Skip to content

Best Free Worth Installing Plugins for After Effects

The best completely free After Effects plugins for motion designers on any budget.

15 tools
Spotlight FX screenshot

Spotlight FX

freemium

2,300+ transitions, titles, overlays, elements and 20+ free workflow tools

Motion Graphics
Animation Composer screenshot

Animation Composer

freemium

Free motion preset library with 100+ animations, transitions, and sounds

Motion Graphics
Bodymovin screenshot

Bodymovin

freemium

Export After Effects animations as JSON for web playback with Lottie

Workflow & Utilities
LottieFiles for Adobe After Effects screenshot

LottieFiles for Adobe After Effects

free

Export After Effects animations to Lottie JSON and preview across devices

Workflow & Utilities
Limber Lite screenshot

Limber Lite

free

Simple IK rigging for stretchy character limbs and layer versioning

Rigging & Animation
Displacer Pro screenshot

Displacer Pro

free

GPU-accelerated displacement with rotation, scale, and translation

VFX & Compositing
UnMult screenshot

UnMult

free

Converts lighting effects to transparent layers

VFX & Compositing
Quick Chromatic Aberration screenshot

Quick Chromatic Aberration

free

Add RGB shift and lens distortion to emulate chromatic aberration

Light & Optical FX
AE Flame screenshot

AE Flame

free

Generate keyframable fractal flame animations using fractal algorithms

Noise & Textures
FXAA screenshot

FXAA

free

Smooth jagged edges and aliasing with GPU-accelerated anti-aliasing

VFX & Compositing
Corner Cutters 2 screenshot

Corner Cutters 2

free

Automate repetitive tasks with 26 utility scripts and a toolbar

Workflow & Utilities
rd: Render Layers screenshot

rd: Render Layers

free

Renders each selected layer separately for flexible compositing passes

Workflow & Utilities
Expression Toolbox screenshot

Expression Toolbox

free

Centralized library for storing and managing After Effects expressions

Workflow & Utilities
BAO Distortion Selector 2 screenshot

BAO Distortion Selector 2

freemium

Isolate puppet tool and liquify effects with masks and luma mattes

VFX & Compositing
Color Wiggle screenshot

Color Wiggle

free

Create gradient-based color wiggle effects with real-time feedback

Workflow & Utilities