# 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.

## Header

- **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.

<Image src="https://assets.docs.lottiefiles.com/static/8e2b614840-640.webp" alt="Explore panel with the search and tab controls and animation grid highlighted" caption="Explore combines search, Free/Premium tabs, and a browseable animation grid" zoom variant="default" srcSet="https://assets.docs.lottiefiles.com/static/8e2b614840-640.webp 640w, https://assets.docs.lottiefiles.com/static/8e2b614840-1024.webp 1024w, https://assets.docs.lottiefiles.com/static/8e2b614840-1920.webp 1920w" width="1920" height="1080" loading="lazy" data-blur="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAgAAAAFCAYAAAB4ka1VAAAACXBIWXMAAAPoAAAD6AG1e1JrAAAAkElEQVR4nGPwjUj5b+cR8F/b0Oy/pr7xf3U9o/82/uH/QeK+ESn/GEAME9/I/4oWTv+ljaz+Sxla/tcNTvpvmdf83ysm+z9YgYVz8H9jVYf/aXmT/sspKP7X84kEK3BIq4Qq8Aj+r6Nt89/bPuq/uo7Wf3P3IJgVEAWmHkH/VQ2M/5dX1/2PCfD8b+sTAncDAHzASqpEufDVAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC" />

- **Thumbnail** — static preview; hover to play.
- **Creator name** (when shown) — links to the creator's profile. {/* [needs review] confirm clickable */}
- **Premium badge** (Premium-only) — marks paid content.

{
  // TEMP_IMAGE_HIDDEN: Hidden for interim release. Restore this image in this same source location during visual QA.
  false ? (

  <Image
        src="/images/screenshots/ae-explore-card-zoom.webp"
        alt="Close-up of an Explore animation card with its preview area highlighted"
        caption="Animation cards are primarily visual; open one to inspect and insert"
        zoom
        variant="default"
      />
  ) : null
}

Cards are arranged in a responsive grid. Scroll loads the next page automatically (infinite scroll). {/* [needs review] confirm infinite scroll vs explicit pagination */}

## Featured strip (Free tab only)

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. {/* [needs review] confirm whether scrubber is present for all animations */}
- **Zoom controls** — hover the preview to reveal minus and plus buttons. Zoom ranges from 10% to 300% in 10% steps.
- **Pan when zoomed** — above 100%, the cursor changes to grab. Drag the preview or use a two-finger trackpad gesture to move the enlarged animation within the preview boundaries. Preview clicks are reserved for panning at this zoom level and do not trigger playback or State Machine interactions. At 100% or below, the existing preview interactions remain available.
- **Resize handle** — drag to change the preview height when the handle is available.
- **Motion Tokens** (when available) — for dotLottie animations that include Motion Tokens or themes, expand the accordion to choose **Default** or a named theme and edit token values with live preview. See [Using Motion Tokens](/en/integrations/after-effects/03_motion-tokens).
- **Insert** button — inserts the animation as a new composition in the After Effects project.
- **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.

## Related

- [Finding animations](/en/integrations/after-effects/02_explore/finding-animations) — using these controls in the search workflow.
- [Previewing and importing](/en/integrations/after-effects/02_explore/previewing-and-importing) — using the full preview view.