Home › After Effects Presets › Backgrounds
Free — After Effects 2026After Effects Background Presets Preview Gallery
All the animated backgrounds that come with After Effects, playing: the Backgrounds folder, Synthetics and the shape-layer backgrounds.
Backgrounds 24 presets
Animation Presets › Backgrounds
Open a page for one Backgrounds preset
Anime Radial · Anime Speed Lines · Apparition · Blocks · Cinders · Circuit · Cosmic Power · Creepy · Curtain · Deep Tissue · Fog Lights · Green Crystals · Indigestion · Infection · Lightning Bend · Magma · Orb · Racing Rectangles · Red Speed · River · Rose Light · Silk · Smoke Rising · Sweeping Curves
Synthetics 11 presets
Animation Presets › Synthetics
Open a page for one Synthetics preset
Blue Bars · CD Back · Cells · Chip Foil · Gold Ambiance · Holographic Foil · Mosaic · Orange Streaks · Smoke - Drifting · Starburst Spin · Topographic Lines
Shape Backgrounds 6 presets
Animation Presets › Shapes › Backgrounds
Open a page for one Shape Backgrounds preset
Box Swarm · Composition Border · Kaleidoscopic · Nerve Net - Circular · Nerve Net - Penta · Sunburst
How to use these background presets
- Find the preset you like above and click it. Its name is copied.
- In After Effects open Window › Effects & Presets and paste the name in the search box.
- Select your layer, put the playhead where the animation should start, and double-click the preset.
Nothing to download: every preset here is already installed with After Effects. Also see the text animation presets, transition presets, shape presets, behavior presets, image effect presets, legacy and sound effect presets, effects.
How do I use a background preset in After Effects?
Make a new solid the size of your composition (Layer › New › Solid), select it, and double-click the preset in Effects & Presets (Animation Presets › Backgrounds or Synthetics). For the Shapes › Backgrounds presets, make sure no layer is selected and double-click the preset; After Effects creates the shape layer for you.
Can I change the colours of a background preset?
Yes. Open the Effect Controls panel on the solid. Most of these backgrounds are built from effects such as Fractal Noise, Colorama or Tint, and their colours can be edited there.
Do the backgrounds loop?
Most are driven by expressions or long keyframes and keep moving for the whole layer. For a perfect loop, render a few seconds and cross-fade the end into the start.