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Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects

Overview

What is Adobe After Effects?

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…

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Recent Reviews
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Awards

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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Annual Plan (Paid Monthly)

$20.99

On Premise
Per User Per Month

Monthly Plan

$31.49

On Premise
Per User Per Month

Annual Plan (Prepaid)

$239.88

On Premise
Per User Per Year

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

After Effects Demo Reel

YouTube

Adobe After Effects Lesson 8 - DEMO Sand Text (Blowing Sand Effect)

YouTube

New in Adobe After Effects! Remove Anything from Video with Content Aware Fill (April 2019)

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Adobe After Effects?

Adobe After Effects Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.9.

The most common users of Adobe After Effects are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(247)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 34)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Adobe After Effects helps with organization through visual consistency, project structure, asset management, efficient editing, animation presets, collaboration, version control, export options, reusable templates, and workflow integration in post-production.
  • Motion Graphics
  • Animation
  • Compositing
  • VFX
  • Render
  • 3D
  • Interface
Motion Graphics Design, Visual Effects (VFX), Character Animation, Animated Advertisements
Miko Mikaela Garcia | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used by the Production department in my organization. It addresses visualizing eye-catching and supporting graphics for our courses.
  • animate text
  • add visual effects onto footage
  • create motion graphics
  • create Mogrts that don't break or have flicker when using in Premiere Pro
  • Be able to have 2 views of the full comp and the comp with a layer or effect turned off (instead of toggling on/off)
  • When using linear wipe on text, have the transition percentage encompass only the text length (not the text in regards to where it is on the composition)
It is well suited for creating motion graphics, lower thirds, title cards, compositing, and some minor motion tracking. It's less appropriate for heavier visual effects and most motion tracking.
March 29, 2023

After effects review

Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
To make demo reels
  • Animating
  • Combining clips
  • Sound editing
  • Exporting
If someone need to put together some video for a demo, or wants to do good animation for a digital product I will recommend.
If it's for a prototype animation for digital product I won't.
November 17, 2022

Always value your time

Srikant Wadgaonkar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
After Effects gives more freedom to create motion graphics, editing videos, creating small big animations. Adobe after effects has multiple plugins that help explore more and enhance your creativity. It's video editing tools are very user friendly. Importing and exporting images and videos with far better quality gives encouragement to design more.
  • Motion graphic
  • Image animation
  • Video editing
  • Color balance
  • Remove green mat
  • Importing .gif
  • Manual frame adjustment
  • Title animation
Once we were working on a project where we needed to create small animations videos as well as .gif. non of the other tools were usefull when it comes to create gifs and image animations. It took us very less time to create animations and we were able to deliver the project in time.
Romi Kalathiya | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I am just a freelancer working with lots of international clients, and I offer services related to UI/Ux design and motion graphics which requires me to use Adobe After Effects on a daily basis. In fact, I can't imagine working without [Adobe] After Effects. I do motion graphics, 2d animations, gifs, and some basic VFX stuff as well. I personally think it's the best tool that lets you do a little bit of everything and doesn't need you to buy a dozen different software.
And that doesn't mean it's not powerful or featureful enough. It has all the advanced-level tools you'll need. Heck, you can't even learn this beast even if you are using it for more than 10-15 years.
  • Rotoscope
  • Chroma keying
  • Vector based animations
  • Camera tracking
  • Motion graphics
  • Little more flexibility with video editing- I know it's not a video editing tool but still, it's good to have some features
  • Vector based animations should be much more compatible with other device/codes
  • Some more effects and presets to make it easier
I can't imagine any other tool to do all that [Adobe After Effects] is capable of doing. It's layer-based and has cross-compatibility with Photoshop and Illustrator, so that's a good thing. I know node base tools are more powerful for composition, but they have their own limitations. In simple words, [it's a] one-stop solution for all your needs.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics to accompany big organization announcements and releases, via email, the web, and social media. I use Adobe After Effects to create motion graphics for virtual events, like Symposiums and celebrations.
  • 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
  • Adobe After Effects' biggest drawback is that it uses a lot of computer processing power and ram. This can cause delays in working on your project and can be challenging to smoothly preview your project in real-time.
Adobe After Effects is well suited for creating short video projects that require intricate animation, like 5 minute or 1-minute countdowns, credit roll-ins, outros, and video bumpers. It is also useful for creating animated elements that can be incorporated into video projects, like animated key titles. For longer videos, I would recommend using Adobe Premiere Pro instead.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Adobe After Effects for Motion Graphics and Animation. I use Adobe After Effects every day and it addresses the majority of my motion design problems or needs. I use it in conjunction with Photoshop and Illustrator so nearly all my needs.
  • Text Animation
  • Character Animation
  • Simple 3D designs
  • 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.
I would always recommend Adobe After Effects as it covers many of the basics for Motion Design and integrates well with anyone whos already used Photoshop, Illustrator, or Premiere.
Hannan Shahid | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe After Effects to design and finish and enhance our videos with effects, intros, and outros. The amount of control we get in editing is not available in any other application in the market currently. The tools that Adobe After Effects offers also do the job very well and help our organization reduce expenditures by not having to separately purchase those tools.
  • VFX
  • Titles and outros
  • Motion Blur
  • Animations
  • Effects
  • Pricing
  • Learning Curve
  • Resource Intensivity
  • Proper utilization of CPU, RAM, and VRAM
Adobe After Effects is very well suited for detailed designs and editing where you can put in some time and effort and can reap the rewards of your efforts by having more than average output results. It does require a learning curve and is time-consuming to work on a project. Therefore, it is not very well suited for organizations that require doing multiple projects quickly and with some automation.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
After Effects 22.3 is not compatible with the Apple M1 chip. If you are purchasing a computer to use with the Adobe suite, do not buy a Mac with an M1 chip. Premiere Pro also keeps crashing and does not import the previous projects as a workaround. When it does work, it works well, however, if you are using After Effects to edit green screen projects using Premiere Pro and After Effects then the Apple M1 mac is not currently compatible. I wish I had known this when we made the decision to purchase M1 macs. Adobe is aware of the problem and working to correct it, however, there is no time frame for when this issue will be resolved.
  • Motion graphics
  • The dynamic link is buggy and when using Premiere Pro you often have to re-link the After Effects file
  • After effects is not compatible with the Apple M1 chip
After Effects is a good tool for editing green screens as the Ultra Key effect native to Premiere Pro is very basic. The motion graphic capabilities in After Effects are really great, however, could be improved with snapping and better alignment capabilities similar to InDesign and Illustrator.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use After Effects for Motion Graphics and Video Editing. The only problem while working on the software is that one should have good configuration system so that it takes less time to render out the video. So it's better to have good configuration system and for rendering videos I prefer Media Encoder which is a product of Adobe to render out the videos.
  • Creating 2d animation
  • Motion Graphics
  • Creating 3d elements
  • Video Editing
  • Stop Motion Animation
  • As previewing video in After Effects takes lot of time, so it's better to solo a layer and see the animation preview which will save a lot of time
  • Delete all the unnecessary files from the project and trim the comp size to the object so that it will use less memory
  • Try to work on lower resolution which will save a lot of time
Adobe After Effects is best used to create 2d Animations, Motion Graphics, and 3d elements. In Adobe After Effects we can do video editing also as there is no need of using Adobe Premiere in many scenarios and creating GIFS in After Effects is also easy. For creating 2d static images you need to use Adobe PhotoShop. So After Effects is the best software for multipurpose.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
For marketing and advertising projects, we used After Effects for nearly everything. From creating logos and 3D animations to creating high-quality special effects for films & movies, After Effects was a major part of the organization and the solution to all of our advanced video editing needs. The features of After Effects are unparalleled for the work that we did.
  • Title & Logo Design
  • 3D animation
  • VFX Effects
  • Video Editing
  • Chroma Key
  • More support for plugins
  • Quicker Encoding times
  • Better data recovery
If you are doing any video editing, Adobe After Effects is almost required. The Adobe Suite works perfectly and allows you to connect and synchronize Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Illustrator and any other Adobe Creative Cloud files flawlessly. Every video editor, without a second though, should be using Adobe After Effects.
Salomi Rai | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Mostly, we use Adobe After Effects for motion graphics and video composition. We also use it to create animatics for animators. In particular, our VFX team uses this software to add effects in a shot--whether it is to make it rain, create a snowfall effect, or show a massive explosion.
  • Easy to add any kind of effects
  • Easy to animate any character, title, object, or text
  • Video editing and composition
  • 2D animation
  • Can’t perform the basic editing functions like cutting, trimming, cropping, layering, etc.
  • Absence of a mobile app
  • 3D animation
Adobe After Effects is really useful software for video editing and composition. It also helps to add an extra touch of beauty in your animation. Depending on the user, you can create simple edited videos or a high level of video editing and composition. You can do almost anything in this software, as far as your imagination goes.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe's After Effects for editing videos that we shoot on a production grade camera equipment. These videos are mainly the NGOs activities to be shared with donors. Although we use this tool in a limited capacity, but it gets the work done. It is used by our outreach department. It allows us to give post shoot adjustments to our videos which was difficult before
  • Video masking using shapes and more outlines
  • Saving and reverting to an older file version
  • Easy expressions to use features like masking, brush strokes
  • The UI looks very cluttered and takes time to navigate around the tool
  • Very hardware dependant. Takes a lot of cpu and gpu performance time
  • Difficult to add text and edit
It is well suited for production grade videos and films. It can change or improve lightening, shadows after shooting. The quality of the video should be good enough for after effects to show good results. It's not suited for videos where not a lot of effects are to be added and simple transitioning of frames would work.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Adobe After Effects is being used at our company for video editing purposes because it allows us to create awesome video advertisements with cool effects and transitions, we chose After Effects because it can handle special video effects better than any video editing software and thousands of pre-made templates are available for it online which helps us a lot during the editing process because we can easily add awesome effects to our videos or to the ones that we edit for our clients with little to no effort.
  • A lot of educational resources are available for it online
  • Thousands of premade After Effects templates are downloadable free of charge
  • It can handle complex animations
  • Sometimes the software crashes in the middle rendering a video and we have to start the rendering process all over
  • Some After Effects plug-ins are not working well and they make the software slower while running
Adobe After Effects is the perfect video editing software for videos that require a lot of animations and effects and no competitor in the market can compete with it when it comes to special effects and animations it's simply the best one for this purpose, and they are constantly updating the software to add new features to help video editors produce better videos.
Nicole Rayne | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe After Effects as our video editing software of choice, from our training videos to short gifs on social media. It allows our video presentations to be clean, professional, and engaging. We've also used it to produce stills for background images. It is our plan to increase our usage of this software over the next few years, as we develop more video content for both our curricula and social media presence.
  • Video editing
  • Special Effects
  • Lighting Effects
  • The newest version of AE no longer has a scroll bar at the bottom of the timeline, this makes it really hard to stay zoomed in and move through a project slowly.
As long as your machine and graphics card are up to running AE it's great for all video editing. The ability to implement effects, cameras, etc at any point in your project makes it a great tool.

The chroma key feature is really nice for explainer videos and times when you'd like to animate graphics on screen in front of or behind an actor/instructor.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've used it when making videos/commercials for my business. It makes it easier to inspire imagination with, for example, a rocket than actually being blown up by a rocket! JA! Okay in all seriousness, I make fantastical family portraits and sometimes I need to help these adults who've lost their imagination see what children see every day in their minds to be able to sell the amazing portraits that I make.
  • If you know Photoshop, you can use this.
  • You can integrate this with Photoshop and basically all the other products in the Adobe suite.
  • There's audio editing, because, well, I stink at audio and have needed my audio saved before!
  • You absolutely need a higher end computer like a gaming computer to use this.
  • It uses a ton of RAM and then your computer complains about it.
  • Sometimes extra plugins, plus the RAM getting hung up, and not having enough of a high end computer can create the perfect storm of everything crashing and then you curse everything out that you were working on.
This is the best software for adding effects, audio, animations, post production, there's already some animation in it that you can just use and it all can integrate with any other adobe product out there. It's seriously robust and amazing. I think the only reason I'm giving it a nine instead of a ten is because After Effects will crash if you don't have a better computing computer and if you don't know how adobe uses layers, etc...then there is a big learning curve to this (they do have tutorials to help you).
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe After Effects primarily to design short animations for marketing email. After Effects is the best solution for this since we can design the assets in other Adobe programs such as Photoshop, XD and illustrator. Additionally, we use After Effects to create online display ads and even short (one minute or less) videos for broadcast.
  • After Effects is great for creating motion content once and easily exporting it to various formats such as web, broadcast, GIF, etc.
  • After Effects is the industry standard for motion graphics. While I’m an Apple user and have used Motion in the past it is not as feature rich and most clients will expect you to use After Effects.
  • After Effects is great for complex UI animation. Tools like principle and Flinto are great but are quite cumbersome for complex UI animations.
  • Developer handoff. Competing UI design tools allow designers to share CSS and C+/Swift code for developers to recreate animations. After Effects requires third party plugins to do so.
  • Functions like GIF export have been removed and moved to Media Encoder. Media Encoder can be launched directly from After Effects but the reasoning behind the decision is unclear. Similar features have not been removed and it creates a unneeded learning curve for new users.
  • Resizing is done form the center of an object where as CSS always originates from top left. By not being able to toggle the origin point the user has to do a lot of math on their end.
After Effects is the best tool for motion graphics due to it’s tight integration with the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite. It should be your go to for film and video. I use the tool primarily for web animation and UI mock-up and it works great in most instances but requires the user to have a good understanding of the requirements of designing for the web. Also, After Effects is a resource hog. It’s highly CPU dependent and ram dependant if you want to do lots of previews. Its inclusion in the Creative Cloud subscription is great. If you are an Adobe PhotoShop/Illustrator user your most likely already paying for it.
Nathan Morimitsu | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe After Effects to help provide special effects and "wow factor" into training videos to help keep them entertaining and engaging.
  • isolating subjects and removing backgrounds
  • animations
  • creating title and credit sequences
  • Resource Use - After Effects is a huge resource hog. I'm hopeful that future versions continue the trend of improving on this
After Effects is great for adding finishing touches to videos and making them appear as though they cost a lot more to make than they actually did. It's perfect for looking like you have a big Hollywood studio budget when you are really on a mac and cheese budget.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use video clips in our online marketing and advertising efforts, from webinars to produced videos and tutorials. Often we need to have an animated video intro or outro to go along with the content, so we turn to Adobe After Effects. Using Adobe After Effects, we can create these animated segments that highlight our logo and text in our brand colors. It works perfectly.
  • Extremely powerful platform
  • 3D animation and rendering
  • Multi-layer compositions
  • Text warping
  • Steep learning curve
  • Huge resource hog
  • Takes several GB for installation
Adobe After Effects is not for the beginner; it's the top-end software program for video animations. With so many complex settings and capabilities, it has a huge learning curve that can take years to master. Luckily, through YouTube videos and just pure ingenuity, one can learn how to use Adobe After Effects even if they are more of a hobbyist. It's well suited for complex animation needs.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use it to make classes for EAD. Use to make some special effects on the movies for training or for publicity. As a small company, I'm the only user of it. A slide with movement always attracts more the attention of the viewer and this is why I start learning and using it.
  • Add movement to a static image
  • Capture the attention of the viewer with effects and plug ins
  • Fast rendering
  • Integrate it more easily with Audition would be a nice improvement
It is suited to small portions of a movie edition. That's not the program for long editions, it is to provide some tools at the edition and used together with Adobe Premiere Pro. Also is not ideal for track[ing] the sound edition, this works better with help of Audition and pasted at Premiere Pro.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Adobe After Effects to edit and create videos for several social media platforms. Our marketing department uses After Effects to create compelling video for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok & YouTube ads among others. Since video is king on social media right now, After Effects has been essential to building our current ad campaigns.
  • It is extremely efficient at creating videos with the best effects.
  • It is easy to use once you learn how the program functions.
  • It offers more ways to edit video than other software I've used.
  • There are plugins that don't work with After Effects at times.
  • There is definitely a learning curve. It is not very intuitive.
After Effects is best suited for those who are experienced in video editing software as there is definitely a learning curve. That being said, After Effects is great for large productions or small, quick videos that you want to look professional. You are able to fine-tune your video much better in After Effects than most other software. After Effects is less appropriate in situations where minimal editing is needed.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In our higher education institution, Adobe After Effects is primarily used by creative units around campus, primarily by marketing professionals and instructional media producers. It allows for these roles to create high-fidelity, professional animations, and graphics for use in a variety of deliverable formats. The complexity and depth of After Effects require training and a high degree of comfort/familiarity with the program to ensure that the user is able to create what they want. As such, its usage across the institution is limited.
  • If you can dream it, you can probably create it in After Effects. With a host of features, 3rd-party plugins, and a high degree of customizability, After Effects is an agile platform for video/graphic compositing.
  • After Effects integrates well with other Adobe products such as Premiere Pro. If you make an edit in one, it reflects in the other without having to render out a full project. This is a huge time saver.
  • After Effects has served as the industry standard for many years now, which means there is a plethora of resources online and in print to help new (and current!) users locate information when they need it.
  • At first blush, After Effects' UI is overwhelming. Even after a decade of using it, I still get lost at times.
  • While the base-level product is fine for a lot of basic projects, anything with any kind of complexity is going to require 3rd-party plugins which can be rather expensive.
  • While this is not specific to After Effects, it is unfortunate that all of Adobe's products in the Creative Suite require the user to maintain a subscription. Subscription-based models benefit the company, not the user.
Adobe After Effects is best used when the producer is creating graphics/effects used in video composition. For example, creating graphics or video overlays falls right in its wheelhouse. And while it can technically serve as a non-linear editing platform (such as Premiere Pro), this is not its strength. I have seen people try to use it this way and it always leads to more headaches and frustration in the long run.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Adobe After Effects is being used by our organization for the creation of animations utilizing vector illustrations. It's mainly only used for one particular client but it's used on a monthly basis and is essential in being able to create the animations that they request as it has the capability of making professional and complex animations.
  • Creating complex animations
  • Creating professional and creative animations
  • Learning curve is steep
  • Interface is intimidating
  • Keyboard shortcuts don't always align with the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite
I would only recommend using Adobe After Effects to someone who is willing to spend a significant amount of time to learn the ins and outs of how to use the software. However, if it was someone who was already familiar with using another animation/video software and has some experience in using the Adobe Creative Suite then I might be more inclined to recommend it to them.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am a designer who creates motion graphics as well as gifs. [Adobe After Effects] is being used by the design dept. We do not currently address any business problems, we are growing thanks to hard work and passion for design.

  • Responsive
  • Easy and friendly interface
  • Highly easy and solid
  • The timeline for videos should be updated
  • More intuitive
  • Speed load
To generate visually stunning work for film, TV, video, and web. [Adobe] After Effects brings “life” and motion to graphics. [Adobe] After Effects is built for animation. That's one of its main purposes. It can be great for certain styles of character animation, but in other areas, it's just not designed with those capabilities in mind.
ANDREW TOUTANT | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
It is a great animation and design program for videos from small to large clients. It’s been fast, reliable, and I like their updates and customer support. I use it for motion graphics in the advertising field and for movie and tv promos. It always meets the needs of the agency and those needs of the client for revisions and changes.
  • Fast animation
  • Copying and repurposing template files
  • Reliable renders
  • Easy interface
  • Some of the scripts can be difficult.
  • Some plugins could work more reliably.
  • More free trials for plugins would be good.
It’s great for text animations and character and explainer videos. It's fast when there's a deadline
that may be faster than was anticipated. I can always count on After Effects for speed and reliable renders.
I've been a user for more than 15 years and always like their new features and updates.
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