Learn more about After Effects' default plugins that are essential for most creative tasks. The focus is on the tools most commonly used in professional workflows and how they can enhance your projects.

In this chapter, you've learned:

• How to find and use plugins in the Effects & Presets panel;
• How to apply and adjust effects for layers;
• The purpose of essential plugins.

Mentioned Plugins

• Offset: shifts the position of a layer's contents without affecting the boundaries;
• Motion Tile: duplicates and tiles layers while allowing you to mirror edges for seamless loops;
• RepeTile: expands the layer's edges by repeating its pixels to extend coverage;
• Gaussian Blur: smoothly blurs an image to soften edges or reduce detail;
• Directional Blur: blurs an image along a specific angle or direction for motion effects;
• Hue/Saturation: adjusts the overall hue, saturation, and lightness of an image's colors;
• Curves: allows fine-tuned control of brightness and contrast using curve adjustments;
• Lumetri Color: a comprehensive color grading tool for adjusting color, exposure, and contrast;
• Fill: fills a layer or object with a solid color;
• Drop Shadow: adds a shadow effect to a layer to create depth or dimension;
• Exposure: adjusts the overall exposure of an image, affecting brightness and highlights;
• Transform: provides basic transformation properties like scale, rotation, position, and opacity for layers.