Explore panel controls

A reference for every control on the Explore tab and its preview view.

How to access this

  1. Open the LottieFiles plugin in After Effects.

  2. Click Explore in the top tab bar.

  • Search bar — Filters animations in the active tab. Clear icon resets the query and pagination.

  • Free / Premium tabs — switches the browse scope. Query persists across switches.

Animation grid

Each card represents one animation.

Explore panel with the search and tab controls and animation grid highlighted
Explore combines search, Free/Premium tabs, and a browseable animation grid

  • Thumbnail — static preview; hover to play.

  • Creator name (when shown) — links to the creator's profile.

  • Premium badge (Premium-only) — marks paid content.

Cards are arranged in a responsive grid. Scroll loads the next page automatically (infinite scroll).

A horizontal carousel of curated Featured animations at the top of the page. Featured rotates periodically and is the same content as the public-facing Featured collection on lottiefiles.com.

Premium preview bar (Premium tab only)

A horizontal strip near the search bar showing search-result thumbnails for the current query. Mirrors the search results in Premium tab, optimized for quick visual scanning.

Full preview view

Clicking a card opens the preview overlay.

  • Player — full-sized animation playback with looping.

  • Playback controls — play/pause; some animations show scrubber.

  • Insert button — adds the animation to the active After Effects composition.

  • License info (Premium) — the license terms applicable to this animation.

  • Back / Close — returns to the grid view.

Bottom bar

The plugin's global bottom bar appears in Explore when uploads or other operations are in progress. Not Explore-specific — see the chapter for whichever operation is showing.

Last updated: June 9, 2026 at 8:42 AMEdit this page
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