Hey editors, it’s Devin here. A few weeks ago, my friend Fred released this brand-new CRT plugin for After Effects. Back in December, I actually reviewed his Paper Mix Media plugin, and he made this really crazy, authentic paper effect that makes your videos look like paper mixed-media stop-motion animations. I honestly have no idea how he made it because it looks really, really good.
Now, a couple of weeks ago, he released a brand-new CRT plugin, so I decided to try it out, review it, and see if it actually works. And this thing is actually crazy. Fred really went all out with this one. It probably has some of the most customizability I’ve ever seen inside a CRT plugin.
Watch my full CRT plugin review and After Effects tutorial here:
You can check out Fred’s CRT plugin here:
https://fredpelle.tv/?ref=pwjakapw
What Is the CRT Plugin for After Effects?
The plugin is basically designed to help you create realistic CRT television and analog screen effects directly inside After Effects. Instead of building the entire effect from scratch using a bunch of different layers, distortions, overlays, and color effects, you can load the plugin, select your composition, and launch the effect in just a couple of clicks.
What really surprised me was how much control Fred gives you. You can literally go ahead and change the cathode-ray patterns, switch between different types of CRT television displays, adjust the glow, change the screen shape, add distortion, create glitches, and control the animation. Almost everything is customizable.
Some of the main controls inside the plugin include:
➤ CRT screen resolution and image quality
➤ Sharpness and softness controls
➤ Curved or flat television screen shapes
➤ Different cathode-ray and phosphor patterns
➤ Threshold, spread, and glow controls
➤ Analog glitches and screen distortion
➤ Vintage screen wear and texture
➤ Custom preset saving for future projects
How to Use the CRT Plugin in After Effects
To get started, open your project inside After Effects. Go to Window, open Extensions, and select the CRT plugin. The plugin will open inside its own panel. From there, you can select the composition you want to use and hit Launch.
The plugin automatically creates a new composition with the CRT effect already applied. Even the base preset looks really good without making any changes. You immediately get that old-school television look with visible CRT patterns, screen texture, glow, and analog distortion.
From there, you can adjust the resolution if you want the effect to look cleaner or more detailed. You can also change the sharpness, increase the screen curvature, or keep the footage completely flat. The screen controls are especially useful because they help recreate that rounded shape you see on older CRT televisions.
Creating Authentic CRT Glitches and Distortion
One of my favorite parts of the plugin is the glitch system. A lot of CRT effects are basically just video overlays placed on top of your footage. They might look cool, but they are not actually changing or interacting with the original clip.
The glitches inside this plugin actually affect the footage itself. You can create split frames, screen displacement, distortion, tearing, and transitions that feel like they are happening inside a real CRT television. At one point in the tutorial, I noticed that different sections of the screen were showing different video frames, which is similar to how an actual CRT display can behave.
You can also change between different CRT pixel and phosphor patterns. These controls let you recreate different types of screens instead of applying the same generic television effect to every project. You can push the distortion really far for something more experimental, or keep everything subtle if you just want a clean vintage look.
Using CRT Effects on Music Videos, Logos, and Graphics
The effect does not only work with regular video footage. You can also apply it to logos, typography, motion graphics, and other After Effects compositions. In the video, I added the AutoEdit logo to the main composition, and the CRT effect automatically updated inside the final pre-composition.
This makes the plugin really useful for:
➤ Music video edits
➤ Event recap videos
➤ Retro title sequences
➤ Logo animations
➤ Social media edits
➤ VHS and early-2000s visuals
➤ Experimental motion graphics
➤ Analog-style transitions
You can also save your settings as custom presets. Once you create a CRT style you like, you can save it and reuse the same look in future videos. This is especially helpful when you want to keep a consistent visual style throughout an entire music video, recap edit, or content series.
Is the CRT Plugin Worth It?
The CRT plugin is a paid, one-time-purchase tool, but I think the quality and amount of customization make it worth checking out if you regularly create CRT, VHS, retro television, or analog video effects.
Every time Fred releases a plugin, he puts a crazy amount of effort into recreating the authentic version of the effect. The Paper Mix Media plugin looked like real stop-motion paper animation, and this CRT plugin has that same level of detail. You can tell he spent a lot of time studying how these screens actually work instead of just adding a few overlays and calling it a CRT effect.
Check out the CRT plugin here:
https://fredpelle.tv/?ref=pwjakapw
Watch the complete After Effects tutorial and review here:
Automatically Edit Music Videos and Event Recaps with AI
By the way, if you guys are editing music videos or event recap videos, CRT effects usually go really well with those types of projects. We also have AutoEdit AI plugins that can help you automatically cut footage to music and build your first edit faster.
AutoEdit Music Video Mode is an AI plugin for music video directors and editors. It helps automatically organize footage and create music-based edits, giving you a faster starting point before adding effects like CRT distortion, VHS textures, color grading, and transitions.
Our AI Video Editing Tools:
AutoEdit Music Video Mode — AI Plugin for Music Video Directors:
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AutoEdit Event Recap Mode — AI Plugin for Event Recap Editors:
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AutoEdit Content Creator Mode — AI Plugin for Content Creators:
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