Creative Cloud Libraries in After Effects

Learn how to use Creative Cloud Libraries in Adobe After Effects to access, organize, sync, and share assets across projects, devices, and Adobe applications.

Creative Cloud Libraries make your assets available to you wherever you are. Create images, colors, text styles, color looks, and more in Photoshop, Illustrator, and mobile apps like Adobe Shape, and then easily access them across other desktop and mobile apps for a seamless creative workflow.

Using Creative Cloud Libraries

In After Effects, Creative Cloud Libraries are available from within the Libraries panel and the Start screen. The Libraries panel is visible in the Default, Standard, and All Panels workspaces. It's docked on the right side of the workspace.

To open the Libraries panel, you can select the following:

• Window > Workspace > Libraries
• File > Import  > From Libraries
• Window > Libraries

You can use the creative assets in After Effects in many different ways:

• You can drag graphics assets from the Libraries panel to the Project panel to import them into your project.
• Vector assets in your library created with mobile apps like Adobe Capture can be imported into After Effects and converted into shape layers for high-quality vector animations.
• Text layer graphics added to your library from Photoshop can be imported into After Effects and converted to editable text layers with live layer styles.

Location of Library assets

Library assets imported into After Effects are copied to your user folder at the following locations: 

• macOS: Users/<user_name>/Documents/Adobe/After Effects 2026/User Libraries/
• Windows: C:\Users\<user_name>\Documents\Adobe\After Effects 2026\User Libraries\

Accessing Creative Cloud Libraries

Whatever you save in the Libraries panel becomes available for use across After Effects projects that you're working on.

Libraries are synced to Creative Cloud. Your library becomes available on any computer that you are signed into using your Creative Cloud with your Adobe ID.

Whatever you save in the Libraries panel becomes automatically available across desktop and mobile apps that support Creative Cloud Libraries.

For example, you can access Libraries from desktop apps such as Adobe Premiere or Photoshop, and mobile apps such as Adobe Capture.

Add a Creative Cloud library

You can create any number of libraries to organize your assets. The libraries that you create are displayed in the Libraries panel in After Effects.  

Add assets to a Creative Cloud Library

To add assets to a Creative Cloud Library, follow any of the options mentioned:

You can also add assets directly to the Creative Cloud Assets page. To add assets:

Once uploaded, the files are synced with your Creative Cloud account, and you can access them from anywhere.

Graphic Assets

Graphics assets can be imported into your After Effects project, like any other asset you would import from your local disks. To import graphics assets into your project, do either of the following:

• Right-click a graphic asset and select Import.

• Select a graphic asset in the Libraries panel, and drag it to the Project panel.

Vector graphics in your library that were created with Illustrator can be imported into After Effects. After adding them to a composition, these graphics can then be converted into shape layers for high-quality vector animations.

Photoshop text layer graphics added to your library can be imported into After Effects and converted into editable text layers with live layer styles.

Changing the Drag Import Multiple Items As setting in Preferences > Import (Windows) or Settings > Import (macOS) affects how PSD and AI assets are imported from a library.

Looks

Looks are color presets created and added to the Creative Cloud library using Adobe Premiere. Looks combine color and light information from a live image captured by your mobile device camera or a photograph in your device.

Looks, stored in .look files, can then be applied to a layer in After Effects. Looks are an easy way to enhance your project by modifying the image's color or to apply color grading, usually done using another application like the color panel in Premiere.

Looks from the Libraries panel are read using the Apply Color LUT effect, the same as LUT files from other sources.

To apply a look from the Libraries panel, do any of the following:

• Select a layer in the composition, right-click on a look in the Libraries panel, and select Apply Look.
• Drag a look from the Libraries panel onto a layer in the Composition, Layer, Effect Controls, or Timeline panels.
• Drag a look from the Libraries panel onto the title row of an existing Apply Color LUT effect on a layer in the Timeline or Effect Controls panels.
  

After Effects will add the Apply Color LUT effect to the target layer and apply the look.

If the Apply Color LUT effect is already present on a layer, applying a look from the Libraries panel reuses the existing instance of the effect. You can use this approach to try out different looks on the same layer.

Add assets from Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock is a service that sells millions of high-quality, royalty-free photos, illustrations, and videos (including HD and 4K videos).

You can start a search for Adobe Stock assets from within After Effects in the Libraries panel. In After Effects (beta), you can use the Adobe Stock panel.

The search results for video assets display the licensing status, duration, and format information. You can filter your search results and preview the assets. 

Once you locate an asset you want to use, you can purchase a license immediately and add the asset to your library, which will appear in the Libraries panel within After Effects. Or, you can add an unlicensed preview (watermarked) version of the asset to your library. To license a Stock asset from the Project panel, select a watermarked preview asset in the Project panel, and select File > License or select the shopping cart button to the left of an unlicensed footage item.

If you add a preview version of an asset to your library, you can license it later. To license the asset, click/right-click it, and from the context menu select "License this image".

Adobe Stock still image preview assets are automatically replaced with the full-resolution, non-watermarked version when you purchase a license.

Check for Creative Cloud updates

You can check for available updates in the Creative Cloud desktop app. 

You can check for updates manually by following these steps:

All the Motion Graphics templates are displayed as updates in the desktop app. 

Share libraries with Creative Cloud users

You can share your libraries with other Creative Cloud users to view, edit, or use the contents of a shared library. The users of your library assets are informed whenever a read-only asset is changed in the library. 

Share a library

There are two diiferent ways you can share your libraries with other users.

Use the Library panel

In the Libraries panel, select the pop-up menu on the panel tab, and select Invite people.

Use the Creative Cloud website

To share libraries using the Creative Cloud website, select Files > Your libraries > Share. Follow the onscreen instructions to invite collaborators to your library.

Join a shared library