CREATION ART EFFECTS
For Adobe After Effects
What is it?
Creation Art Effects is an all-in-one art studio for Adobe After Effects. It's jam-packed with effects for turning your video footage into living, moving works of art - in almost any medium you can think of!
Just drop in your footage, animation, image, or text, and you'll be ready to export over 50 realistic, customizable, animated art effects – from pencil sketches to Van Gogh paintings, claymation to chalkboard, watercolors to graffiti, legos, comic book, pastels, and many more.
2025 Update – 10 New ART FX!
Turn Your Footage into Animated Works of Art!
Watch all art effects in action!
All effects are easily customized using convenient controls.
Features
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50 creative art effect presets for your footage, in almost 30 unique mediums
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HD and 4K versions included
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Easy-to-use controls for customizing detail level, size and speed of textures, realism level, shading, outlines, and more
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Works with footage, photos, and graphics
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Supports transparent backgrounds
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Uses hand-drawn textures for realistic results. The included library of over 200 texture photos allows you to swap out animated elements like paper backgrounds, pencil strokes, paint splatters, and much more.
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“Timewarp” option lets you slow down textures for a smoother animation (less flicker and jitter)
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Optional "Stop Motion Effect" to imitate crude, hand-crafted look
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Animated mattes, borders, and frames
Realistically imitate almost any medium!
This template offers dozens of art effects and stylized video looks simply by dropping in your footage. The effects use real hand-drawn and hand-painted textures, which gives the effects their authentic look. These "Dynamic Textures" blend multiple high-resolution photos to make various paper, fabric, pencil strokes, paint splatters, and many other textures which are constantly changing - so no two frames are the same.
Shows how to convert your footage into animated artwork, revealing the template's features along the way.
Also Works Great with Text & Images!
(Expand to see the presets)
The following example images show the main art effects (presets), in alphabetical order, applied to the same three images. Additional presets exist within some art effects, offering even more unique looks. Everything can be customized, including features like outlines, shading, colors, detail level, and art surface (e.g., paper, canvas, chalkboard, etc.).
ORIGINAL IMAGES
Any footage, image, animation, or text will work. For best results, use footage that is properly exposed, with good dynamic range (white whites and black blacks). Closeups and footage with less detail look best with most mediums.
8-BIT ANIMATION
8-Bit Animation refers to the pixelated graphics seen in early video games and arcade games from the 80s and 90s, but there's a lot more going on here than just pixelation. Several custom effects were borrowed from the Creation VHS Effects template to create the look of an old CRT monitor. You can choose to keep the monitor effect, or go with the "clean" version (image 3).
BUILDING BRICKS
You may know them as LEGO's, but the generic term is building bricks or building blocks. This effect imitates the stacking of different-colored bricks to form the image from your footage. It has over 20 customization controls, including brick size and color controls.
CHALK ON CHALKBOARD
This unique Chalk on Chalkboard effect draws your footage in chalk and puts it on a continuously-changing chalkboard texture. Easily invert it from coloring in dark areas to coloring in light areas. Over 20 controls allow you to customize features like the shading and outline. Use the custom matte to control where the image appears on the chalkboard.
CHARCOAL 1
This Charcoal effect converts your footage to a soft charcoal pencil drawing. With over 20 customization controls and over 20 paper textures, you can create a beautiful custom drawing tailored to your footage. This charcoal effect is also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
CHARCOAL 2
This Charcoal effect presents a second option for using the dark, texture-rich charcoal medium. It works differently and looks different from the Charcoal 1 effect, but features the same customization options for the shading and outline. The pencil stroke textures can be customized as well. This charcoal effect is also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
CLAYMATION
You probably wouldn't think of 2D-animation when you think of clay animation... perhaps because this was the first time it's been done! This Claymation effect simulates thin layers of different-colored clay, either stacked or arranged together to form the image from your footage. You can use the colors from your footage, or assign your own colors to the six clay texture layers. Customize features like texture, detail amount, and shadows using the 27 customization controls. The Claymation Effect is also sold separately.
COLORED PENCIL
Any pencil-drawn effect in this template can be converted to a colored pencil effect if you add the "Use Colors From Footage" effect that's included in the template. But this Colored Pencil effect was built with colored pencil in mind, and the medium translates beautifully to moving video footage. There are 27 customization controls for adjusting both the outline and fill. This colored pencil effect is also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
CRAYON
Let's face it - crayon gets no respect. But for the right project, the Crayon effect could be the perfect medium. This effect includes 28 customization controls and optional stray crayon marks - like a child's messy drawing.
CREATE YOUR OWN ART EFFECT
The Create Your Own folder in this template allows you to choose the animated textures to create your own unique art effect for your footage. Make something painterly, or sketchy, or a collage of physical materials - it's all possible with over 200 textures to choose from. The controls allow you to customize the look to get the right amount of detail and artistic expression for your footage.
CRYSTAL
A dazzling and mesmerizing effect when in motion, this stylized look is one of the many creative looks for footage included in the Creation Trippy Effects template.
GRAFFITI
The Graffiti effect gives your footage the look of being spray painted, and then puts it on a different wall in each frame. In addition, a constantly changing graffiti texture is overlaid over the surrounding areas of the frame. Of course, you can opt to stick with a single wall image as your canvas - there are 80 to choose from! The Graffiti Effect is also sold separately.
GRUNGE COLLAGE
A messy collage of magazine scraps, graffiti, comic book elements, paint splatters, and doodle illustrations, creating a grungy scrapbook look for your footage.
HALFTONE CMYK
The Halftone CMYK effect resembles a retro, low-quality print, such as those found in an old newspaper or comic book. If you click an image above, the scaled up version reveals how the halftone CMYK effect breaks down the image into a grid of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black dots of differing size. When seen from a distance, these dots create the illusion of continous colors and gradients. You can customize the effect with 16 slider controls. This Halftone CMYK effect is also included in the Halftone Effects template.
HALFTONE DOTS
The Halftone Dots effect imitates the halftone printing process common in old publications, in which images are composed of monochrome dots of differing size. The effect is very flexible, with 18 controls to customize the optional outline, as well as the dot size, quantity, and shape. This Halftone Dots effect is also included in the Halftone Effects template.
HALFTONE MONEY
The Halftone Money effect uses multiple patterns of wavy stripes to imitate the engraving style of the artwork on printed money. This Halftone Money effect is also included in the Halftone Effects template.
HALFTONE PATTERNS
Similar to Halftone Dots, the Halftone Patterns effect adds stripes, solid black, and white to the mix. Turn up the color control and the result is similar to retro comic book art. This Halftone Patterns effect is also included in the Halftone Effects template.
KALEIDOSCOPE
This Kaleidoscope Effect turns your footage into a striking kaleidoscope pattern, with plenty of customization options to get creative. This is one of the many stylized looks for footage included in the Creation Trippy Effects template.
MARKER ON WHITEBOARD
The Marker on Whiteboard effect has many possible applications for video presentations. Like with all art effects in this template, a simple image of text can be transformed into animated, hand-drawn letters. With 27 customization controls, you can change the detail level, stroke length, colors, and more. Use the colors from your footage, or assign 5 custom colors, such as those in a standard marker box.
MIXED MEDIA
The Mixed Media effect features elements resembling oil paint, watercolor, and crayon – creating a beautiful, dream-like, abstract painting. This mixed media effect is also included in the Grunge Effects template.
OIL PAINT - CLAUDE MONET 1
This first Claude Monet effect imitates Monet's impressionist style. With 33 customization controls, you have plenty of options to create a variety of other painting styles as well. Easily customize elements like the brush strokes, color variation, and paint stroke texture. You can even assign small brush strokes to detailed areas, such as your subject, while using large brush strokes on the background. This Claude Monet effect is also included in the Monet Effect template.
OIL PAINT - CLAUDE MONET 2
This second Claude Monet effect imitates Monet's impressionist style. With 33 customization controls, you have plenty of options to create a variety of other painting styles as well. Easily customize elements like the brush strokes, color variation, and paint stroke texture. You can even assign small brush strokes to detailed areas, such as your subject, while using large brush strokes on the background. This Claude Monet effect is also included in the Monet Effect template.
OIL PAINT - IMPRESSIONISM
The Oil Paint Impressionism effect is similar to the Claude Monet effect, but is constructed differently and therefore offers a somewhat different look, and different customization options. There are 14 painting style presets in this effect - easily attained simply by typing a number from 1 through 14 in the slider control value.
OIL PAINT - VINCENT VAN GOGH 1
There are two Oil Paint Van Gogh effects that look quite different from each other, but both attempt to imitate the swirly "turbulence" of Van Gogh's famous post-impressionist style. This effect uses a real paint brush texture to add depth and realism to the painting. It offers customization options for separate areas of the painting - allowing you to imitate a common tendency of painters, which is to use shorter, smaller brush stokes on your subject and larger strokes on areas requiring less detail. With 40 customization controls, you can explore endless other styles and modifications. The Van Gogh Effect is also sold separately.
OIL PAINT - VINCENT VAN GOGH 2
This second Oil Paint Van Gogh effect does a great job of imitating Van Gogh's swirly turbulent style. A unique feature in this effect is the "Swirl Animation Speed". When the Stop Motion Effect is off, this allows you to make the swirls evolve and flow. The customization controls allow for many other painting styles to be created. The Van Gogh Effect is also sold separately.
PAPER CUTOUT
The Paper Cutout effect stacks or arranges layers of cut-out pieces of paper to form the image from your footage. You can use the standard construction paper colors, or use the colors from your footage. Inspired by the animation style of South Park, this effect can appear even more crude or homemade (that's a good thing!) using the Jagged Edge Controls to make the paper look like it was quickly cut out by hand. All together, there are 35 customization controls for changing the paper texture, detail level, outline, shadows, and more.
PASTELS
Chalk Pastels are a beautiful medium. It can also be quite messy. You can keep the messy, stroke-texture look, or crank up the Smudge Shading control and get smooth fill shading. 20 controls allows you to customize both the outline and shading.
PATTERN COLLAGE
The Pattern Collage effect draws its inspiration from the pop art movement of the 1950s, often characterized by collages of bright-colored patterns and artwork taken from pop culture. The patterns used here are mostly decorative paper and fabric textures, and you can swap them out with any texture of you own - just like with all dynamic textures in this template. This pop art effect is also included in the Grunge Effects template.
PEN DRAWING (CHAOTIC)
The Pen Drawing (Chaotic) effect overlays scribbles and doodles to a pen-sketched rendition of your footage, to create a more stylized and expressive artist's sketch look for your footage.
PEN DRAWING (NEAT)
The Pen Drawing (Neat) effect offers a realistic and beautiful pen-sketched version of your footage. Switch on the Use Colored Ink control to incorporate the colors from your footage. Customize the pen strokes, outline and more with 24 customization controls.
PEN SCRIBBLE 1 (PROCEDURAL)
The Pen Scribble 1 effect can have amazing results when applied to the right footage. It uses After Effects' Scribble effect, making it one of the only art effects that doesn't use a dynamic texture for the medium. Using a procedural effect means that there are numerous customization options for changing the shape and path of the scribble.
PEN SCRIBBLE 2
The third and messiest of the pen drawing effects is Pen Scribble 2 – an abstract, grunge-style effect which composites multiple layers of colored pen scribbles to form the image from your footage. This pen scribble effect is also included in the Grunge Effects template.
PENCIL DRAWING 1
The pencil sketch style is the most in-demand art effect for video, which is why there are plenty of pencil shading and outline effects to choose from in this template. This Pencil Drawing 1 effect combines a main outline, multiple lighter sketch lines, and parallel pencil strokes for shading. This pencil drawing effect is also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
PENCIL DRAWING 2
The Pencil Drawing 2 effect takes the realism up a notch with a smaller, more even-toned pencil texture. 25 controls offer plenty of customization options. This pencil drawing effect is also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
PENCIL DRAWING 3
The Pencil Drawing 3 effect has perhaps the highest degree of realism and detail of all the pencil effects. It comes with 26 controls for customizing the outline and shading. This pencil drawing effect is also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
PENCIL DRAWING 4 (ROUGH SKETCH)
The Pencil Drawing 4 effect has a quick, rough sketch feel to it, using both shading and a sketchy outline. This pencil drawing effect is also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
PENCIL DRAWING 5 (LOOSE DOODLE)
The Pencil Loose Doodle effect doesn't look like much at first glance, but when you see it in motion you'll realize it's an interesting effect with unique applications. It uses multiple "loose" outlines, the paper is crinkled, and popping up over the outer areas of the frame are random doodles from an artist's sketchpad. All of these elements contribute to the feel of a spontaneous sketch or doodle. If it's too abstract for your taste, you can use the customization controls to increase the detail. This doodle effect is also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
PENCIL OUTLINE OPTIONS
There are four Pencil Outline options in this preset. They each employ different techniques to achieve an outline from your footage, making each one look somewhat different. There is also an option to add lighter, looser sketch lines, to imitate an artist's rough sketch. These pencil outline effects are also included in the Pencil Sketch Effect template.
POP ART (COMIC BOOK)
The Pop Art (Comic Book) effect draws its inspiration from the pop art movement of the 1950s, characterized by posterized bright colors and simple patterns, and often incorporating elements from comic books.
RAINBOW STROKE
It might look like a neon sign in the image, but you'll have to see this trippy effect in motion to fully appreciate it. The rainbow strokes flow over the footage in phases, following the contours of the footage. This is one of the many creative looks for footage included in the Creation Trippy Effects template.
SOLARIZED
Another effect borrowed from the Creation Trippy Effects template, this trippy effect is better in motion. All the colors of the rainbow flow over your footage, resembling the solarization effect used in photography
SOLID COLOR FILLS
The Solid Color FIlls effect was created by accident, when After Effects lost track of where the images were located on the hard drive, replacing them with the standard TV color bars image. Overlaid on a paper texture, the color bars patterns created an interesting and artistic geometric impression.
TEXTILES
The Textiles effect was added in the 2018 update. This effect stacks layers of fabric sewn on top of each other to form an image, similar to a quilt. Use any fabric texture, assign them unique colors, choose your detail level, customize the stitching, and more.
TYPOGRAPHIC ART (ASCII ART)
The Typographic Art effect reads the brightness value of your footage and translates it into text of varying size, opacity, and rotation amount, creating a look similar to what's known as ASCII Art. The end result is an array of letters, colored or monochrome, that form an image and adapt with your moving footage. Use the customization controls to change the size and number of letters displayed. You can also edit the font and what the text says.
TYPOGRAPHIC ART GRUNGE
The Typographic Art Grunge uses a collage-texture of old, public domain typography designs to create a grunge-style effect – perfect for sports footage, music videos, or any energetic footage. Optional paint splatters are added to dirty it up even further. Edit the effect with the 26 customization controls. This Typographic Art effect is also included in the Grunge Effects template.
VECTOR BLUR PAINTINGS 1-5
The Vector Blur Paintings effect has 5 presets which take advantage of the multiple looks that can be achieved using the Vector Blur effect in After Effects. It's fun to play with the customization controls to see what painting style you can create!
VECTOR ILLUSTRATION
Vector illustrations are created in computer software and use mathematically-governed paths to create crisp, clean, scalable graphics. The Vector Illustration effect imitates that look and offers customization controls for the fill and outline.
WATERCOLOR GRUNGE
The Watercolor Grunge effect uses paint splatters and watercolor paint textures to form a dirty grunge-style painting or collage. This watercolor effect is also included in the Grunge Effects template and the Watercolor Painting Effect template.
WATERCOLOR PAINTING 1 (INK REVEAL)
The Watercolor Painting 1 effect creates a beautiful and realistic, custom watercolor paint effect for your footage. An additional preset, Watercolor Painting Reveal, uses a continuous flow of ink bleeds to reveal the watercolor painting (see Image 2 and Image 3). This watercolor effect is also included in the Watercolor Painting Effect template.
WATERCOLOR PAINTING 2
The Watercolor Painting 2 effect is simple and fast, and creates a clean, detailed, dry-brush watercolor painting look for your footage. This watercolor effect is also included in the Watercolor Painting Effect template.
WHITE SKETCH ON DARK
The White Sketch on Dark effect uses a mixture of chalk, pastels, and pencil textures to create an animated white sketch on a dark paper background.
Noel's art background: I graduated with a degree in Fine Art from Taylor University, after which I worked for several years as a full-time painter and portrait artist, before transitioning to graphic design and video production. I have been an artist my whole life – I just switched from paintbrush to pixels some years back. -Noel Powell
Need to Know
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Last update: 03/02/2025. This template is compatible with Adobe After Effects, versions 2022 and all later versions. Older versions of the template are available upon request (compatible with versions of After Effects as far back as CS5). Works in both Windows and macOS. No plugins required.
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Two versions of the template are included: HD (1920x1080) and 4K (3840x2160). The effects work great on photos, text, and graphics with transparent backgrounds, but it is not designed for exporting images at resolutions much higher than 3840x2160.
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This template includes 53 art effect comps, covering about 27 different artistic mediums (such as charcoal, clay, pen, etc.). Be sure to expand the Examples section above to see what mediums and styles are included. The art effects can be customized with the controls to create an endless variety of new looks. Also included are custom animated borders and mattes, copy-and-paste effects (adjustment layers), and over 200 photo textures.
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The 3D Flip Book Effect and the Ink Bleeds & Blots effect, which you may have seen in the older promo videos, are no longer included in the latest update of Creation Art Effects. However, these effects are still available as separate templates. In their place, 10 new art effects have been added (Grunge Collage, White Sketch on Dark, Pen Drawing (Chaotic), Solid Color Fills, Crystal, Halftone Money, Kaleidoscope, Pop Art (Comic Book), Rainbow Stroke, and Solarized. Additionally, a new folder named "Create Your Own" allows you to design a custom art effect by selecting from over 200 dynamic textures.
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The latest update has easy controls to slow down the textures, to create a smoother, less jittery animation.
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The art effect comps in this template are 10 frames per second, giving them the choppy stop-motion look seen in the demo video. The reduced frame rate also speeds up render times. You can change the frame rate of the art effects (and their precomps) in the "Composition Settings" panel.
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Because of the complexity of the effects, some of them can take a significant amount of time to render (especially the 4K versions) and are not intended for long videos.
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Music and footage placeholders in preview video are not included.
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This template has been "universalized", so it will work in After Effects running in any language.
The Creation Art Effects template is not a plugin, so there is nothing to install. Rather, it's an Adobe After Effects project file, commonly known as a "template" because most of the work is already done and the user needs only to make their own customizations. This template is compatible with version CS5 as well as all later versions of After Effects.
Creation Art Effects contains copyrighted intellectual property. The animations you create with this product are yours and can be used for commercial purposes, but the sharing or online posting of project files with or for anyone other than a client is prohibited. See the Terms and Conditions for more details.
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