EffectCraft: the free After Effects alternative
EffectCraft is a free, open-source app for motion graphics and visual effects, built to work the way After Effects does. It comes from the ArtCraft team, the people behind PhotoCraft. This unofficial page explains what it does, how it compares and where to get it.
Latest EffectCraft version: 0.9.2, released October 12, 2026.
Get EffectCraft from the official page All files on GitHub
Both buttons open official ArtCraft pages. This site does not host installers.
What is EffectCraft?
EffectCraft is for animated titles, motion graphics and compositing: the work people usually reach for After Effects to do. You build a composition out of layers, animate their properties with keyframes, stack effects on them and render the result.
The project describes it as a clean-room reimplementation of Adobe After Effects in pure Rust, and as “young, moving fast, and already usable”. It uses the same panels a motion designer knows: Project, Composition, Timeline, Effect Controls and Effects & Presets.
EffectCraft at a glance
What EffectCraft can do
- Layers of every kind. Solids, shapes, text, footage, nested compositions, nulls, adjustment layers, cameras and lights, with parenting, track mattes and motion blur.
- Keyframes. Linear, Bezier, hold and auto interpolation, Easy Ease on F9, and a Graph Editor with value and speed graphs.
- Effects. The project lists 306 effects and says that covers every one of After Effects’ 298, including Curves, Levels, Fractal Noise, Glow, Turbulent Displace and the CC particle and simulation effects.
- Shapes and masks. Shape layers with trim paths and repeaters, and pen-drawn masks with feather and expansion.
- Text. Point and paragraph text in any installed font, with text animators and range selectors.
- Expressions. JavaScript using the After Effects object model.
- Puppet tools, 3D cameras and lights, and a render queue.
- Roto Brush and face tracking. Since 0.3.0 these can use optional, open-source models that you download separately.
EffectCraft vs After Effects
| EffectCraft | After Effects | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Paid subscription |
| Source code | Open, MIT or Apache-2.0 | Proprietary |
| Linux and FreeBSD | Yes | No native version |
| Project file | Readable JSON (.ecproj) that works with version control | Binary .aep |
| Lottie | Import and export built in | Through a plugin |
| Video encoding | Built-in pure-Rust codecs, no FFmpeg needed | Adobe’s own encoders |
| Third-party plugins | Not described in the official documentation | Large, long-established ecosystem |
| Maturity | Version 0.9.2, first released October 2026 | Decades of releases |
The After Effects column states only general, widely known facts. Effect counts and feature claims for EffectCraft are the project’s own and have not been independently tested by this site.
Where EffectCraft goes its own way, the project names four things: built-in Lottie, a project file you can read and diff, a command system that lets scripts and AI agents do anything you can click, and video decoding and encoding with no FFmpeg dependency.
EffectCraft download
The project recommends the EffectCraft page on getartcraft.com for a first install. Every build is also attached to the latest GitHub release. The files for version 0.9.2 are:
| System | File | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Windows, 64-bit Intel or AMD | effectcraft-0.9.2-windows-x64.msi | 49.9 MB |
| Windows, ARM64 | effectcraft-0.9.2-windows-arm64.msi | 44.4 MB |
| Windows, portable (no install) | effectcraft-0.9.2-windows-x64-portable.zip | 65.7 MB |
| macOS, Apple silicon and Intel | effectcraft-0.9.2-macos-universal.dmg | 63.3 MB |
| Linux, AppImage | effectcraft-0.9.2-linux-x86_64.AppImage | 58.0 MB |
| Linux, Flatpak | effectcraft-0.9.2-linux-x86_64.flatpak | 40.7 MB |
| Linux, Debian and Ubuntu | effectcraft-0.9.2-linux-x86_64.deb | 64.1 MB |
| Web (WebAssembly) | effectcraft-web-0.9.2.zip | 18.8 MB |
Linux builds also exist for ARM64 and RISC-V, and there is a FreeBSD tarball. The project states that Windows installers are code-signed and macOS builds are signed and notarized, and each release includes SHA256SUMS.txt. The steps for checking a download are the same as for PhotoCraft; see Is PhotoCraft safe?
Recent EffectCraft versions
| Version | Released | Headline changes |
|---|---|---|
| 0.9.2 | October 12, 2026 | Shared panel docking |
| 0.8.0 | October 11, 2026 | 49 community contributions merged, Brazilian Portuguese interface |
| 0.4.0 | October 7, 2026 | More than 40 reported issues fixed, timeline zoom shortcuts |
| 0.3.0 | October 6, 2026 | Optional open-source models for Roto Brush and Face Tracking |
| 0.2.0 | October 5, 2026 | Puppet tools: pin editing, rigging to nulls, follow-through |
Known limits
EffectCraft is less than two weeks old. The official documentation does not describe support for After Effects plugins or for opening .aep projects, so plan on rebuilding rather than importing existing work. On Windows ARM64 the project notes its automated tests do not yet open the app window natively, and asks users to report differences.
The rest of the suite
EffectCraft is one of the Crafting Apps. For layered image editing see PhotoCraft, and for the full list see ArtCraft apps.
EffectCraft questions
What is EffectCraft?
EffectCraft is a free, open-source motion graphics and compositing app from the ArtCraft team. The project describes it as a clean-room reimplementation of Adobe After Effects, written from scratch in Rust.
Is EffectCraft free?
Yes. It is open source under the MIT or Apache-2.0 licence, with no subscription and no account.
Is EffectCraft made by Adobe?
No. It is an independent project by the ArtCraft team and its contributors, and states that it is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Adobe.
Which systems does EffectCraft run on?
Windows (64-bit Intel/AMD, ARM64 and 32-bit), macOS (one universal build for Apple silicon and Intel), Linux (x86_64 and ARM64, plus a RISC-V build), FreeBSD and the web through WebAssembly.
Do After Effects expressions work in EffectCraft?
The project says expressions are JavaScript with the After Effects object model, and names wiggle, loopOut and thisComp.layer() as supported, with an inline editor and the pick-whip.
Can EffectCraft open After Effects project files?
The official feature list this page is based on does not say that it opens .aep files. EffectCraft saves its own projects as versioned JSON with the .ecproj extension. Check the official repository for current import support.
Does EffectCraft support Lottie?
Yes. Lottie import and export are built in, according to the project, so animations can go to the web and apps without a plugin.
Is EffectCraft ready for real work?
The project calls it “young, moving fast, and already usable”. It is at version 0.9.2 and was first released in early October 2026, so test it on a copy of your project first.