After Effects templates are professionally-made, pre-designed, customizable After Effects project files. As with everything else in life, there are pros and cons to using templates to create motion graphics.
Some motion designers equate using After Effects and Premiere Pro templates with cheating or creating work that lacks originality. But the macho disdainful attitude that real designers should never use templates is one of those foolhardy instances of shooting yourself in the foot to prove a point. It does not make sense to avoid using tools that shave off considerable time and money just for bragging rights. The best motion designers boldly use templates to save considerable time and money all while customizing templates with their own savoir-faire and creativity to make the final product uniquely their own.
Our verdict? Templates are great! A fantastic resource!
Here are 13 reasons why you should be using professionally designed high-quality After Effects templates:
1- Save Money. Compared to the cost of starting and finishing a project from scratch, most templates and preset packages are very inexpensive so when the budget is tight, pulling from a template can dramatically save your bottom line. With professionally designed After Effects templates you quickly slash the cost of starting from scratch and you can make amazing videos at a fraction of your production budget.
2- Save Time. As a motion designer, you can use After Effects templates to save lots of effort and time by actually having a starting point for any video. With After Effects templates you get the opportunity to modify something that’s already been made. That way, if either you or your client have a change of heart, you do not have to start from ground zero. It is even possible to pick another template and find other alternatives to the project. Utilizing After Effects template as a tool to meet tight deadlines and quickly either start or modify a project is a huge time-saver. And as we all know: Time is Money!
3- Unlimited Options to Choose From. The template market has exploded in the past couple of years offering tons of variety and practically unlimited options. Most templates can adjust to just about any video production goals so it is safe to say that there is an After Effects template for just about any need and it is just a question of finding what works for your production goals. Here at Pixflow, we have been making quality After Effects templates for years at Video Hive in Envato. Our Motion Factory toolkit is gearing up to revolutionize the world of templates! Don’t miss out. Download Motion Factory for FREE here!
4- An Easy Introduction to After Effects. The learning process of Adobe After Effects program for a beginner motion designer can be brutal. Most high-quality templates are created by great artists with years of experience and experimenting with templates is an uncomplicated way for the uninitiated to learn the basics of this powerful and massive motion graphics program. A wonderful advantage of using templates as an opportunity for learning and mastering the After Effects software is that you won’t cheat yourself by using templates as a crutch and being entirely dependent on them.
5- Modularity. Think of templates as Lego sets: you can either go ahead and use the Lego pieces in the set per direction to create what’s pictured on the box or, you can take bits and pieces and use it with other bits and pieces that you already have to create something awesome that is exactly yours. The great thing is that almost all templates can be taken apart to create something new and some templates are created specifically for this purpose. Anything from text effects, to transitions, and even logo reveals can be pulled from different templates to make an amazing video without using the same After Effects template. Just be careful not to combine completely different animation portions and also make sure that colors and other attributes are easy to change to ensure that you will be able to create a unified look.
6- Amp Up the Production Value. Fact is that most quality professionally-designed After Effects templates look pretty amazing because, well, a lot of time and effort and artistry has been used to design and create them. You can easily upgrade even an average-looking video to look vastly more polished and professional simply by using a template — for example by using professionally created right lower thirds or transitions. It is highly recommended and a very wise choice to use After Effects templates to easily add sophisticated pizzazz to your footage and greatly improve the production value of your videos.
7- Stand Out. Just because others are using the same template that you choose to use does not prevent you from creating a video that is creative, original and singularly yours. High quality After Effects templates are highly customizable and you can make your work stand out from everyone else if you put a bit of work and creativity to customize the templates. Just make sure you take advantage of the options available on each project you download to modify the design, and you can quickly create an amazing video that looks nothing like other people’s work and will stand out as uniquely your own. When it comes to templates, the best practice is to get inspired, learn from them, and ultimately make them your own.
8- Make Great, Efficient Pitches. It is expensive and time consuming to conceptualize and create a great creative pitch to win over a client and there’s no point in fully and laboriously producing a concept before you’ve actually been awarded the work. After Effects templates to the rescue! Think of After Effects templates as a priceless tool to use as a facile starting point for your pitch concepts. The affordability of templates gives you amazing flexibility to create boards or rough videos to help sell your ideas and you can even use different templates to present more than one option to your clients. Using templates for pitches is really a no-brainer!
9- Problem Solve & Avoid Tedious Monotony. Using templates for certain motion design tasks that are tediously repeated — like making tons of titles — is a wise way to save time and ultimately your eyesight and sanity! Now tedious tasks aside, let’s say you want to use professional techniques or complex effects like cinematic particle effects or HUD infographs or the trendy glitch effect but just can’t get it to work? Don’t bang your head on the wall and instead use templates! Like Particle Builder, Glitch Builder and Hud builder. Presto, done!
10- Boost Creativity. A lot of designers think templates stifle creativity but in fact, templates can really boost creativity. How so? Well, we all experience those dreaded creative blocks where we hit a wall and can’t come up with anything good that we like. Templates, because they have a starting point, can make a great jumping off point for projects and using a template to straightaway experiment, brainstorm, customize and transform with different elements takes the pressure off and allows the creative juices to spark and flow. Templates also allow you to create effects that you wish to create but don’t yet have the knowledge to build, which can often get in the way of creativity. Ultimately and interestingly enough, templates if used correctly and not as a crutch, enhance rather than stifle creativity.
11- Increase Output Volume of Work With After Effects templates, you can expedite your workflow and increase the volume of work product. When creating work from scratch it can take you weeks at a premium price to service one client, when you could instead create work for twenty or more clients in the same amount of time at a more affordable price. It is risky to depend on a single client and if you are a freelancer or part of small team, it is a much smarter and more prudent business strategy to use After Effects templates to that you will be able to accept a lot more work and grow your business.
12- Keep up & Experiment with Trends. Motion design is a notoriously fast and furious field where it seems there is always a new motion graphic style around the corner that is all the rage, from glitch effects to liquid motion to animated typography and 3D macros. (Don’t miss our post on the Top 13 Motion Design Trends of 2018 by the way.) One of the habits of highly successful motion designers in the After Effects industry (read about the 7 Habits of Successful Motion Designers here) is that they make sure to stay up-to-date and on the cutting edge by keeping informed with all the latest developments and trends. In most cases, you can see which trends are hot by looking at which templates have a high download count and using popular After Effects and Premiere Pro templates is a great way to keep up and experiment with the latest popular trends.
13- Reverse Engineering Opportunity. Most quality After Effects templates are very intricate and complex and designed with artistry and masterful techniques by professional designers. Whether you are an After Effects newbie or an experienced user looking to improve your After Effects abilities, a smart way to do so is to reverse engineer an After Effects template to teach yourself how to replicate specific techniques by learning from these pros. How? Get a template and open up the After Effects project file and see how exactly they did it and in the process gain valuable skills about putting comps together, order of effects, wipes, lower thirds, animations, expressions, etc. Breaking down a template is a great way to learn a lot about After Effects from the pros!
And that’s all folks!
Did you find this blog post helpful? We would love to get your feedback and if you would like us to create more content like this, definitely let us know in the comments.
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Make sure as well to check out our website for a ton of freebie After Effects templates and motion design goodies to use as tools and inspiration for your projects.
Now go forth and conquer, motion design warriors!
