Top 5 Tools for Creating After Effects Templates
After Effects templates streamline motion design workflows. Whether creating templates for personal use, teams, or commercial sale, specialized tools can significantly enhance both the creation process and the final product quality.
1. Parental Controls
Parental Controls is a free After Effects script that lets you attach layers to the actual path, shape, or text of a parent layer. This proves especially valuable for templates, as end users can modify text while child layers automatically update accordingly. The script applies expressions without requiring the tool on the end user's system.
2. Pseudo Effect Maker 3
For templates utilizing multiple expression controls, Pseudo Effect Maker 3 consolidates them into a single effect, streamlining the user interface and simplifying template usage.
3. ExpressionUniversalizer 4
ExpressionUniversalizer 4 converts expressions to universalized versions, ensuring template compatibility in any language version of After Effects with a single click.
4. Templater
Templater from Dataclay connects After Effects projects to Google Sheets, enabling automatic asset swapping. This facilitates rendering multiple template iterations at scale by cycling through spreadsheet data.
5. Num
Num is a free preset for quickly formatting and animating numbers in After Effects, saving time whether working with expressions or editing them for custom controls.