What is an After Affects background?

An After Effects background is a looping animation that plays behind your text, images or videos. These animated backgrounds allow you to define an ambience a style or a mood for your motion graphics videos. Moreover, these backgrounds can easily be modified with little tweaks to change the appearance of the animation and the settings can be customized to your own liking.

Where are the Background Presets in After Effects?

Backgrounds Presets can be found in the Effects & Presets panel window in
> Animation Presets > Presets > Backgrounds.
See screenshot on the right.

After Effects Backgrounds Presets Preview Gallery

The After Effects Backgrounds Presets can be very useful if you know how they look like. It can be time-consuming and hassle to drag and drop each one to see what each background preset look like. For that reason, I have created a preview gallery of all the After Effects backgrounds presets package provided when you buy After Effects.

This backgrounds presets overview below will help you to quickly choose the preset background that works for your video and motion graphics, it should save you a lot of time and improve your workflow.

As of Oct 13th, 2024 Adobe had added 2 new background preset animation I just added them

 After Effects background presets list
 Anime Radial Anime Speed Line
Apparition Background preset Blocks Background preset Cinders background preset
 Apparition Background  Blocks Background  Cinders Background
Circuits background preset Cosmic background preset Creepy background preset
 Circuits v  Cosmic Power Background Creepy Background
Curtain background preset Deep Tissue background preset Fog Lights background preset
 Curtain Background Deep Tissue Background Fog Lights Background
Germs background preset Green Crystals background preset  indigestion background preset
Germs Background  Green Crystals Background Indigestion Background
 infection background preset  Lightning bend background preset magma backgrounds preset
 Infection Background Lightning Bend Background Magma Background
 Orb background preset  pixel background preset  Racing rectangle background preset
Orb Background Pixels Background Racing Rectangles Background
red speed line background preset River background preset Rose light After effects background
 Red Speed Background River Background Rose Light Background
 Silk background preset  Smoke Rising background preset Sweeping Curves background preset
 Silk Background Smoke Rising Background Sweeping Curves Background

You can also check my 15 Cartoon Animation background here
15 Cartoon Animated Background Video and After Effects Template