4 Best Free Open Source After Effects Alternative for Windows

Here is a list of Best Free Open Source After Effects Alternative for Windows. After Effects is a commercial VFX and motion graphics software developed by Adobe, primarily used in film making, TV production, etc. As it is a paid software and not many can afford it, I have created a list of software that can be used as alternative to After Effects. Also, all these are open source software, hence you get the source code of these alternatives that you can download, study, and manipulate without any restrictions.

These software provide advanced animation features including keyframing tools, motion tracking, and VFX. Some common editing tools like cut, trim, crop, resize, rotate, zoom, and more are also available in these. Furthermore, these also provide support to different types and formats of video, audio, and images. And, some even support recording through webcam. You can even add subtitles and general text to movies. Tools like advanced audio and video transitions & filters, speed control options, audio editing features, volume control, powerful rendering engine, multi track timeline editor, and track control are also offered by these free and open source software.

Some software also let you add external OpenFX and other plugins or extensions to further enhance their functionality. Overall, these are good free and open source alternative to a paid After Effects software. You can go through the list to know more about these software.

My Favorite Free Open Source After Effects Alternative for Windows:

NATRON is one of my favorites as it offers a great number of motion graphics software. Plus, it comes with a really intuitive user interface.

If you want a simple yet effective alternative, go for Shotcut.

You may also like some best free Open Source Lightroom Alternative, Open Source Illustrator Alternative, and Open Source TeamViewer Alternative for Windows.

NATRON

NATRON is a great free open source After Effects alternative for Windows, Linux, Mac, and FreeBSD. This software comes in both installer as well as portable (travel) versions. It is an advanced VFX and motion graphics software that provides great film production features just like After Effects. It’s GUI is quite powerful and intuitive which helps you create a video as required. Although, it might be a little tricky for beginners to design motion graphics through it. You can simply go through video tutorials like this one to get started with this software.

Now, lets just checkout its key features which make it a desirable alternative to After Effects.

Main Features:

• It provides you several key framing tools to produce great quality animations, like chroma keyer, despill, difference, huekeyer, etc.
• You get advanced rotoscoping/ rotopainting feature in it to edit and animate masks in a complex video.
• A lot of graphics formats are supported in it, such as JPG, PSD, SVG, TIFF, DPX, EXR, etc.
• It provides an easy to use motion editing approach to work with keyframes using curve editor and a featured dope sheet.
• A handy node graph is provided to keep a track of your workflow.
• It contains a handy and interactive viewer to zoom and pan into graphics.
• Multiple transformation, color adjustment, filters, and draw tools are provided in this software.
• You can use its tracker node to track multiple points.

Additional Features:

• It supports multiple free as well as commercial OpenFX plugins.
• It provides a NatronRenderer to execute commands and python scripts.

Conclusion:

It is one of the best free open source After Effects alternative for Windows in which you get all the required tools for producing motion graphics.

Blender

Blender is another free open source After Effects alternative for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is a huge software used for creating 3D models and animations. You can also use it if you want an open source alternative to the commercial After Effects suite. Although, it has too many features to count but if you like using Blender, it won’t be too heavy for you. Still, for novice users, you can refer to some video tutorials from here. Let us now have a look at its key features.

Main Features:

• It offers a powerful built-in compositor that provides you a library of color grading, camera FX, and more, multi-threaded feature, multilayer rendering support, full compositing, and more features.
• An advanced motion tracking with automatic as well as manual tracking, camera reconstruction, 3D scene preview, and planar tracker and tripod solver is provided in this software.
• A smart video editor with a timeline is present in it that lets you perform video editing tasks like audio mixing, video transformation, video masking, color grading, and more.
• It provides an impressive set of animation and rigging tools with a lot of handy options like audio synchronization, character animation, non-linear animation, kinematics, mirror function, skinning, motion path, etc.
• A realistic and powerful rendering engine is another great feature of this open source After Effects alternative.

Additional Features:

• It lets you view, create, edit, and convert 3D models in various formats like 3DS, OBJ, DAE, PLY, FBX, etc.
• It supports a large number of external plugins that enable you to enhance its functionality further.

Conclusion:

It is another powerful open source alternative to After Effects that you can use to generate quality 3D animations, models, and videos.

Shotcut

Shotcut is yet another free open source After Effects alternative for Windows and other operating systems. It is primarily a video editor with a lot of advanced tools. In comparison to other listed software, it is extremely easy to understand and use. All its main functions can be operated without any fuss. A timeline editor to synchronize your media content including videos, audio, graphics, subtitles, and more is available in it.

Main Features:

• A fully featured library of VFX is provided to add different kinds of visual effects to videos. Some of these are eyedropper, deinterlaced, auto rotate, blending modes, video transitions, speed effects, standard and 360° video filters, and video scopes.
• It offers all standard along with some additional editing tools such as a multitrack timeline editor, track controls, MLT XML project support, keyframes, 3 point editing, history, and more.
• You also get various audio related features to sync and edit audio with video, such as volume control, audio filters, surround sound, transition effects, etc.
• It supports a wide number of media file formats and also offers support to 4K resolution, webcam features, audio recording, EDL export, network stream playback, etc.

Conclusion:

Shotcut is a great video editor which is also a good free and open source alternative to After Effects.

OpenShot

OpenShot is one more free open source After Effects alternative for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is mainly a video editor software that enables you to create videos. Multitrack timeline editor, video and audio transitions, visual effects, real-time preview, and a lot more features make it a nice alternative to After Effects. Let’s checkout all its main features in detail.

Main Features:

• It supports a wide range of image, audio, and video file formats to import and create a movie.
• You get a curve based keyframe tool in it to create a desired animation.
• Resize, scale, rotate, crop, trim, snap, and cut are some standard video editing tools you get in it.
• You can also control speed and direction of a video in it.
• It allows you to edit a video frame by frame to achieve accurate results.
• You can apply several video effects over your videos.
• It also provides multiple title options to add text and subtitles to video.

Conclusion:

Overall, OpenShot is a decent open source alternative if you don’t want to spend money on After Effects.