To create a group, select the Add Formatting menu in the lower-left corner of the Essential Graphics panel.
Last updated on
May 11, 2026
Create reusable motion graphics templates in Adobe After Effects to package animations with customizable controls for efficient editing and consistent design across projects.
Motion Graphics templates can include various motion graphics elements packaged as templates with easy-to-use controls along with the source images, videos, and pre-comps necessary to maintain consistent design across your projects. It allows motion designers working in After Effects to retain stylistic control of compositions while providing editors working in Premiere the ability to customize the motion graphic according to the project's needs.
Motion Graphics templates also provide controls over more advanced elements such as particle simulations, special effects, and 3D animations.
Creating Motion Graphics templates in After Effects
Learn how to create a simple Motion Graphics template in After Effects.
Use the Essential Graphics panel to build Motion Graphics templates
The Essential Graphics panel allows you to build custom controls for motion graphics and share them as Motion Graphics templates via Creative Cloud Libraries or as local files. Essential Graphics panel works as a bucket in which you can add different controls, modify them, and then pack them as shareable Motion Graphics templates.
To create a Motion Graphics template, use the Essential Graphics workspace (Window > Workspace > Essential Graphics).
You can use the Essential Graphics panel in After Effects in four main ways:
Control surface within After Effects
Use it as a control surface for your compositions. Drag parameters from the timeline into the Essential Graphics panel to create shortcuts for elements you often change in your composition.
Primary properties for primary controls
Create primary properties that work as primary controls to modify a composition's effect and layer properties when nested in another composition.
Export Motion Graphics templates (.mogrt)
Export your Motion Graphics template so it can be edited directly in Premiere. All the source images, videos, and pre compositions necessary to maintain your design are packaged in the template. Only the controls you expose are available for customization in Premiere, which allows you to retain creative control of your design.
Group controls and more
Group controls, control font properties, and add controls for CSV and TSV spreadsheet data sources to a Motion Graphics template.
Open a composition in the Essential Graphics panel
Learn how to open a .mogrt file in Adobe After Effects.
To start building a Motion Graphics template in After Effects, select a composition from your project and add it to the Essential Graphics panel.
To open a composition in the Essential Graphics panel in After Effects, do any of the following:
To open the current composition, select Composition > Open in Essential Graphics.
To open a particular composition, right-click a composition in the Project panel, and select Open in Essential Graphics.
To open any composition in your project, select the Primary menu in the Essential Graphics panel.
Working with a Primary composition
The Primary composition is the current composition in the Essential Graphics panel.
You can add supported properties from the Primary composition to the panel. You can also add properties from the compositions that are in the hierarchy of the primary composition.
Properties from a composition that are not in the hierarchy of the primary composition are considered unrelated properties. A warning message is displayed when you add unrelated properties to the Essential Graphics panel. The properties are still added to the panel but highlighted in red. However, they don't work when the composition is exported as a Motion Graphics template.
To use unrelated properties, nest the composition containing the properties into the primary composition or the hierarchy.
Add controls in the Essential Graphics panel
You can add supported properties from any effect or layer property group, such as - Transform, Masks, and Material Options. Only these properties will be available for customization to the editors in Premiere.
To add a control, drag single or multiple selected properties from the timeline into the Essential Graphics panel.
Right-click a property in the Timeline or Effect Controls panel, then select Add Property to Essential Graphics from the menu.
You can also select a property in the Timeline panel, then select Animation > Add Property to Essential Graphics.
Tip
Assign a keyboard shortcut to the Add Property to Essential Graphics panel command.
If you want to only view the properties supported by the Essential Graphics panel, select the Solo Supported Properties button in the panel. The button filters the properties and displays the supported properties in the timeline.
- Check box
- Color
- Numerical sliders (a single-value numerical property), such as Transform > Opacity or the Slider Control expression control effect
- Source text
- 2D point properties, such as Transform > Anchor Point, Transform > Position, and the Point Control expression control effect
- 2D scale properties, such as Transform > Scale
- Angle properties, such as Transform > Rotate and the Angle Control expression control effect
- Shadow Color property in Compositing Options of a 3D layer.
Modify controls in the Essential Graphics panel
You can use the Essential Graphics panel to customize or modify controls to ensure the editors can locate the controls quickly, clarify what they are editing, and view specific instructions when working with Motion Graphic templates in Premiere.
Rename a control: To rename a control, select the name field of the control and enter a new name.
Reveal source properties: To reveal the source properties of a control in the timeline, right-click the control name and choose Reveal in Timeline from the context menu. The reveal option opens the related composition even if it is closed.
Reorder the controls: To reorder the controls, drag them up or down in the panel.
Note
- The controls that you add to the Essential Graphics panel are linked to the source properties. Changing the value of a control also changes the value of the properties in the composition. For example, if you change the Opacity to 50% in the panel, the value of Opacity in the composition also changes to 50%.
- The composition values are simultaneously updated as you slide the value of numerical controls in the panel. To disable the live update feature, hold Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows) as you slide.
Create groups of controls
Group controls in the Essential Graphics panel for better navigation and reduced clutter. This is helpful when you add long lists of editable controls or the primary properties of nested compositions to the panel.
Select Add Group.
To add a control to a group, drag it over the group name.
Add font controls in the Essential Properties panel
When you add a text layer to the Essential Graphics panel, you can modify and control the font family, font style, size, and faux styles of that layer in a Motion Graphics template. Adding these controls ensures that the editors working with Motion Graphic templates in Premiere have access to only needed text properties.
Add font property controls to the panel:
Add the Source Text property of a text layer to the Essential Graphics panel.
Select the Edit Properties option on the right side of the control row.
In the Source Text Properties dialog, select the font properties to control from the following options:
Enable Custom Font Selection
Adds the Font Family and Font Style controls.
Enable Font Size Adjustment
Adds the Font Size control.
Enable Faux Styles
Adds Faux Bold, Faux Italic, All Caps, and Small Caps controls.
Note
Font controls are unsupported as primary properties of a nested composition.
To add comments, select the Add Comment button at the bottom of the Essential Graphics panel. You can add multiple comments, rename them, and reorder them. You can also undo and redo adding comments, reorder them, and remove them if necessary.
- To rename, select the name field of the comment and enter a new name.
- To reorder, drag the comment up or down the panel.
To delete a comment, select the comment and press Backspace or Delete.
Note
When you duplicate a composition in the Project panel (Command + D for macOS or Ctrl + D Windows) After Effects duplicates properties and comments added to the Essential Graphics panel for that composition.
Learn how to export .mogrt templates to Creative Cloud Libraries or local drive.
Note
Some Motion Graphics templates require the user to have After Effects installed on their computer to customize them.
Make sure that your templates meet the following requirements to ensure an After Effects install is not required for the user of your .mogrt:
- Only the Classic 3D composition renderer is supported. Cinema 4D and Ray-traced 3D renderers are not supported.
- All effects included with After Effects are supported, except Camera-Shake Deblur, Synthetic Aperture Color Finesse, Maxon CINEWARE, Puppet, and Warp Stabilizer.
- Dynamic Link footage is not supported, such as Premiere sequences or Character Animator scenes in an After Effects composition.
- FLV format footage and third-party plug-ins are not supported.
Name the template
To name or rename your Motion Graphics template, select the name field of the template and enter a new name.
Set poster frame for the template
You can set the poster frame for your template. The poster frame is used as the thumbnail image for your template in Creative Cloud libraries and the Essential Graphics panel in Premiere.
To set the poster frame:
In the primary composition, place the current-time indicator on the frame you want to select.
Select the Set Poster Time button in the Essential Graphics panel.
Export a template
To export your composition as a Motion Graphics template:
Select the Export Motion Graphics Template button at the bottom of the Essential Graphics panel. Compositions in the hierarchy of the primary composition are included in the template.
In the Export As Motion Graphics Template dialog, select the Destination menu. The available destinations are:
Creative Cloud Libraries
Add templates to your Creative Cloud Libraries.
Local Templates Folder
Add templates to the local folder by default. Templates stored in the Essential Graphics folder are directly available in the Essential Graphics panel in Premiere.
Local Drive
Save templates to a local directory. The templates you save to your local directory are not automatically available in the Essential Graphics panel in Premiere.
Select the Include video preview checkbox to enable a video preview of the Motion Graphics template as the thumbnail. Preview it by hovering over the thumbnails in the Premiere Essential Graphics panel before applying it to the sequence.
Note
The video preview capability currently works only for local and Creative Cloud Libraries exports.
Under the Compatibility section, select a check box:
Warn me if this Motion Graphics template uses fonts that are not available from Adobe Fonts
Enable this option if you want After Effects to warn you if any fonts used by the composition are not available on Adobe Fonts.
Warn me if After Effects needs to be installed in order to customize this Motion Graphics template
Enable this option if you only want to export After Effects independent features. For example, any third-party plug-ins.
Note
These options only display warnings. They do not modify the content of the Motion Graphics template. To edit the project to meet the requirements, cancel the export and make the changes, then export the Motion Graphics template again.
Choose the export destination from the Destination menu and select OK.
Open Motion Graphics templates as a project
To edit your After Effects Motion Graphics template (.mogrt files), you can open them in After Effects as a Project file. After you edit the template, re-export it as a .mogrt file.
To open a Motion Graphics template as a project:
Select File > Open Project.
In the Open Project dialog, select a .mogrt file, then select Open.
When you open a .mogrt as a project, After Effects extracts the project file and assets. In the Extract "<filename>.mogrt" dialog, choose a location to extract the .mogrt contents, then select Extract.
Install and use Motion Graphics templates in Premiere
When the Motion Graphics template created in After Effects is installed and opened in Premiere, the Essential Graphics panel reveals all the defined properties, like the ability to make dynamic changes to text, color, and layout.
Learn how to install and use Motion Graphics templates in your Premiere projects.
Work with data-driven Motion Graphics templates
Data-driven Motion Graphics templates allow you to quickly and accurately customize bar charts, line graphs, and more without manual entry or deep knowledge of motion graphics.
With this feature, you can add controls for CSV (comma-separated value) and TSV (tab-separated value) spreadsheet data to the Essential Graphics panel. When you export these Motion Graphics templates with data controls to Premiere, you can modify or replace them in Premiere.
Another use is that the data controls in the Essential Graphics panel can work as a data browser or editor for CSV or TSV data layers in your composition without exporting them as a template. When you add a composition with spreadsheet data to the panel, the panel displays all the related data, which is editable. If you're working with a nested composition, the data controls are not accessible as primary properties of that composition.
Import a CSV or TSV file into your project and add it to your composition.
In the Timeline panel, twirl open the layer properties for the data layer.
Select and drag the data property group of the layer to the Essential Graphics panel.
You can modify the following properties for spreadsheet data in the Essential Graphics panel:
Spreadsheet Properties
Select Edit Properties to the right of the data group to modify the following:
- Data property type: Choose the data type for the values in each column. Use this to change how the spreadsheet values are represented in Premiere. An After Effects author sets the type for each column in After Effects. In Premiere, the type translates as either a text string, a hot text slider for numbers, or a hexadecimal value for color (for example, #EE0473).
- Minimum Rows: In Premiere, you can modify the number of rows used in the Motion Graphics template. Set the minimum number of rows allowed.
Rows
In Premiere, you can modify the number of rows used in the Motion Graphics template. Set the maximum number of rows allowed.
Data properties
- Column names: Modify the column names that display in the Motion Graphics template.
- Data values: Modify the value of a spreadsheet cell. To choose the row that you edit, change the Row menu at the top of the Data values group.
Note
When you add the Data property group of a data layer to the panel, it removes the expressions that link the data properties of the layer to the source data file. It changes them to static values. The static data values automatically update if you modify the source data file outside After Effects.
Learn how to work with data-driven Motion Graphics templates and use the templates in Premiere.
Note
If you are working with .tsv files, specifically with Excel in German (but this impacts any language that uses a comma instead of a decimal), Excel saves the .tsv files as .txt files. You must manually change the file extension to .tsv before attaching it to a Motion Graphics template in Premiere.
Alternatively, you can use other spreadsheet tools like Open Office or Google Sheets.
Do more with Motion Graphics templates
- Essential Properties work as primary controls that allow you to access layer and effect properties of a composition when it is nested in another composition.
- You can use expressions to create a dropdown menu in the Essential Graphics panel for complex workflows with multiple options for Motion Graphics Templates authors and editors.
- When working in the Essential Graphics panel, allow Premiere editors to replace media, such as logos, videos, and other content within Motion Graphics templates.
Want to create more Motion Graphics templates?
Check out AdobeVideoTraining.com to learn the Top 10 Things Editors want to do in After Effects.
More like this
Create stunning 3D animations in After Effects
Animate characters and illustrations, add motion to text, and more.
