Keep your most frequently used effects and keyframes at your fingertips! Learn how to save After Effects presets in this quick tutorial.
If you frequently create the same effects over and over, you should try creating an animation preset. Presets are essentially a preset list of effects and keyframes that can be quickly recalled and used over and over again in future projects. Unlike saved project files, animation presets can be found in your effects browser on the right side of your After Effects interface.
Step 1: Create Your Effect
Animation presets go far beyond simply saving effects. You can also save expressions, shape properties, transformation properties, and keyframes. Keep that in mind when you are saving animation presets.
Step 2: Save Preset
Select all of the effects that you want to be translated into the animation preset by holding down the shift key and selecting the effects or properties that you want transferred over. Keep in mind that this also works for shape layers — but if you do decide to create a shape layer preset, you’ll need to create another shape layer when you drag and drop your effects preset in the future.
Once selected, simply navigate to Animation>Save Animation Preset. You will be prompted to select a place to save your new preset. Note: You must save your preset in the presets folder in your After Effects application folder.
Step 3: Recall Preset
In the effects browser, simply recall your preset in the location in which you saved your effects preset. For most effects, you can simply drag and drop your effects to your layer.
Want to learn more about presets in After Effects? Check out a few of the following resources: