Making AE’s Essential Graphics Panel Work for You

Evan Abrams Covers Working With After Effects Essential Graphics Panel & Explores Possibilities

Recent versions of After Effects have included an Essential Graphics Panel that allows users to build custom controls that can be used as templates or shared. We have all enjoyed Expression Controls in After Effects for many years, but the Essential Graphics Panel takes that concept to the next level.

You can use the new panel to export motion graphics templates by encapsulating them so they can be edited directly inside of Premiere Pro. Alternatively, you can use the panel as a handy control surface in After Effects, smoothing out your workflow.

Motion designer Evan Abrams walks through the process of creating a dynamic template in his latest tutorial. “If you sell templates or make use of templates in your workflow, this is for you,” Evan says. “We go through the full process from nothing to a working, dynamic template quickly, easily, with only the… essentials?”

If you want to have a look at another practical example for how to incorporate the panel in your work, John Dickinson covers using it as a color swatch panel in After Effects in his Node Fest talk (around 22 minutes in).