Top 10 Best Plugins for After Effects 2021 (Paid & Free)

what's up everybody it's your boy nate so about  a year ago i made a list of the most useful most   innovative and just outright dope plugins for  after effects anyways everyone loved it they   made some super dope stuff and ended up saying  nate check this out and this out too and we   ended up checking all of it out and here we are  a year later in a new studio new nate new wife   new after effects but mainly we're going to be  talking about the best new plugins because let's   face it this year has just been a cluster of  awesome plugins only the best of the best have   made it to this list so without further ado i'm  super excited i know you are too alright let's go   so if you're new to the channel you probably  are like why is nate so excited about after   effects well let me tell you really quickly it's  probably because it is an award-winning software   that has been used throughout hollywood short  films all sorts of places between the internet   music videos you name it people have been  creating just mind-blowing visual effects   motion graphics character animations all  thanks to the use of after effects but   anyways after effects would not be as amazing if  it wasn't thanks to a little secret sauce that is   plugins so you may see a whole bunch of people  making really dope stuff but sometimes they might   not say that hey they use element 3d to create  all these awesome 3d visuals or that they even use   something like motion to create some super smooth  animations well you know what today we're going to   be doing we're going to be breaking down some of  the best plugins for after effects going through   the most useful most innovative and honestly just  best bang for buck when it comes to enhancing   after effects capabilities and speeding up your  workflow so whether you're new to the software or   an after effects vet i guarantee you're going  to want to stick around until the end okay so   first up on the list at number 10 one of the best  glitch art plugins for after effects and that is   data mosh 2. it's a plug-in that you  can find on a scripts for about 49   and if you guys have paid attention in the past  i've talked about data washing because it is one   of the most super creative techniques that you  can do when it comes to glitch art and video   and thanks to datamosh 2 after effects gets  a whole new reboot with being able to do   data moshing right inside the software so  data mosh 2 comes from one of my favorite   plugin developers of all time aptly named plug and  play they always come out with super dope plugins   that not only have super smooth uis but just  work well with after effects while also adding   an unimaginable functionality so when i first  got into data moshing i had been inspired from   checking out videos like kanye west and then i  ended up seeing lamborghini high from asap rocky   and i gotta admit the process to data moshing  was slow tedious and i think anyone in the glitch   art community would just agree it's something  that is a straight-up pain in the ass so when   plug-and-play made the data washing plug-in for  after effects which removed a lot of the headache   it ended up being one of my favorite plug-ins  i love how they revamped this plug-in with   flashing engines that allow for greater precision  in fine-tuning motion vectors and how pixels move   being able to use these markers and presets  really makes the process so much fun to play   with it's only about 49 which when you think about  how much time it can save and the awesome results   i think it is well worth it it adds so much  functionality to after effects and works really   really well and for that reason data mosh 2 gets  a well deserved black mixture stamp of approval   next up at number 9 okay so this next plugin is a  beast at handling rigging and character animation   in after effects that's right we're talking  about limber which is a plug-in that you can   find for about forty dollars on a scripts now i  don't know why after effects has gone this long   without making their own character rigging tool  but thanks to limber we get the ability to add   all sorts of custom ik and fk rigs right  within the software now i first found out   this plugin from ben marriott who recommended it  for character animation when i looked more into it   i realized that pretty much everyone was saying  the same thing from ec abrams to motion by nick   which if you take a look at their work you can  probably agree that character animation and limber   is a super super powerful plugin now i know  it may be a little bit intimidating because   if you're just first starting out there's so many  different options with it but it helps that there   are a lot of free tutorials online especially here  on youtube if you decide it's for you so anyways   this plug-in is for those who are getting serious  about character animation and after effects and   for that reason it gets a well-deserved black  mixture stamp of approval next up at number eight   we have cinematte which is a chroma keyer plugin  if you guys don't know what chroma keying is it's   pretty much the process of removing a color from  a background typically whenever you are looking   at a green screen and you need to remove the  green in that the super technical term for that   is chroma keying we have a plug-in from 36 pix  which comes out the gate thanks to this plug-in   all we have to do is just apply cinematic to some  sort of green screen footage and instantly all   the settings get calibrated to give us a really  dope key and if we want to fine-tune some of the   settings we can to give us different outputs  or even remove the person from the background   entirely to create a clean plate it's just really  cool to have cinematic automatically detect the   background key out the footage change the spill  suppressor and color correct the footage to match   all while making use of your graphics card  and letting you get specific if things   just don't go right the first time i also love  the algorithms for keeping hair look super clean   and i also love the algorithm for removing those  shadow blobs that may happen whenever you're   using a green screen that just has those little  shadows on it from different wrinkles and whatnot   anyways this plugin saves a lot of time for those  who have to do some serious chroma keying and   a lot of footage and for 79 dollars it can  save you a whole lot of time on your chroma   keying projects for that reason cinemat gets a  well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval   number seven on the list so this next plugin is my  favorite for creating buttery smooth bokeh that's   right we're talking about fast bokeh pro from the  super dope developers robot so fast bokeh pro is   a super useful plugin that saves you so much  time if you've ever tried rendering out from a   3d software like cinema 4d or maya then you know  just how painstakingly difficult it can be not   only does it take forever but it is also limiting  because all of the depth of field is literally   baked into the image but by using something like  depth maps and a plug-in like fast bokeh pro   instead you're then able to just select your focus  point in post and fine-tune the depth of field   and bokeh effects with so much more ease fast  bokeh pro is available for fifty dollars at 80   scripts and at that price point fifty dollars can  really save you so much time and give you so much   more functionality with your 3d renders yeah this  plug-in works so well and i just love how powerful   it is for that reason fastball get pro gets a  well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval   we're getting down to number six on the list  okay so next up on the list is one of my favorite   plugins for time ramps and the time remapping  in after effects that's right i'm talking about   the super dope plug-in from revision fx twixtor  and twixtor pro now i will warn you guys this is   not a cheap plug-in at all it is super costly  the regular version costs 329 and then the pro   version costs 595 dollars honestly guys that's a  lot of money now the power of this plugin is that   it does something that after effects can't do that  well which is generate frames in between motion   vectors whenever you're slowing down footage so  let's say i shot something in 60 frames per second   and i wanted to slow it down by half that'll work  out pretty fine because then i could just change   the frame rate to 30 frames per second i'll get  about half speed let's say i wanted to run like   it's at like one percent of the speed in  which you know you'd have to probably film   at like 3000 frames per second that's pretty much  impossible to do unless you have something like   a 50 000 high-speed camera or have something  like twixtor which will use their algorithms to   generate the images in between it is super super  powerful and honestly i've used it to create stuff   without having a crazy rig like the slo-mo  guys have i've seen all sorts of creatives   use twixtor to create all sorts of awesome  time remaps for music videos commercials   you name it and for that reason twixtor gets a  well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval okay so halfway through the list at number five  this next plugin has to be probably the coolest   one that i've seen come out this year and one of  the most useful for character animation that's   right i'm talking about dk motion tool now it's  a collaboration between dk motion on instagram   and motion design school when i first saw this  plugin i thought it looked strangely similar to   limber except when i actually dived in i was  quickly blown away by the super clean ui and   the functionality of it the ease of making dope  animations quickly was just such a mind-blowing   experience because using limber might be a little  bit intimidating but having these easy markers   and control points and character creation  tools makes animating and after effects   fun and interesting i love this plugin for  the character animation tools such as this   character animation assistant which stuck out  probably more than these high price point of 75   by the way you can find this plug-in on  a scripts this is just such a fun and   interesting way to animate scenes i gotta give it  to dk motion and motion design school for making   such a dope plug-in and for that reason it gets  a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval   next up at number four this next plugin i've seen  in all sorts of movies video games music videos   and just about everywhere trying to get that  michael bay movie-esque lens flare that's right   we're talking about video copilot's optical flare  plug-in for after effects now optical flares is   a pricey plug-in at 124 dollars it is also super  useful because it just works really well and gives   you so much now if you don't know what an optical  flare is it's pretty much whenever you're filming   a light source and you get the camera and the lens  just at the right angle you're gonna get these   really cool shapes and artifacts and the light  hitting the sensor and normally it's pretty   difficult to fine tune and replicate a certain  look in real life but thanks to a plug-in like   video copilot's optical flares you can really  tweak the exact look and feel of all sorts of   lens flares from having grungy ones to super  sci-fi looking ones it's such a useful technique   for creating moods and styles to your footage and  really enhancing your composited shot and for that   reason video co-pilot's optical flares gets a  well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval   at number three on the list we have motion v3  from one of my favorite developers mount mograph   the motion series plug-ins have been some of  the dopest plug-ins since they came out before   i can even touch animation in after effects  i always have to have this plug-in installed   because since using it it is honestly impossible  to go back to the traditional method of opening   up the keyframe assistant animation window and  then going into this graph editor and changing   the speed graphs and doing all these things  yeah forget that boring method because using   motion v3 control these using sliders is so much  easier and so much more useful yeah it's just a   freaking time saver not only that but motion v3  comes jam-packed with features that i can go on   and on about but some of my favorite things have  to be the project sorter which will consort all   the different elements inside of your project  panel so you don't have a super messy project   it looks nice and clean for you to package up  and then also the different expression tools   like the excite as well as this really intuitive  keyframe adjustment editor yeah i can go on and on   about how dope this plug-in is and how much  time it saves so let me just save the time   and let you know that this plugin gets a  well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval   the second to last at number two on the list this  next plugin came out the gate as a huge surprise   mainly because i never thought it was possible  to be able to use blender 3d information   inside of after effects what here we have now  blender ae which adds in a really dope way to   import 3d data into after effects  to create all sorts of composited   graphics or even just mess around with greedy  the results look super dope now i will warn that   this plug-in is like freaking brand new do you  expect like a little bit of roughness around the   edges it's not the cleanest plug-in out right  now but at thirty dollars it is pretty fun to   mess around with something that's developing and  growing in after effects for that reason i gotta   applaud the innovation of blender ae and it gets  a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval   yo last but not least number one on the list you  know a plug-in video would not be complete if we   did not mention this one that's right i'm talking  about fx console it is a plug-in that has been my   favorite plugin of all time it's been my favorite  for years pretty much since installing it it's   been used on every single project i'm honestly  surprised that no one even challenged to create   another plugin that does kind of the same thing or  even a little bit better but then again i'm also   not surprised because this plug-in already comes  from one of the dopest developers of all time   video co-pilot and the og andrew kramer by  the way my favorite plugin is a free one so   yeah go ahead download it save yourself some  time it gives you this really cool pop-up window   love it a lot it gets a well-deserved  black mixture stamp of approval and yo you guys we got an extra one at  number zero on the list i just swear   but we actually do have an extra one  anyways so this next one is not so   much of a plug-in as much as it is a really  useful evolving resource kit for creating   all sorts of visuals graphics media in general  that's right i'm talking about envato elements   so i've been using envato elements for a couple  of years now and since using it i honestly can say   i can't go back because having access to thousands  of thousands of really dope high quality assets   is such a game changer especially whenever i'm  like yo i want to add something really cool like   these sparks or these uh explosions being able to  just search that up download it import it into a   project or let's say even being able to pull up  some sort of music to use inside of these videos   yeah all of that is possible thanks to envato  elements you know i figured hey at the price point   of envato elements the time that it saves me and  the amount of resources that it gives me is just   well worth it and i like that it has assets and  templates for things like after effects premiere   pro photoshop the whole suite while also having  high quality music and video assets and yeah just   so much much more it's honestly my favorite by  far on the list even though it's not a direct   plug-in for after effects for that reason it gets  a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval   okay so hopefully you guys found a plugin  that was useful for you that you can take away   into making some super dope stuff and a quick  disclaimer i want you guys to know that a lot   of these plug-ins are featured on a-scripts  but a-scripts in no way sponsored this video   but if you guys want to check out any of these  plug-ins there are going to be links down in the   description some of them are going to be affiliate  links to where we will make like a little kickback   for any time you guys buy them and that will help  out the channel a huge amount so thank you guys   as well at the same time don't get any plugins  that you guys are not going to use because i   don't want you guys getting stuff that's not  going to be useful so definitely consider all   the plugins on this list see if this is going to  save you time see if this is going to be something   that's going to be a complete game changer for  you as it has for me and hopefully you guys make   something really cool i want you guys to send it  to us on instagram but most of all make sure that   you guys smash that like button if you guys sat  around for the end of the video because you know   wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't thanks  to all you guys liking and saying hey that you   loved all these plugins also while you're at it  make sure that you subscribe and ding that post   notification bell so you don't miss out on any  of the super dope stuff that we got planned yo   you guys we're almost at 200 000 subscribers that  is freaking mind blowing i honestly did not know   that this would happen right now like well  actually i kind of did but i'm not going to glue   so anyways a big heartfelt thanks to each and  every 200 000 of you all yeah hope you guys have   a dope halloween if you're watching this before  halloween and hey if you guys are sticking around   until the end of the year have a happy holidays  but we probably are going to have doper videos out   by then so make sure you guys check those out as  well follow us on instagram at blackmixture to see   more behind the scenes interact with us  you know while we're on the go and doing   little things about our day anyways thanks for  watching hope to catch you in the next one peace yeah you know where it's at

Channel: Black Mixture

Views: 25,635

Keywords: blackmixture, after effects, plugins scripts, free, Top 10 plugins for after effects, best plugins, Adobe After Effects for free, Adobe After Effects CC, Top After Effects Plugins, Best plugins for motion graphics, Red Giant, Element 3d, Trapcode, mogrt, Handy Seamless Transitions, intro to plugins, aescripts, black mixture, Mt Mograph, Videocopilot, motion graphics, best, how to, ben marriott, video copilot, fxconsole, datamosh, limber, deekay motion, motion design school

Id: HvD0EyLpzzc

Length: 17min 42sec (1062 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 29 2021