Swarms
Swarms lets users easily create realistic, 3D insect animations in Adobe After Effects. Animate bugs individually, or combine them in unlimited numbers to form a 3D swarm that automatically moves with realistic swarming behavior - you just tell them where to fly!
Choose from 18 species with pre-set flight behavior. The flight behavior and appearance of the insects is completely customizable using convenient controls. With Swarms, even After Effects novices can create high-quality, 3D swarms for compositing into their shots!
- Compatible with Adobe After Effects CS5 and all newer versions. Works on both Mac or PC. No plugins required. Last update: Jan 28, 2021.
- The project file for the demo video is included, but is only compatible with CC 2019 and up. The title animation from the demo video can be customized with your own text or logo, and used in your videos.
- The insects in this template are composed of multiple 2D images arranged in three dimensions, which gives them the appearance of having mass and depth, but they are not true 3D models.
- At full scale, the insects range from 450 to 1100 pixels long (from head to tail).
- Unless the insect is small enough, this effect is not ideal for animating walking insects, since the feet do not move.
- All comps are HD, 1920x1080. You can change the comp size to 4K or any other resolution and the effect will work the same.
- Detailed instructions are found throughout the template, as well as in the two video tutorials (see links above).
- This template has been "universalized" and will work in After Effects running in any language.
- Follow the suggestions on the Render Tips Page to optimize the speed of this template.
- Music and background footage in demo video are not included. Some animations used images as the backgrounds instead of footage. These images are included.
The Swarms template is not a plugin, so there is nothing to install. Rather, it's an 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. (See compatibility warning above for CS5 and CS6 users).
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. All insect images in this template have been released to the public domain (Creative Commons CC0 license). All images were taken from pxhere.com, pixabay.com, or Wikimedia Commons.
Positive and/or negative feedback is appreciated. Use the contact page to send me a message.