You, in ClaudeIn Premation, make a 10-second logo reveal for NOVA with a glow.
Premation — HomeClaude
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The free, open-source
After Effects alternative.
Keyframes, a graph editor, 2D and 3D layers, and the shortcuts you already know. A native engine renders it on your GPU.
- Free, no watermark
- Open source, AGPL-3.0
- Windows, macOS and Linux
- Opens .aep projects
PFileEdit
Compositions 1
Beyond the Frame — title sequence1920×1080
Layers
Search layers…
19 layers · 1 selected
Composition: Beyond the Frame — title sequence Footage: (none) Layer: (none)
BEYOND THE FRAME
Active Camera 00:07:17 / 00:10:00Full RGB0.046%
00:07:1700227 (30.00 fps)Filter layers & props… Graph EditorView
#Layer NameModeTrkMatParent & Link
0s4s8s
Ready · 19 layers100%00:07:17 Search Ctrl Shift P
New in 1.0
Ask Claude or ChatGPT. Watch it build in Premation.
Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Antigravity from Dashboard ▸ Connections, then ask for motion graphics in a chat. It makes real layers, keyframes and effects in the project you have open.
A recreation of the editor’s activity panel. Step names are the ones the app shows.
- You watch every change, and you can stop it
- Each step shows in the editor as it happens. Stop throws away whatever it was in the middle of.
- One request, one undo
- A request lands as a single step in Edit ▸ Undo, named for what it did. Edit while it works and your edit stays yours.
- It asks before it touches your disk
- Importing files and rendering video wait for you to click Allow.
- Free, and on your computer
- Free on every plan. The assistant reaches Premation through a private local connection, and only Premation's editing tools are offered to it.
Engineered for motion design
Bezier curves, GPU effects, type, rigging, and a graph editor.
Shape the velocity, not just the keys
Value and speed in one graph. Drag the influence, or switch the preset, and the motion follows.
Effects compile to the GPU
Blur, glow, displacement, and grade run as shaders while you scrub.
- Gaussian Blur
- Glow
- Displacement Map
- Curves
Type, one glyph at a time
Range selectors offset each character. The keys stay editable.
- Position
- 0, -24
- Opacity
- 0 to 100
- Range
- Characters
Cameras and an IK chain
Flat layers in a real camera. Move the hand, and the joint follows.
It writes keys, not video
A suggestion lands as diamonds on the timeline. You can retime them, or undo.
stagger layers by 4 frames
Title
Shape
Glow
The files you already ship
Open an After Effects project. Export the formats a production already uses.
Export
- MP4 · H.264Delivery file
- MOV · ProRes 444416-bit, with alpha
- WebM · VP9Transparent web video
- HDR10 · HLG10-bit HEVC, BT.2020
- Lottie JSONVector animation for apps
- PNG · EXR sequenceFrame-by-frame passes
- GIF · WAVShort loops, sound
- EDL · OTIO · FCPXML · ALEEditorial hand-off
Open
- After Effects .aep · .aepxCompositions, keyframes, masks, text
- SVGStatic and animated
- Lottie JSONComes in as editable layers
- glTF models3D layers
- Video, image, audioFrame-accurate seeking
Your After Effects hands already know this: comps, precomps, parenting, mattes and Classic 3D keep their names, and V, W, Y, G, U and F9 do what you expect.
Premation and After Effects, comparedWatch it built
The newest tutorials from the Premation channel, newest first.
What’s new
Premation reached 1.0 and is still shipping every week or two. The latest releases, from the repository’s tags, and what the native engine measured when it arrived.
- 1.0.1Latest
Video export works on a clean computer: every installer now ships the ffmpeg it encodes with, and repairs it in one click.
- Until this release, exporting MP4, WebM, GIF or ProRes needed ffmpeg already installed. Now a pinned build ships inside every installer, for Windows and macOS.
- If export cannot run it, Premation says why in plain words and offers Fix video export, a one-click repair, instead of a failed job.
- Plugin listings carry an icon, screenshots, an About section and notes for every version.
- The macOS engine builds again, so 1.0 is available on macOS as well as Windows.
Premation 1.0: assistants that work in your project from outside the app, a full plugin platform, sixty more After Effects effects and a much faster 3D renderer.
A new engine. Everything you see, play and export is now drawn by a native C++ engine running in its own process, with the editor as its interface.
Everything you see, play and export is drawn by a native C++ engine in its own process; the editor is its interface. If the engine stops, the editor keeps running, restarts it and replays your work.
- Editor, Electron and React
- premation-engine, Native C++ process
- GPU, Direct3D 12 · Metal
| Case | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Layer-styles composition, viewport | 19 fps →30 fps, steady | |
| Inner Shadow, 1080p layer | about 1 s per frame →3 ms | |
| Stroke, 1080p layer | 0.8 s per frame →about 1 ms |
Quoted from the 0.9.0 release notes, measured on the project’s own benchmark compositions. Your hardware and projects will differ.
How the engine is builtPlugins in 1.0: native SDK 1.2 plugins can add menu commands, panels, importers, export formats, presets and on-canvas handles, and they run in the engine. The JavaScript and WGSL plugin system removed in 0.9.0 stays removed; projects that used it still open, and its effects are kept and pass the picture through, with one notice naming them.
The software is free. The cloud is optional.
No subscriptions for the editor, no locked effects, no export limits. Premation Cloud is the hosting we run for you: more cloud projects and longer version history.
Premation
Freeforever
The whole editor, no locked effects, no export limits — plus a small cloud allowance.
Download- Every tool: compositions, graph editor, 2.5D, rigging, particles
- Unlimited local projects, exported to every format with no watermark
- 5 cloud projects with 7 days of version history
- The AI assistant, on your own provider key
- Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Antigravity to edit your projects
- AGPL-3.0 source: read it, build it, fork it — a build from source needs no account
Over 5 cloud projects, the extra ones turn read-only — never deleted, and export always works.
Premation Cloud
$9/ month, or $90 / year
The same editor, plus the hosting we run for you and Premation's own plugins.
Get the app, then upgrade- Everything in Premation
- Unlimited cloud projects
- 90 days of version history
- Premation plugins — our own effects and tools, run on your computer
- Cancel anytime — your projects are never deleted
Upgrade from Settings → Billing in the app. Payments are handled by Lemon Squeezy.
What people are making with it
From people using Premation on real work.
i like it but the like lags and popularity need work
its amazing really the app is super optimized and you really cant go wrong with it its free open source and is basically ae what more would you want
Before you download
Yes. Premation is 100% free and open-source under the GNU AGPL v3.0. The desktop motion graphics editor runs on your own machine and every feature of the editor itself is free; Premation Cloud adds hosting and Premation's own plugins. The installers use a free sign-in for the optional cloud; a build from the source has no accounts and never contacts our servers. Projects are stored as open .motion files on your disk.
Yes. Premation is designed as a fast, native desktop After Effects alternative for motion design and animation. It adopts AE's Classic 3D layer model, timeline keyframing, bezier graph editor, all 38 blend modes, track mattes, nulls, adjustment layers, and standard keyboard shortcuts (V, W, Y, G, Q, U, F9), making switching seamless.
Yes. Connect Claude Desktop, Claude Code, ChatGPT desktop or Codex, Cursor or Antigravity from Dashboard > Connections, then ask it for motion graphics in a chat. It builds and edits real layers, keyframes and effects in the project you have open; you watch every change, you can stop it, and each request is one undo step. It asks before importing files or rendering. The connection is local to your computer and free on every plan.
Premation needs a GPU that supports Direct3D 12 on Windows 10 and 11, or Metal on macOS 13 and later (Apple silicon or Intel). The engine drives the GPU natively, and there is no software rasteriser.
Premation exports 18 formats, including MP4 (H.264), WebM (VP9 with alpha), MOV (16-bit ProRes 4444 with alpha), HDR10 and HLG, Lottie JSON, PNG, JPEG and EXR sequences, GIF, WAV, and EDL, OTIO, FCPXML and ALE for editorial hand-off. Exports run in the same engine as the viewport and are deterministic.
No. Since 1.0.1 every installer ships the ffmpeg that MP4, WebM, GIF and ProRes exports use, so there is nothing to install. If export ever cannot run it, Premation says why in plain words and offers Fix video export, a one-click repair. PNG and image sequences, still frames and Lottie never needed it.
More questions6
- What is new in 1.0?
- Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Antigravity can work in the project you have open, free on every plan. Native plugins can now add menu commands, panels, importers, export formats, presets and on-canvas handles. Sixty more After Effects effects (215 to 275), faster 3D and playback, and every installer now ships the ffmpeg that video export uses. Since 0.9 everything is drawn by a native C++ engine in its own process.
- What happened to plugins?
- Plugins are native (C++ SDK) and, since 1.0, far more than effects: they can add menu commands, panels, importers, export formats, presets and on-canvas handles. Third-party plugins are free; Premation's own plugins, starting with a 3D model renderer, come with Premation Cloud. The older JavaScript and WGSL plugin system was removed in 0.9; projects that used it still open.
- Is Premation ready for real motion design work?
- Yes. Premation is used for production motion design. The current release is 1.0.1, and it is covered by thousands of automated tests and a pixel-level render test harness to ensure rendering reliability across complex compositions, vector paths, and 2.5D cameras.
- Can I import vector artwork, SVG, and Lottie into Premation?
- Yes. Static SVGs import as vector layers; animated SVGs (CSS/SMIL) are converted into editable keyframe tracks. Lottie JSON animations import as editable tracks. Premation also supports raster images, videos (with frame-accurate seeking), and audio tracks.
- How does Premation handle 4K footage and complex motion graphics?
- Via automatic background proxy generation. Premation transcodes low-resolution stand-ins for smooth viewport playback without blocking editing. When rendering the final export, the engine automatically uses full 4K source assets.
- Is the AI motion assistant required or charged with credits?
- No. The in-app assistant is optional and bring-your-own-key (Anthropic, OpenAI or Gemini), with no added credit fees. You can also connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or Antigravity on any plan, Free included, and use the subscription you already have. Either way every change lands on the normal undo stack (Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z).
Download Premation
Free, with a free sign-in. Projects are .motion files on your disk.
Every build is published on GitHub Releases, alongside the source it was built from.
- WindowsWindows 10 and 11 · x64.exeDownload1.0.2, ffmpeg included259 MBWhat’s new in 1.0.2
- macOSDetected OSApple silicon or Intel. Pick your chip.
- Linuxx64 · AppImage.AppImageDownload1.0.2, ffmpeg included359 MBWhat’s new in 1.0.2
Opening it the first time
macOS blocks apps from unidentified developers, so the first open needs the right-click menu. Once, per copy of the app.
Drag Premation to Applications
Open the .dmg and drag it across. Take Premation-macOS-arm64.dmg on Apple silicon and Premation-macOS-x64.dmg on Intel. The arm64 build will not run on an Intel Mac at all.
Right-click it, then choose Open
Not a double-click. Control-click or right-click the app in Applications. The right-click route adds an Open button that a double-click does not offer.
Confirm Open in the dialog
That is the whole workaround. macOS remembers the decision for that copy, so normal double-clicking works from then on.
Both platforms only ask because the installers are not code-signed yet. Signing removes the step on each, and no reinstall is needed when it lands. Setup and updates guide
GPU Hardware Requirement
A native engine renders every frame on your GPU through Direct3D 12 on Windows and Metal on macOS. A dedicated or integrated graphics processor is recommended.
GPU & System Specs
Graphics ProcessorDedicated GPU (NVIDIA/AMD) or Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)The engine drives the GPU natively through Dawn: Direct3D 12 on Windows, Metal on macOS. There is no software rasteriser.
Integrated GraphicsIntel Iris Xe / AMD Radeon Graphics with current driversFine for lighter compositions. Heavy effect stacks and high resolutions are where a dedicated GPU pays off.
System Memory8GB RAM minimum / 16GB+ recommendedMemory scales with composition resolution and cached pre-comps. Export is the exception: frames stream to disk one at a time, so peak export memory is one frame rather than the whole render.
Operating systemWindows 10 / 11 x64, macOS 13+ (Apple Silicon & Intel), Linux x64 (AppImage)The editor is an Electron desktop app; rendering runs in a separate native engine process. The installers include the ffmpeg that video export uses. Building from source needs Node.js plus the native toolchain (clang, CMake, Ninja, vcpkg).