Adobe After Effects vs. Blender

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe After Effects
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
Adobe After Effects allows users to create cinematic movie titles, intros, and transitions, remove an object from a clip, start a fire or make it rain, or animate a logo or character. The vendor states that with After Effects, users can apply motion-graphics and animation to any digital object.
$20.99
Per User Per Month
Blender
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite available in under the GNU General Public License. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline. Blender Cloud is a related service accessible via subscription, and is a training and content platform providing access to expertise from the Blender Institute for advancing one's use of Blender.
$11.50
per month
Pricing
Adobe After EffectsBlender
Editions & Modules
Annual Plan (Paid Monthly)
$20.99
Per User Per Month
Monthly Plan
$31.49
Per User Per Month
Annual Plan (Prepaid)
$239.88
Per User Per Year
Blender Cloud Membership
$11.50
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe After EffectsBlender
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe After EffectsBlender
Considered Both Products
Adobe After Effects
Chose Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects stands out for its comprehensive set of tools for creating motion graphics, visual effects, and animations. Its seamless integration with other Adobe software, vast community, and extensive tutorials make it user-friendly. It offers a wide range of 2D and 3D …
Chose Adobe After Effects
Compared to other software, Adobe After Effects is more useful for motion graphics and composition. Adobe After Effects is simpler and easier to use for video editing and adding effects.
Chose Adobe After Effects
After Effects is on par with most of these other non-Adobe software. It is able to edit, create, render, illustrate, stabilize video content; and so much more.
Blender
TrustRadius Insights
Adobe After EffectsBlender
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Adobe After Effects has often been used by professionals engaged in specialized video production and effects work. Users have shared that they use the software primarily for creating motion graphics, visual effects, and animations for various media including videos for social media, promotional content, and training materials. This suggests a marked preference for After Effects in tasks involving detailed video edits and complex animations that require a high level of customization and technical intricacies.

Conversely, Blender users have mentioned utilizing the program primarily for its robust 3D modeling capabilities, including texturing, rigging, and rendering. Although capable of animation, Blender is predominantly praised for its utility in creating detailed 3D models and environments. Users appreciate its open-source nature which makes it accessible for students and freelancers looking to produce high-quality visual content without incurring heavy software costs.

The distinction in use cases between the two platforms is fairly clear: Adobe After Effects is favored for advanced motion graphics and video effects primarily used in post-production video work, while Blender is celebrated for its comprehensive 3D design tools used across various applications like game development, visual effects, and virtual reality content creation.

Best Alternatives
Adobe After EffectsBlender
Small Businesses
Autodesk Maya
Autodesk Maya
Score 8.6 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Blender
Blender
Score 9.2 out of 10
Onshape
Onshape
Score 7.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Adobe Animate
Adobe Animate
Score 8.3 out of 10
Navisworks
Navisworks
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Adobe After EffectsBlender
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(39 ratings)
9.8
(25 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(8 ratings)
8.6
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe After EffectsBlender
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
I would recommend Adobe After Effects to a colleague above all other comparable software that I have used, however, with the caveat that it can be time-consuming to learn to use and can be frustrating if you are not familiar with the software. Difficulty aside, once you begin to understand how to use Adobe After Effects, it is the only software for the job.
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Open Source
Blender is an excellent tool for everything from simple to complex 3D animations, the creation of 3D images, etc. It performs excellently in all of these areas. In the realm of 3D modelling, animation and rendering, there is very little that Blender is not suited for.
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Pros
Adobe
  • Adobe After Effects allows you to exercise a great level of control over how to animate just about every aspect of an object. You can control animation speed of entry and exit, the direction of rotation, scale, position, and so many more attributes.
  • Adobe After Effects is so popular that you can find so many paid and free third-party plug-ins and scripts to incorporate into your project.
  • There is such a breadth and depth of features available in Adobe After Effects, you will never get tired of exploring the program and using its many features to take your projects to new heights
  • Adobe After Effects works well with other products in the Adobe Creative Suites including, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Media Encoder
  • Adobe After Effects allows you to customize the setup of your workspace and panels
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Open Source
  • Creating complex polygonal geometries is very easy in Blender.
  • Edit Mode and Sculpt Mode helps in creating non uniform surfaces for objects like rocks, surfaces, terrains etc.
  • Blender can use various external plugins to make it work in more smoother way. For example to import any 3d object one can use sketchfab plugin and easily import the free assets from web after logging in.
  • Blender has a better rendering engine known as Cycles, it is far more better than any other stock rendering engine which can generate realistic lightning, shadows and reflections.
  • The animations can easily be generated with blender animation toolbar and also it incorporate any other animations made in any other software.
  • The bone generation and its behavior of animations can be achieved easily in blender.
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Cons
Adobe
  • I would like the Re-Link file structure to mimic Premiere.
  • I would like to see native .obj importing and manipulation.
  • I would like to see better audio editing available within Adobe After Effects. if it could be given a separate layer/panel.
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Open Source
  • It's really a hard question, but it could be: a game engine. Older versions used to have it; I would use it to simulate machines game-like.
  • I'm struggling to find another one; maybe the fact that it is so powerful and has so many features that learning it can be daunting; better documentation WITH examples and/or a map of Blender capabilities would help to know where you are in terms of knowledge and the planning the roadmap to where you want to go.
  • Precision modeling. Coming from CAD and using Blender as part of my design workflow, I'd love to be able to model inside Blender as I model with CAD tools. At this moment, it's simply impossible.
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Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
I will renew my use of After Effects since it's affordable and always has been reliable. They also always continue to update new features and add new things to compete with other software out there. I also like all the 3rd party plugins out there that keep my interest for the future and new toolsets and creative solutions.
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Open Source
No answers on this topic
Usability
Adobe
There's a lot of features and functionality that Adobe After Effects offers that can be hard to navigate at times. Depending on the depth you plan to use the software for, that can take some time to learn. The built-in templates and tutorials really help soften that learning curve. Once you get past some of the basics, it's fairly simple to use.
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Open Source
Because while it's a pretty good piece of software, the default built-in commands, the interface layout, and certain functions aren't as logical in their way of being arranged and executed. This, of course, doesn't diminish its use or effectiveness in your field of work, but it is quite awkward at first. A big advantage is that Blender lets you customize the interface however you want as well as keyboard shortcuts and several general program parameters.
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Support Rating
Adobe
Adobe customer support is wonderful. They genuinely care about their product and the end user experience. The products they create have always been innovative and continue to improve. They have a huge chunk of the user market in their field and still strive to improve. This is such a big deal for me and other small business/organizations that need their products and don't have a large voice on our own.
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Open Source
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Adobe
I find Adobe After Effects to be superior to iMovie and Final Cut Pro in that I am able to do much more with the software. It isn't as limiting as the other two. I also like that it isn't an Apple product. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Apple. There is a bigger learning curve with After Effects, but once you get the hang of it, there's really no comparison.
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Open Source
We've only used the consumer (non-pro) version of SketchUp, which we love, but is very limited in features and output capabilities compared to Blender. While Blender's learning curve is MUCH steeper than SketchUp, it feels like truly complete, professional design software.
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Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Adobe After Effects has a great impact on business as maximum work can be done in one software
  • To run this software you need to have good configuration system
  • Motion Graphics, 2d Animation and video editing can be done in one software
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Open Source
  • As it is a beginner-friendly software with increasing demand in the animation sector again, it positively impacts the business.
  • Except in some specific cases, no one will use Blender on their own at a professional level.
  • When I was a beginner, it took me a lot of time to learn, consequently designing the creation. But if we want to learn to master Blender, we can do it. As long as we have time and a lot of willpower, since, we repeat, it is not a simple program and hides thousands of tools and possibilities.
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