What It Does
Light Volume takes native After Effects composition lights and renders them as true volumetric light in 3D space. Point lights and spotlights both work, casting light volume that responds to the camera and blends into your scene. It fills a gap that After Effects doesn’t address natively: making lights feel like they actually exist in an environment, not just illuminate layers.
A free trial is available from the product page.
Key Features
Softness, falloff, and source size controls. Each light can be tuned for how hard or soft its edges appear, how quickly it falls off with distance, and the perceived size of the source. These three parameters together give you precise control over the character of each light.
Light distortion. Adds natural wavering and variation to the light volume so it blends more convincingly into a scene rather than looking like a clean geometric cone or sphere.
Dust rendering. Renders particle-like dust selectively in the brighter areas of the light. Useful for cinematic atmosphere in dark interior scenes or dramatic spotlight setups.
Depth map input. Feed in a depth map to limit where the light volume renders. This lets the light interact with scene geometry, stopping at surfaces rather than passing through everything.
Multiple lights and GPU acceleration. The effect processes multiple lights simultaneously and runs on the GPU, keeping render times manageable even with complex setups.
Who It’s For
Motion designers working on cinematic title sequences, dark atmospheric compositions, or any scene where a visible light beam or volumetric glow would read better than a flat light source. Also useful for broadcast graphics, game cinematics, and VFX compositing work where physical light presence matters.
Compatible with After Effects 2023 through 2026.
Pricing
One-time purchase at $37.40, currently on sale. A free trial is available before buying. Single user, floating server, and render-only license options are offered.