After Effects Templates Requirements Guidelines for Adobe Stock Artists

After Effects Templates are designed for more complex animations and visual effects. They are perfect for projects that require sophisticated visual effects, such as cinematic title sequences, intros, explainer videos that give customers access to high-quality visual effects without the need for extensive After Effects knowledge.

Download Guidelines Checklist

After Effects

Project File

  1. Version: After Effects 2022 or later
  2. File Type: .aet
  3. Filesize: Under 2GB
  4. Language: English only
  5. Adobe Fonts only

Workflow tip: Save as .AET or change the extension from AEP to AET in Explorer/Finder

Comp Settings

Width & Height

List of acceptable resolutions and aspect ratios for comps

Pixel Aspect Ratios: Square Pixels (1.0)

Frame Rates: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, or 60

  • Non-Drop Frame

Resolution: Full

Project Structure

Organization:

  1. Organize the Project panel and folders with descriptive comps/asset names
  2. Make it apparent to users what they can edit, what comp is used to render, and what should remain untouched
  3. Use only A-Z, 0-9, hyphens, and underscores for file/comp/asset names
  4. Create placeholders for users to swap with their media
  5. Placeholders need to be in their own composition or pre-comp

Controls:

  1. Make sure controls are clearly labelled with the relevant function
  2. Provide sufficient controls for template customization (Ex: include color controls)
  3. Make sure controls and/or placeholder layers are not hidden (shyed)

Effects:

  • No 3rd party effects/plugins
  • PseudoEffected effects stack is permissible

Expressions:

  1. Use the JavaScript Engine
  2. Ensure no expressions are broken
  3. Expressions must be Universalized

Maximum of 10 different style comps:

  1. Less is preferred
  2. Do not cross categories in a single template (Ex: Slideshows and Infographics)
  3. Cross-resolution in a single template is allowed only if the same style is represented between several resolutions (Ex: A template with the same style in HD, square, vertical, and 4k)

Please note: Multiple resolutions of the same style count towards the maximum of 10.

Text and Assets

Text:

  • Do not use real personal names, Adobe, Adobe Apps, or other brand names in Project Panel, or text.

Assets:

1. All assets must be created by the artist

  • Do not use copyrighted logos, licensed stock content, and/or free/CC0/public domain content
  • Use placeholders graphics in empty comps or self-created content
  • People and locations require a model or property release

2. Do not use EXR, open-source codecs, or Dynamic Link footage

3. No audio

4. Assets must comply with Adobe Stock's content requirements

5. Media must be linked and not missing when opened

6. Tutorial Files must be included with the project package

  • Files can be video or written documents in the required formats
  • Files must be placed in a separate folder. Please refer to the Folder Structure Visual
  • Tutorial instructions must be relevant to and match the template
  • Provide detailed explanations for template functionality in tutorial instructions

Remember to

Delete Render Queue before saving

Collect Files for upload

Use checklist to QA template before submitting

Best Practices

Additional guidance and best practices for AE Templates, below:

1. Panel Organization

  • Be consistent in naming, capitalization, and organization
  • Use comments in Project panel and Timeline
  • Use Color Labels in the Project panel
  • Use commented markers in the Timeline
  • Use Essential Graphics panel (EGP) for template controls
EGP controls make it easy for users to interact with the template

2. Settings

  • Use the lowest color bit-depth possible for the project
  • If upgrading Expressions Engine from Legacy to JavaScript, use Scripts -> Update Legacy Expressions.jsx afterwards, and then fix any remaining expressions errors

3. Assets

  • [ .mp4 ] as assets are discouraged due to their lack of quality
  • [ .mov ] with ProRes 422/4444 are encouraged instead

4. UX Considerations

  • Name Effects for their purpose
  • Set Poster Frames for Top-Level comps in Composition -> Set Poster Time
  • Shy layers that users shouldn’t touch
  • Minimize the number of columns in the timeline and project panel
  • Revert to the Default workspace

5. Tutorial Assets

  • Identify where to find the comps to edit the template
  • Elaborate basic instructions on editing text layers, using controls, replacing media, etc.
  • Give more specific instructions if the template a little more complex
  • Provide clear render instructions

6. QA Template before Upload!

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Header Image: Rainbow Transitions by Willo

Last Updated: 7/29/24

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