Animation presets let you save and reuse specific configurations of layer properties and animations, including keyframes, effects, and expressions. After Effects includes hundreds of animation presets that you can drop into your projects and then modify to suit your needs.

You can browse and apply animation presets in After Effects using the Effects & Presets panel or Adobe Bridge. To open the Presets folder in Adobe Bridge, choose Browse Presets from the Effects & Presets panel menu or from the Animation menu.

Many animation presets don’t contain animation; rather, they contain combinations of effects, transform properties, and so on. A behavior animation preset uses expressions instead of keyframes to animate layer properties.

Animation presets can be saved and transferred from one computer to another. The filename extension for an animation preset is .ffx.

The animation presets that are installed with After Effects are in the Presets folder located in the Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS3\Support Files (Windows) or Applications/Adobe After Effects CS3 (Mac OS) folder. Animation presets that you create are saved by default in the Presets folder located in My Documents\Adobe\After Effects CS3 (Windows) or Documents/Adobe/After Effects CS3.

You can download additional animation presets—including a set of animation presets that make use of shape layers and per-character 3D text animation—from the Adobe After Effects Exchange: www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_cs3additionalanimationpresets.

You can also download animation presets from many After Effects commnuity websites, such as the AE Enhancers forum: www.adobe.com/go/learn_ae_aeenhancershome.

You can add a single new animation preset or an entire folder of new animation presets to either of the Presets folders.

When After Effects starts, it searches both of the Presets folders and their subfolders for installed presets and adds them to the Effects & Presets panel. After Effects ignores the contents of folders with names that begin and end in parentheses; for example, the contents of the folder (archived_animation_presets) will not be loaded.