Open Source Adobe After Effects Alternatives

Arguably one of the best video effects editors in the business, Adobe After Effects provides users with a robust suite of tools and documentation to enable both novice and professional video editors to do what they need to in order to create stunning visual effects for video and film.

Alternatives with a similar workflow include Small FXhome HitFilm iconFXhome HitFilm (which has a free option available), Blackmagic Design Fusion, and NUKE.

For more especially purposed programs that are concentrated on 3D modeling, screen capturing and recording, and advanced motion tracking instead of post-processing and video effect editing, you've come to the right place!

The list of alternatives was last updated: 1/11/2020 4:41:00 PM
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Alternatives to Adobe After Effects for all platforms with Open Source License

  • Natron

    Natron is an open source, cross platform nodal compositing application. It is built around industry standard open source tech such as OpenFX, OpenEXR, OpenColorIO and OpenImageIO. The feature set includes realtime playback/RAM cache, multi-threaded rendering, 2d tracking, rotoscoping, grading, animation via f-curves and 3rd party OpenFX plugin support. All contained within a familiar, intuitive interface with an XML based project file format.

    • Free and open-source node based alternative to After Effects. It's pretty similar to Nuke, but doesn't cost anything. POX • Apr 2020 Disagree   Agree
    • Its hard to understand at first, but once you know what you're doing, every things is worth it Rotchka22 • Mar 2020 • 0 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • A Node based approach for not only vector and raster image processing and animation but also for OpenGL effects and shader authoring. Also supports OFX. Mainly targeted for VFX compositing. fahadhasanpathik • Jan 2018 • 10 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Awful documentation (blank page); The versions change so much that the old tutorials don't help at all; Difficult to learn by just messing around; High learning curve. Guest • Aug 2017 • 26 agrees and 19 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Its simple (when you get the arrangement) but still very powerful, easily works with Blender and its free!! Guest • Apr 2017 • 12 agrees and 15 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It's more of like a basic thing. MrJangoon • Oct 2016 • 2 agrees and 7 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux

    Node Based Keyframe animation Open FX Support Portable ... Vfx Video editing Video filters Add a feature

    Natron icon

  • Blender

    Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

    • AE's main purpose: Video effect editing. Blender has a whole range of possibilities, but it's hard to get into and it's not designed to be used solely for video effect editing. danielmichel • Nov 2017 • 59 agrees and 21 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • While Blender itself is undoubtedly a quite extensive 3D graphics software it simply does not play the same role which After Effects does. One may argue that some functions of After Effects can be replicated in Blender the overall Workflow is entirely different (and not for the better). Guest • May 2019 • 16 agrees and 3 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Blender is mostly used for CGI and model creation. After Effects is for video editing and VFX. Yes, these two programs are sometimes used together, but they are not alternatives. Guest • Mar 2020 Disagree   Agree
    • Yeah, you can edit videos with it... But it's not made for it in specific and isn't it's main purpose. It has lots of purposes. Guest • Dec 2015 • 27 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Blender is for 3d more than after effects which is for a different style animation Guest • Feb 2020 Disagree   Agree
    • Blender is not typically used for editing and compositing videos, although it has some functionality in such Guest • Sep 2018 • 4 agrees and 0 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Blender is animation software, not compositing. Just because you can edit video doesn't mean you can do VFX as well. Guest • 11 days ago Disagree   Agree
    • Blender is a 3D creation tool, not a video editing software. Guest • Apr 2020 Disagree   Agree
    • New blender now had video editing Guest • Apr 2020 Disagree   Agree
    • Blender has a steep learning curve and it meant for 3d modeling and animation. it is a more powerful program that AE but not recommended as an alternate Guest • Nov 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • Blender is made for animation; After Effects is primarily made and advertised to combine animation with camerawork, not as a standalone animation creator. You can edit video on Blender, but it is sort of a loophole and very difficult to get started with. Guest • Aug 2018 Disagree   Agree
    • It may have a very different UI, and be 3d instead of 2d, HOWEVER it's still good for doing similar things if you can't afford After Effects. (Armature can replace puppet pin, you can choose to import images under User Preferences, etc.) Guest • Jun 2018 • 1 agrees and 1 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • Blender is mainly a 3d modeling application. After effects is focused on motion graphics, video editing and compositing. Guest • Nov 2017 • 2 agrees and 4 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It's a multi-purpose software with capability to things that After Effects can do, like adding special effects. It is free and best video editing software for linux. Guest • Feb 2018 • 0 agrees and 2 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It clearly doesn't look like after effects and has a pretty steep learning curve, but it can do anything that after effects can do. Guest • Jan 2016 • 19 agrees and 12 disagrees Disagree   Agree
    • It can be used as an alternative to After Effects, and is more powerful since it is a full 3D graphics software. Guest • Jan 2016 • 2 agrees and 4 disagrees Disagree   Agree

    Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux BSD PortableApps.com ... Haiku Steam

    3D modelling 3D Sculpting Compositor Animations ... Keyframe animation Real time rendering 3d animation Community based Texturing 3D Motion Graphics 3d renderer Animation rigging Motion tracking Physically-Based Rendering Rendering with graphics card Texture painting Video editing 2D and 3D physics 3d sketching Animation Customizable Drawing 2D Frame by frame animation HD-Rendering Lightweight Node Based Parametric Modeling Scripting UV Unfolding Vector Drawing Vfx 3D Composing Built-in Image editor Extensible by Plugins/Extensions Grease Pencil Intuitive Nodes Low memory usage Mapping Non linear editor Portable Procedural modeling Procedural Texturing Realistic viewport Rotoscoping Track everything UI customization Video overlay Add a feature

    Blender icon
    Designed for animation, Blender is being used for award-winning shorts and feature films.
    Blender comes with a fully fledged compositor built right in. That means no more exporting to third party programs, you can do it all without leaving the program.
    The Video Editor allows you to perform basic actions like video cuts and splicing, as well as more complex tasks like video masking.
    Strong support of subdivision and displacement with Adaptive subdivision, Catmull-Clark and linear schemes, Displacement and Bump mapping.
    Blender includes production ready camera and object tracking. Allowing you to import raw footage, track the footage, mask areas and see the camera movements live in your 3d scene. Eliminating the need to switch between programs.
    Cycles is Blender’s ray-trace based production render engine.

  • Snowmix

    Snowmix is a video mixer tool for mixing live and recorded video and audio feeds. It supports clipping, scaling and transparent overlay of video, png graphics and text. It supports animation of video, images and texts through native commands changing scale, placement, transparency and rotation. Animation and actions can also be controlled through native scripting and an embedded Tcl interpreter.

    Free Open Source Mac Linux

    No features added Add a feature

    Snowmix icon

  • ButtleOFX

    ButtleOFX is a simple, user-friendly and open source compositing software. It is based on TuttleOFX,  an open source, modular and sustainable image processing architecture. ButtleOFX allows you to easily create special effects for your photos and videos thanks to its features.

    • Discontinued
      as evidenced by their github page, the team is no longer developing it any further. They are looking for a maintainer. The last commit is over a year old.

    Free Open Source Linux

    Photo effects Video editing Add a feature

    ButtleOFX icon

  • Liconcomp

    Liconcomp can compose videos, text, and camera images live and play them back in real time. It's perfect for the playback of content on large screens, LED walls, scrolling LED displays, LED perimeter systems, and screens in custom formats. Liconcomp can combine different content like videos or tickers and output them to the screen. Control is based on scripts, that is, your programmer can customize the software to your exact needs.

    • Discontinued
      The project seems to be no longer developed. Last version, 1.2.2, released in March 2011, can be still downloaded from the official website.

    Free Open Source Windows

    Scriptable Add a feature

    Liconcomp icon

  • Talos VFX

    Talos is an open source, node based particle effect editor that can be used in game development. It features a powerful but intuitive, drag-and-drop interface with the ability to import legacy LibGDX files for easy, visual editing. FEATURES - Node based particle engine and editor - Import (and batch import) from https://alternativeto .

    Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux Java

    Particle Engine Vfx Add a feature

    Talos VFX icon

  • Tooll

    Tooll is an open-source solution for creating interactive 3d content and animations. It combines the best aspects of animation, compositing, and coding into a lightweight and intuitive UI. Your designs can be shared as executable or rendered to movies.

    Free Personal Open Source Windows

    Node Based Vfx Add a feature

    Tooll icon
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