After Effects Lower Thirds: 18 Amazing Templates and How To Use Them

After Effects 20/08/2020 8 min read

Lower thirds are probably the least of your considerations when you’re putting together a film. But let me tell you they’re as important as getting the right camera angles, the perfect lighting, or getting the best out of your cast and crew. Lower thirds are a fantastic way to give your viewing audience extra information without obstructing visuals.

Here are some easily downloadable lower third templates to add fuel to your video or filmmaking fire. You will also find a step-by-step guide on how to use the templates to get the most out of them.

Part 1: 18 Brilliant After Effects Lower Thirds For Your Next Project

1. 30 Modern Lower Thirds

Modern Lower Third templates come with thirty in and out animations. The size and color of each graphic can be personalized easily. Third-party plugins are not needed. The After Effects template is clutter-free to edit and can be rendered quickly. Use it for your next presentation at the office or to showcase your achievements.

Download 30 Modern Lower Thirds Now

2. Audio Spectrum Lower Third Pack

Working on an album in secret? Here is a vibrant and dynamically animated After Effects template – Audio Spectrum – which comes with five groovy and dynamic equalizer animation. These equalizers automatically react to the music in the video, which makes them appear psychedelic. They will instantly boost the feel and look of your music videos. It is available in HD and doesn’t require any additional plugins.

Download Audio Spectrum Lower Third Pack Now

3. Social Media Lower Thirds

Social Media Lower Thirds is a dynamic AE template with four text animations. They are simple to implement. You can edit the text, make use of the easy drag-and-drop feature to add media, and hit render. This animated AE template can be used to enhance and highlight important products, people, or places in your videos. It can be used for your next musical, documentary or even a short film. No additional plugins are not required. Just go through an after effects lower thirds tutorial to understand how to use this template.

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4. Lower Thirds Pack

Working on a video on your recent travel story or need to add text to an amazing lifestyle video? Not a problem when you have the Lower Thirds Pack. This is an AE template with nine distinct lower third compositions with bold and focused text. Simply edit the default text with your choice of words and hit render. Third-party plugins are not required and it also supports HD quality. 

Download Lower Thirds Pack Now

5. 10 Modern Thirds

A flat and minimalistic template, Modern Lower Thirds features ten diverse and eye-catching animations. The template is easily customizable, does not need any additional plugins, and supports HD videos. Change the colors, textures, or even font. Just remember to have fun while you’re at it. 

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6. 18 Lower Thirds

Filled with modern style animations, the 18 Lower Thirds is a fantastic pack consisting of snappy and funky texts to add spice to your next projects. The duration of each animation can be personalized and that’s not all, you can change the colors and finish rendering your video in no time. Music can be downloaded separately to add that extra motivation.

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7. Clean Lower Thirds

Clean Lower Thirds is packed with futuristic, avant-garde animated templates for after effects. This pack comes with 10 simple and plain, yet vociferously stylish animated lower thirds. Use the color controller to style them as per the need of your brand. The template is perfect to use for movies, films, business promotions, exhibitions, company broadcasts, upcoming event videos, interviews and so much more. Your audience will be in awe of the final video. 

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8. Paper Thirds 

Passing notes to each other under the supervision of a strict class teacher is probably one of the fondest childhood memories of anyone who’ve had the pleasure to attend school. Bringing back the nostalgia, Paper Thirds is an after effects template that features four paper textured lower-third graphics. This template also comes with 4 spots for your personalized text and a placeholder at the end where you can place your logo. It is perfect for corporate, instructional, and educational videos. 

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9. Stylish Lower Third

Standing out from the crowd and making a lasting impression was never easier. Until now. Presenting a fast animated after effects template, Stylish Lower Third which features 10 quirky and diverse lower third animations. The template can be easily customized as per brand tonality. You can change the colors using the controller. You can even change the text or font and just hit render. It’s that quick and straightforward. 

Download Stylish Lower Third Now

10. Lower Thirds

Breathe life into your videos using the dynamic Lower Thirds AE template. This template consists of 9 tastefully animated and professionally designed lower thirds. Each one of them comes with an individual color controller and text editor. It is available in HD and ideal for adding boldness to the look of your business slideshows, corporate presentations, events, promotions, or company broadcast videos. 

Download Lower Thirds Now

11. Slip Thirds

Who doesn’t like minimalistic animations? Conveying a clear message has never been easier. Use the Slip Thirds template to sneakily add some text into your upcoming video. With this template, you get 8 simple and neat lower third animations and 1 sophisticated logo animation. Customization is not a problem and you can adjust the texts, colors, and quickly render your video. 

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12. Title Lower Thirds

Boxed text, Pan in and out, sliding animations, and much more. Refined and peppy Title Lower Thirds AE template can make your future videos stand out. The template comes with 12 distinctive and animated text titles that you can use to easily grab your peer’s attention. Each title comes with its controller so that you can personalize and change the colors to match your eccentric style. Customization and adjustments can be easily made and even if you’ve never used after effects templates before, you’ll quickly get a hand of this one.

Download Title Lower Thirds Now

13. 8 Modern Lower 3ths

Confused about what animation to add for your upcoming presentation? Look no further! Amazing Modern Lower 3ths After Effects templates to your rescue. It includes 8 beautifully animated lower thirds, all unique in their way. You can also use these as titles. This template comes with 1 logo holder and 17 text folders, along with a user-friendly color bar so that you can quickly change colors. The template is suitable for use in documentaries, corporate videos, YouTube channels, and more.

Download 8 Modern Lower 3ths Now

14. Logo Lower Thirds

Tired of using the same old animations? Here’s a cracking new Logo Lower Thirds AE template with 8 sophisticated and elegantly designed animations. You can use them as titles if you want. The template is very easy to use and has 1 logo holder and 16 text folders. For quick color changes, you can refer to the color control panel. Be it commercials or TV shows, you can instantly make them more appealing with the help of this template. So, get ready for your video to be the new ‘Friends’ in town.

Download Logo Lower Thirds Now

15. Skewed Thirds

No need to lose your sleep over making your next video production the talk of the town when you have Skewed Thirds. This is a smoothly animated lower thirds After Effects template which features 7 modern and distinctly designed animated graphics. Super-fast rendering, ease of use, and custom color controller are some of the USPs of this template. Download it today and take your upcoming videos to the next level. 

Download Skewed Thirds Now

16. Rounded Line Thirds

Ask anyone and they will say they prefer clutter-free video over fancy animations. Do you want your upcoming video to feel zestful and clean? Rounded Line Thirds is the AE template that you need. It features graphic reveals and unique text that you can either use as centered titles or lower thirds. A total of 8 graphics is available to you with placeholders that can be edited easily. Global color controller and lightning-fast rendering make this template popular among video makers. 

Download Rounded Line Thirds Now

17. Lower Thirds Lines

Equipped with unique designs, Lower Thirds Line template features smooth and clean text animations. You can easily create lower thirds lines animations using this user-friendly AE template. Plugins are not required and you can change the text, do the necessary adjustments as per the need and render the video for quick use. You’ll surely impress your audience with a modern and exciting video. 

Download Lower Thirds Lines Now

18. 12 Simple Lower Thirds

Adding videos to blogs increases user engagements, now imagine adding a classy lower thirds animation text. As the project name suggests, this AE template consists of 12 remarkable graphics to leave a lasting impression. Personalization is simple and you can change colors, insert your image or logo, and also type your text as per your brand needs. Create your upcoming documentary film, corporate presentation, or video blog using this ultra-cool AE template. 

Download 12 Simple Lower Thirds Now

Part 2: How to Make Your Own Lower Thirds in After Effects

By following these basic steps and experimenting with the tools on After Effects, you can easily create unique and creative Lower Thirds.

Step 1: Start by entering a title and a subtitle (if needed) using the text tool and deciding the final storage location.

Step 2: Next, to add a design element like an animated stroke, start by making sure there is no layer selected and using the pen tool, click and create a line.

Step 3: Click on fill and select no fill, click on stroke, select a solid color, and give the desired color to the stroke.

Step 4: Next, under the shape layer, click on add – Trim Path. Under trim path, give a key on ‘End’, starting at 0% at the first frame followed by a second key at one second at 100%.

Step 5: After this comes text animation. By giving keys to the text layer’s position values, the text can be made more dynamic.

Step 6: Once all the animation is done, create pre-comps of both the title and the subtitle.

Step 7: Next, make sure your pre-comp is selected, and using the rectangle tool, create a mask over it.

Step 8: Animate the mask by adding a key to its mask path.

Step 9: Toggle on motion blur for all the layers.

Note: While animating, remember to select your keys and press ‘F9′ to make the keys’ ‘ease in’ and ‘ease-out’.

Part 3: Tips on Making The Most Of Lower Thirds Templates

You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use lower thirds templates. They’re easy to use. But, you do need to think ahead of the curve and understand end audience preferences and then create the videos accordingly. If you’re ready to take your video production to the next level, here are some tips for you.

Choosing a font type

It’s normal to be tempted to choose kick-ass fonts, but make sure it’s legible and complements your video’s content. Also, keep your text brief – you wouldn’t want to distract your viewers from the rest of the footage!

Use logos and shapes

Want your text to be easily noticeable? Add shapes behind it. Use more than one shape in the same lower third to accentuate each piece of information. If you plan to build your brand through your videos, incorporate a custom logo into the lower third of a personal object.

Color

A color scheme that makes your text pop, but doesn’t draw too much attention is what you should go for. While vibrant colors are always preferred, they can be overwhelming sometimes. So, when in doubt, opt for fewer colors. In case you are including your logo, make sure you match the color to your brand.

Animated motion graphics

Add an extra tickle to your lower thirds with motion graphic elements. Intro lower third animation is very common, but you can think out of the box. Do make sure animation makes sense in your scenario.

Text position

Imagine nailing the font, color, shape, and animation, only to have your text cut off. Avoid this by placing the text close to the middle of the screen. Make sure that the text is large enough to read without being an annoyance.


Stunning onscreen visuals are a result of every little element working perfectly together – from the script and dialogues to the background music and storyline. What else you ask? Texts, titles, and other graphic images that tie all the loose ends and make for a great video that the viewers will remember forever. 

Practice some more and your upcoming video productions will surely give people a run for their money. Download and get started already!