Useful Plugins

Today, we are learning more about After Effects' default plugins. I will show you the ones that I often use in my work because they are essential to most of the tasks you want to accomplish in After Effects. Let's dive in.

In this chapter, you've learned:

• How to find and use plugins in the Effects & Presets panel;
• How to apply and adjust effects for layers;
• The purpose of essential plugins.

Mentioned Plugins

• Offset: Shifts the position of a layer's contents without affecting the boundaries;
• Motion Tile: Duplicates and tiles layers while allowing you to mirror edges for seamless loops;
• RepeTile: Expands the layer's edges by repeating its pixels to extend coverage;
• Gaussian Blur: Smoothly blurs an image to soften edges or reduce detail;
• Directional Blur: Blurs an image along a specific angle or direction for motion effects;
• Hue/Saturation: Adjusts the overall hue, saturation, and lightness of an image's colors;
• Curves: Allows fine-tuned control of brightness and contrast using curve adjustments;
• Lumetri Color: A comprehensive color grading tool for adjusting color, exposure, and contrast;
• Fill: Fills a layer or object with a solid color;
• Drop Shadow: Adds a shadow effect to a layer to create depth or dimension;
• Exposure: Adjusts the overall exposure of an image, affecting brightness and highlights;
• Transform: Provides basic transformation properties like scale, rotation, position, and opacity for layers.