Premation

Premation is a free desktop motion-graphics editor for macOS and Windows, currently in public beta. It builds compositions from layers, keyframes and a graph editor, and it borrows After Effects' shortcuts so AE users can jump in without relearning everything. Everything renders on your GPU and saves to your local disk — no cloud, no subscription. The page makes the ownership pitch explicit: the source is on GitHub.

Under the hood it acts like a real compositor, not a web animation toy. You can place flat layers in 3D space with Z position and X/Y rotation, use one- or two-node cameras with depth of field, add lights that cast shadows, and give shapes and text beveled extrusion. The timeline holds shapes, text, images, video, audio, SVG, Lottie and nested comps, with 36 of After Effects' 38 blend modes and 154 built-in effects. The graph editor lets you drag bezier handles directly and offers presets like Easy Ease, Overshoot, Anticipation and Snap. One engine draws both the preview and the export, so the viewport matches the file you render. Supported output includes MP4/H.264, WebM with alpha, MOV ProRes 4444, PNG sequences, GIF, Lottie and WAV.

Premation's AI assistant is the unusual part: instead of generating video, it writes keyframes. You type a request like "stagger the five cards in from the left, 4 frames apart, easing out," and it uses the same 61 tools available in the UI, producing normal layers you can drag, re-ease or undo. It's bring-your-own-key, so there are no credits to buy. That makes the assistant most useful for automating repetitive animation tasks. The clearest audience is motion designers who want a free, open alternative to After Effects, but students and plugin developers should find plenty to tinker with.