The provided source material details a range of free digital assets, including plug-ins and stock footage, offered by Video Copilot and other developers for use with Adobe After Effects. This information is relevant to UK-based consumers, particularly those interested in digital media production, who may be seeking no-cost tools to enhance their creative projects. The resources include software plug-ins designed to add visual effects, streamline workflows, and enable specific creative tasks, as well as a free stock footage collection. Access to these freebies is available for download, with some updates noted for compatibility with recent software versions. The following article outlines the available free resources, their functions, and how to access them, based solely on the information contained in the provided source documents.
Overview of Free Video Copilot Resources
Video Copilot, a provider of training, design tools, and resources for artists, offers several free plug-ins and assets for use with Adobe After Effects. These are designed to improve the quality and speed of production workflows. The company has announced updates to ensure its plug-ins are compatible with Apple's M1 Macs and Adobe After Effects' Multi-Frame Rendering feature, which allows for faster rendering by processing multiple frames simultaneously. These updates are available for download.
One specific free offering is a stock footage collection titled "Slime Stock FX PACK." This collection contains 25 high-quality 2K+ ProRes video files. The footage is designed for use in After Effects or Premiere for previewing purposes. A note is provided that most video players on PC do not support the ProRes format. The collection is available for free download.
Free Plug-ins from Video Copilot
The source material identifies several free plug-ins from Video Copilot. These plug-ins are intended to add specific visual effects or improve functionality within After Effects.
- Saber: This plug-in allows users to apply energy beam looks to text or mask outlines. It comes with 50 different presets. It has been used in tutorials for creating retro horror movie titles.
- VC Reflect: A free plugin designed to create reflections on layers within After Effects. It includes options for customising the look of reflections, such as angle, falloff, skew, and blur.
- Sure Target 2: This plugin simplifies animating the After Effects camera. Users can set 3D layers as targets and keyframe the camera's movement between them. Customisation options include movement inertia, auto-focus, and camera roll.
- Displacer Pro: Described as an improved displacement effect compared to the default option in After Effects. It offers displacement options for scale, rotation, chromatic aberration, and anti-aliasing.
- Orb: A free 3D sphere plugin for creating realistic planets. It includes advanced features for illumination and reflections, and can be lit using After Effects' native lights.
- Extended Coffee Break: Noted as a free plugin created as an April Fools' joke by Plugin Everything. Its function is to intentionally slow down After Effects renders.
Free Plug-ins from Other Developers
In addition to Video Copilot's offerings, the source material lists several other free plugins and scripts available from different developers, curated by PremiumBeat.
- Quick Chromatic Aberration: From Plugin Everything, this plugin adds chromatic effects and colour fringing to footage for a subtle, realistic imperfection.
- FX Console: A free plugin that functions as a pop-up search bar to quickly apply effects, presets, and screenshots, aiming to speed up the workflow.
- Dojo Glitch: From Creative Dojo, this plugin provides control over realistic glitches and artifacts on footage, with settings for intensity, RGB separation, flicker, and lens distortion.
- AEJuice GIF: A plugin that simplifies exporting GIFs from After Effects with one click, including customisable basic and advanced settings.
- Color Vibrance: A free colourization plugin for adding vivid colour to black-and-white elements, useful for stock elements like smoke bursts, and includes matting options.
- Thicc Stroke: A variable-width stroke plugin for masks and shapes, with settings for loopable colour gradients along stroke paths.
- Long Shadow: A preset for creating flat, long shadows, with adjustable angle, gradient colours, and fall-off.
- TextBorder: A tool for adding customisable borders around text layers, with adjustable expansion, thickness, roundness, and colour, which can be keyframed.
- BOUNCr: A free script from Ukramedia that applies Dan Ebberts' Overshoot and Bounce Back expressions in After Effects.
- Crate’s Heat Radiation: A free temperature colouring plugin for fire, explosions, and sparks.
- Crate’s Glow: A free script for creating realistic gradient-based glow falloff, with adjustable intensity, spread, flicker, and vibrance.
- Responsive Auto Scale: A preset that defines a screen region to contain layers, useful for text layers that may change.
- deLayer: A script that offsets the in-points of selected layers based on their distance from a starting point, with an option for random animation.
- Glass Eyes: A free plugin for creating shapes like boxes, spheres, and pyramids, with the ability to assign layers or compositions to specific sides of the shape.
Accessing and Using the Freebies
The free resources are available for download directly from the Video Copilot website and through links provided in the PremiumBeat blog post. For the Video Copilot assets, users are directed to download the files and use them in their own projects. The "Slime Stock FX PACK" is noted as being free to download.
For the plug-ins listed from other developers, the source material indicates they are available for free, with download links and video tutorials provided in the original blog post. The compatibility updates for Video Copilot plug-ins are described as "available now" for users to download and install.
The source material does not specify any eligibility criteria, sign-up requirements, or geographic restrictions for accessing these free digital assets. It also does not provide information on expiration dates for the free offers, though it notes that updates are currently available.
Conclusion
The provided source material outlines a selection of free digital resources available to UK-based consumers interested in Adobe After Effects. These include free plug-ins from Video Copilot, such as Saber, VC Reflect, and Sure Target 2, as well as a free stock footage collection, "Slime Stock FX PACK." Additionally, a list of over 40 free plugins and scripts from other developers is referenced, covering effects for chromatic aberration, glitching, GIF exporting, colourisation, and more. These resources are designed to enhance visual effects and streamline production workflows. Access is via download, with compatibility updates for newer hardware and software versions noted as currently available. The information is based on announcements and lists from Video Copilot and PremiumBeat, with no additional eligibility or restriction details provided in the source documents.