what's up everybody it's your boy nate so about a year ago i made a list of the most useful most
innovative and just outright dope plugins for after effects anyways everyone loved it they
made some super dope stuff and ended up saying nate check this out and this out too and we
ended up checking all of it out and here we are a year later in a new studio new nate new wife
new after effects but mainly we're going to be talking about the best new plugins because let's
face it this year has just been a cluster of awesome plugins only the best of the best have
made it to this list so without further ado i'm super excited i know you are too alright let's go
so if you're new to the channel you probably are like why is nate so excited about after
effects well let me tell you really quickly it's probably because it is an award-winning software
that has been used throughout hollywood short films all sorts of places between the internet
music videos you name it people have been creating just mind-blowing visual effects
motion graphics character animations all thanks to the use of after effects but
anyways after effects would not be as amazing if it wasn't thanks to a little secret sauce that is
plugins so you may see a whole bunch of people making really dope stuff but sometimes they might
not say that hey they use element 3d to create all these awesome 3d visuals or that they even use
something like motion to create some super smooth animations well you know what today we're going to
be doing we're going to be breaking down some of the best plugins for after effects going through
the most useful most innovative and honestly just best bang for buck when it comes to enhancing
after effects capabilities and speeding up your workflow so whether you're new to the software or
an after effects vet i guarantee you're going to want to stick around until the end okay so
first up on the list at number 10 one of the best glitch art plugins for after effects and that is
data mosh 2. it's a plug-in that you can find on a scripts for about 49
and if you guys have paid attention in the past i've talked about data washing because it is one
of the most super creative techniques that you can do when it comes to glitch art and video
and thanks to datamosh 2 after effects gets a whole new reboot with being able to do
data moshing right inside the software so data mosh 2 comes from one of my favorite
plugin developers of all time aptly named plug and play they always come out with super dope plugins
that not only have super smooth uis but just work well with after effects while also adding
an unimaginable functionality so when i first got into data moshing i had been inspired from
checking out videos like kanye west and then i ended up seeing lamborghini high from asap rocky
and i gotta admit the process to data moshing was slow tedious and i think anyone in the glitch
art community would just agree it's something that is a straight-up pain in the ass so when
plug-and-play made the data washing plug-in for after effects which removed a lot of the headache
it ended up being one of my favorite plug-ins i love how they revamped this plug-in with
flashing engines that allow for greater precision in fine-tuning motion vectors and how pixels move
being able to use these markers and presets really makes the process so much fun to play
with it's only about 49 which when you think about how much time it can save and the awesome results
i think it is well worth it it adds so much functionality to after effects and works really
really well and for that reason data mosh 2 gets a well deserved black mixture stamp of approval
next up at number 9 okay so this next plugin is a beast at handling rigging and character animation
in after effects that's right we're talking about limber which is a plug-in that you can
find for about forty dollars on a scripts now i don't know why after effects has gone this long
without making their own character rigging tool but thanks to limber we get the ability to add
all sorts of custom ik and fk rigs right within the software now i first found out
this plugin from ben marriott who recommended it for character animation when i looked more into it
i realized that pretty much everyone was saying the same thing from ec abrams to motion by nick
which if you take a look at their work you can probably agree that character animation and limber
is a super super powerful plugin now i know it may be a little bit intimidating because
if you're just first starting out there's so many different options with it but it helps that there
are a lot of free tutorials online especially here on youtube if you decide it's for you so anyways
this plug-in is for those who are getting serious about character animation and after effects and
for that reason it gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval next up at number eight
we have cinematte which is a chroma keyer plugin if you guys don't know what chroma keying is it's
pretty much the process of removing a color from a background typically whenever you are looking
at a green screen and you need to remove the green in that the super technical term for that
is chroma keying we have a plug-in from 36 pix which comes out the gate thanks to this plug-in
all we have to do is just apply cinematic to some sort of green screen footage and instantly all
the settings get calibrated to give us a really dope key and if we want to fine-tune some of the
settings we can to give us different outputs or even remove the person from the background
entirely to create a clean plate it's just really cool to have cinematic automatically detect the
background key out the footage change the spill suppressor and color correct the footage to match
all while making use of your graphics card and letting you get specific if things
just don't go right the first time i also love the algorithms for keeping hair look super clean
and i also love the algorithm for removing those shadow blobs that may happen whenever you're
using a green screen that just has those little shadows on it from different wrinkles and whatnot
anyways this plugin saves a lot of time for those who have to do some serious chroma keying and
a lot of footage and for 79 dollars it can save you a whole lot of time on your chroma
keying projects for that reason cinemat gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
number seven on the list so this next plugin is my favorite for creating buttery smooth bokeh that's
right we're talking about fast bokeh pro from the super dope developers robot so fast bokeh pro is
a super useful plugin that saves you so much time if you've ever tried rendering out from a
3d software like cinema 4d or maya then you know just how painstakingly difficult it can be not
only does it take forever but it is also limiting because all of the depth of field is literally
baked into the image but by using something like depth maps and a plug-in like fast bokeh pro
instead you're then able to just select your focus point in post and fine-tune the depth of field
and bokeh effects with so much more ease fast bokeh pro is available for fifty dollars at 80
scripts and at that price point fifty dollars can really save you so much time and give you so much
more functionality with your 3d renders yeah this plug-in works so well and i just love how powerful
it is for that reason fastball get pro gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
we're getting down to number six on the list okay so next up on the list is one of my favorite
plugins for time ramps and the time remapping in after effects that's right i'm talking about
the super dope plug-in from revision fx twixtor and twixtor pro now i will warn you guys this is
not a cheap plug-in at all it is super costly the regular version costs 329 and then the pro
version costs 595 dollars honestly guys that's a lot of money now the power of this plugin is that
it does something that after effects can't do that well which is generate frames in between motion
vectors whenever you're slowing down footage so let's say i shot something in 60 frames per second
and i wanted to slow it down by half that'll work out pretty fine because then i could just change
the frame rate to 30 frames per second i'll get about half speed let's say i wanted to run like
it's at like one percent of the speed in which you know you'd have to probably film
at like 3000 frames per second that's pretty much impossible to do unless you have something like
a 50 000 high-speed camera or have something like twixtor which will use their algorithms to
generate the images in between it is super super powerful and honestly i've used it to create stuff
without having a crazy rig like the slo-mo guys have i've seen all sorts of creatives
use twixtor to create all sorts of awesome time remaps for music videos commercials
you name it and for that reason twixtor gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
okay so halfway through the list at number five this next plugin has to be probably the coolest
one that i've seen come out this year and one of the most useful for character animation that's
right i'm talking about dk motion tool now it's a collaboration between dk motion on instagram
and motion design school when i first saw this plugin i thought it looked strangely similar to
limber except when i actually dived in i was quickly blown away by the super clean ui and
the functionality of it the ease of making dope animations quickly was just such a mind-blowing
experience because using limber might be a little bit intimidating but having these easy markers
and control points and character creation tools makes animating and after effects
fun and interesting i love this plugin for the character animation tools such as this
character animation assistant which stuck out probably more than these high price point of 75
by the way you can find this plug-in on a scripts this is just such a fun and
interesting way to animate scenes i gotta give it to dk motion and motion design school for making
such a dope plug-in and for that reason it gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
next up at number four this next plugin i've seen in all sorts of movies video games music videos
and just about everywhere trying to get that michael bay movie-esque lens flare that's right
we're talking about video copilot's optical flare plug-in for after effects now optical flares is
a pricey plug-in at 124 dollars it is also super useful because it just works really well and gives
you so much now if you don't know what an optical flare is it's pretty much whenever you're filming
a light source and you get the camera and the lens just at the right angle you're gonna get these
really cool shapes and artifacts and the light hitting the sensor and normally it's pretty
difficult to fine tune and replicate a certain look in real life but thanks to a plug-in like
video copilot's optical flares you can really tweak the exact look and feel of all sorts of
lens flares from having grungy ones to super sci-fi looking ones it's such a useful technique
for creating moods and styles to your footage and really enhancing your composited shot and for that
reason video co-pilot's optical flares gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
at number three on the list we have motion v3 from one of my favorite developers mount mograph
the motion series plug-ins have been some of the dopest plug-ins since they came out before
i can even touch animation in after effects i always have to have this plug-in installed
because since using it it is honestly impossible to go back to the traditional method of opening
up the keyframe assistant animation window and then going into this graph editor and changing
the speed graphs and doing all these things yeah forget that boring method because using
motion v3 control these using sliders is so much easier and so much more useful yeah it's just a
freaking time saver not only that but motion v3 comes jam-packed with features that i can go on
and on about but some of my favorite things have to be the project sorter which will consort all
the different elements inside of your project panel so you don't have a super messy project
it looks nice and clean for you to package up and then also the different expression tools
like the excite as well as this really intuitive keyframe adjustment editor yeah i can go on and on
about how dope this plug-in is and how much time it saves so let me just save the time
and let you know that this plugin gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
the second to last at number two on the list this next plugin came out the gate as a huge surprise
mainly because i never thought it was possible to be able to use blender 3d information
inside of after effects what here we have now blender ae which adds in a really dope way to
import 3d data into after effects to create all sorts of composited
graphics or even just mess around with greedy the results look super dope now i will warn that
this plug-in is like freaking brand new do you expect like a little bit of roughness around the
edges it's not the cleanest plug-in out right now but at thirty dollars it is pretty fun to
mess around with something that's developing and growing in after effects for that reason i gotta
applaud the innovation of blender ae and it gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
yo last but not least number one on the list you know a plug-in video would not be complete if we
did not mention this one that's right i'm talking about fx console it is a plug-in that has been my
favorite plugin of all time it's been my favorite for years pretty much since installing it it's
been used on every single project i'm honestly surprised that no one even challenged to create
another plugin that does kind of the same thing or even a little bit better but then again i'm also
not surprised because this plug-in already comes from one of the dopest developers of all time
video co-pilot and the og andrew kramer by the way my favorite plugin is a free one so
yeah go ahead download it save yourself some time it gives you this really cool pop-up window
love it a lot it gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
and yo you guys we got an extra one at number zero on the list i just swear
but we actually do have an extra one anyways so this next one is not so
much of a plug-in as much as it is a really useful evolving resource kit for creating
all sorts of visuals graphics media in general that's right i'm talking about envato elements
so i've been using envato elements for a couple of years now and since using it i honestly can say
i can't go back because having access to thousands of thousands of really dope high quality assets
is such a game changer especially whenever i'm like yo i want to add something really cool like
these sparks or these uh explosions being able to just search that up download it import it into a
project or let's say even being able to pull up some sort of music to use inside of these videos
yeah all of that is possible thanks to envato elements you know i figured hey at the price point
of envato elements the time that it saves me and the amount of resources that it gives me is just
well worth it and i like that it has assets and templates for things like after effects premiere
pro photoshop the whole suite while also having high quality music and video assets and yeah just
so much much more it's honestly my favorite by far on the list even though it's not a direct
plug-in for after effects for that reason it gets a well-deserved black mixture stamp of approval
okay so hopefully you guys found a plugin that was useful for you that you can take away
into making some super dope stuff and a quick disclaimer i want you guys to know that a lot
of these plug-ins are featured on a-scripts but a-scripts in no way sponsored this video
but if you guys want to check out any of these plug-ins there are going to be links down in the
description some of them are going to be affiliate links to where we will make like a little kickback
for any time you guys buy them and that will help out the channel a huge amount so thank you guys
as well at the same time don't get any plugins that you guys are not going to use because i
don't want you guys getting stuff that's not going to be useful so definitely consider all
the plugins on this list see if this is going to save you time see if this is going to be something
that's going to be a complete game changer for you as it has for me and hopefully you guys make
something really cool i want you guys to send it to us on instagram but most of all make sure that
you guys smash that like button if you guys sat around for the end of the video because you know
wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't thanks to all you guys liking and saying hey that you
loved all these plugins also while you're at it make sure that you subscribe and ding that post
notification bell so you don't miss out on any of the super dope stuff that we got planned yo
you guys we're almost at 200 000 subscribers that is freaking mind blowing i honestly did not know
that this would happen right now like well actually i kind of did but i'm not going to glue
so anyways a big heartfelt thanks to each and every 200 000 of you all yeah hope you guys have
a dope halloween if you're watching this before halloween and hey if you guys are sticking around
until the end of the year have a happy holidays but we probably are going to have doper videos out
by then so make sure you guys check those out as well follow us on instagram at blackmixture to see
more behind the scenes interact with us you know while we're on the go and doing
little things about our day anyways thanks for watching hope to catch you in the next one peace
yeah you know where it's at