your favorite Adobe apps. You can link assets in shared libraries, so that if one team member updates an asset, everyone else working with that library can then update it automagically.

You can also use Adobe libraries without sharing just to keep track of your own favorite groups of assets like color palettes, font combos, and animation clips. These libraries are all integrated with Adobe stock assets so if you find yourself needing something you don’t already have, you can buy it from Adobe’s stock collections. Find them in After Effects menus Window Workspace Libraries.

If you’ve already confirmed your email with us, you’ll receive the link instantly. If not, you’ll first need to click a button in a confirmation email. It takes about two seconds and is relatively painless 🙂

Use these tools to create, edit, and enhance videos with AI.

Consuming video is easy. Producing good video is not. Putting together a script, getting all the footage, and editing everything to perfection—or as close as possible—can eat up enormous chunks of your time.

As it does for everything right now, AI has a few solutions to slash the time it takes to go from idea to MP4. I went in search of the best AI tools for creating videos, and as it turns out, there are already a ton of amazing options.

From Smart video editing software to generative text-to-video apps, there are tools that will help you do whatever you want: be that running your own YouTube channel, creating more engaging content for social media, or repurposing content to keep all your business’s online channels fresh. After a week of testing, here are my picks for the best AI video generators.

What makes the best AI video generator?

The best AI tools for video creation help you increase your production quantity and value without increasing the time spent working on it. They cut the time it takes from script to final result by providing templates, tools to speed up editing, and shortcuts to polish audio and video.

There are three broad categories in this list.

• Video editors with AI editing tools, meant for speeding up the editing process.
• Generative text-to-video apps that take your prompts and generate a video output on the spot.
• Video productivity apps that use AI to help you create content faster for multiple marketing channels or platforms.

Regardless of these sub-categories, here’s what I looked for as I searched for the best AI video generator:

• AI. All these apps use artificial intelligence to power their features.
• High-quality video output. These apps should let you export video that can run beautifully on small or large screens. All the apps on this list export to 720p at worst and 4k at best, in a variety of aspect ratios.
• Customization. Can you add your own content? How much can you customize? Is it easy to make changes?
• Support and ease of use. Since AI video editing is a new-ish thing, I was looking for apps that beginners could use; that includes offering content to help you take advantage of all the possibilities.
• Unique features. Some apps bring their unique spin to video creation, or offer something that’s useful to improve productivity, production value, or both.

I tested these apps over the course of a week. I started from templates where available, uploaded my own content, used the stock video and image libraries, and tweaked the visuals using either the timeline-based editors or simpler interfaces, depending on the app. Finally, I exported the video to see how it looked. In all the cases here, the process was significantly faster and less painful when compared with handling a project in Sony Vegas or Premiere Pro.

The best AI video generators at a glance

Editing video by editing the script

Windows, Mac (Web for some features)

Yes, with 1 hour of transcription and 1 watermark-free video at 720p

Polishing video with AI tools

Experimenting with generative AI

Yes, with 125 video credits (used for AI features), 3 projects, and 720p export

Yes, for 1 user, 2 videos per month, 5-minute upload limit, and watermark

Yes, up to 5 minutes/month, watermarked video in 720p

Turning a script into video

Yes, for 15 minutes of watermarked video but no exporting (you can share a link)

Best AI video generator for editing video by editing the script

Descript (Web for some features, Windows, Mac)

Descript pros:

Descript cons:

When I record video, I usually say much more than I’m actually going to use in the final version—far too much, actually. Like, in the region of 10 to 20 times more. That leads to watching a lot of raw footage, marking the timeline to save the best bits, and then having to move back and forth splitting tracks and trimming video. That’s fun for the first hour, but when you’re on a deadline and going over the midnight mark, things start looking bleak.

If you’re like me here, Descript is a huge time saver. To begin with, it generates a transcript of everything you say along with a set of scenes, separating the video track automatically. Instead of scrolling through the timeline to split or trim the video, simply highlight the parts of the transcript that you want gone, and Descript edits it out for you. No more going back and forth on the timeline to see if the cut is well done: you can edit video just as you would a text document.

Once you’ve got the script under control, you can divide your video into scenes. To do so, type a forward slash in the script to separate each one. You’ll notice this will split the video on the vertical timeline on the left. That allows you to add, for instance, some B-roll: click on the scene’s image, and then on the media library on the top. You can search for high-quality stock video and add it to the project without leaving the editor window.

When you hit play, you’ll see that Descript cuts to the B-roll exactly where you marked it. The user experience to implement jump cuts, visual elements, and SFX is the same, so you can mark the entirety of your script as you go, and then add all the good stuff later. This workflow is a huge time-saver. But if you prefer the classic timeline experience, it’s still there: look to the bottom of the screen, and control your footage there.

Now that you have these editing powers, you can speak freely while recording, knowing you won’t have to watch everything from top to bottom to extract all the gold nuggets. Descript offers more timesaving opportunities, too. With Zapier, you can connect it with thousands of other apps to move data and automate more parts of your video creation workflow. Here’s a sample of what it can do: