Krea for After Effects: Generate Plates, Backgrounds and Motion Concepts Inside Your Comp

By the Krea Team. Published October 20, 2026.

Krea for After Effects brings Krea’s image generation into a panel built for motion designers. Generate source imagery, backgrounds, plates, and motion-design directions, then drop the result into your open composition as a project asset. Animating, compositing, and timing stay in After Effects.

What does Krea for After Effects do?

It lets you generate visual assets without leaving the comp. The panel covers four jobs:

• Motion concepts. Turn a prompt or a reference frame into visual directions you develop in the composition.
• Backgrounds and plates. Generate environments, textures, and background plates sized for your comp.
• Krea Realtime. Adjust the prompt, color, and composition while the image updates live beside your work.
• Consistent shots. Create related frames, angles, and treatments that feel like one sequence.

Everything you generate enters the project as a standard media asset, ready for compositing and animation.

See all of Krea’s plugins on Krea plugins.

How do I install Krea in After Effects?

Krea for After Effects runs on macOS 12 or later and Windows 10 or later, with After Effects 2025 or newer. Generation runs on Krea’s servers, so you need a Krea account and an internet connection.

1. Download the signed installer for your Mac or PC from the After Effects plugin page.
2. Run it and follow the prompts.
3. Restart After Effects.
4. Open the panel from Window → Extensions → Krea.
5. Sign in with your Krea account.

How do I generate a frame and bring it into the comp?

Start from a prompt or a reference frame, pick a direction, and bring it in as an asset you animate.

1. Open the composition you’re working in.
2. Open Window → Extensions → Krea.
3. Describe the frame, or start from a reference frame you already have.
4. Explore directions: compositions, styles, color, backgrounds, and key visual frames.
5. Bring the result into the active project as a new asset.
6. Animate and composite it like any other layer: time it, mask it, parent it, grade it.

How do I build background plates sized to the comp?

Generate environments, textures, and background plates sized for your comp. Use one as the plate under typed animation, a hold for a transition, or a texture you displace.

The plate is standard media, so it behaves like any other footage or still in your project panel. Precomp it, fit it to the comp, and build your design on top.

How does Krea Realtime work beside the comp?

Krea Realtime updates the image live as you adjust the prompt, color, and composition. You see the direction move before you commit a still to the timeline.

It’s the same live preview as Krea Realtime on the web, right next to your comp.

A good loop: lock the comp size and subject first, nudge color and composition until the plate matches your title treatment, and only then import the frame you’ll animate.

How do I keep a sequence visually consistent?

Generate related frames, angles, and treatments that feel like part of the same sequence. Use it when a spot needs a start, mid, and end frame that share a world: the same room, the same palette, a new angle.

For heavier image editing, try Krea 3 on the web. It takes up to 8 reference images per edit and is 10× faster and 3× cheaper than GPT Image 2 and Nano Banana Pro, with fast, high, and ultra modes. See how it ranks in Krea 3 benchmarks.

Cutting on a timeline next? Use Krea for Premiere Pro. To generate video on the web, open Krea video.

Where does this fit in a motion-design job?

Krea is built for motion-design exploration: compositions, styles, color directions, backgrounds, and key visual frames. That covers the frames you’d otherwise dig up as stock or paint as a temp:

• A title background that matches the type lockup.
• A plate behind a product you already filmed.
• Style frames for a pitch, before the animation is built.
• A short set of angles for one scene, so the boards feel like one spot.

You design the motion in After Effects. Krea supplies the picture.

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Frequently asked questions

Is there an AI plugin for After Effects?

Yes. Krea for After Effects generates source imagery, backgrounds, plates, and motion-design directions in a panel. Results enter your project as standard media assets you can composite and animate.

How do I install Krea in After Effects?

Download the signed installer from the After Effects plugin page, run it, restart After Effects, and choose Window → Extensions → Krea. Then sign in with your Krea account.

Which versions of After Effects does Krea support?

After Effects 2025 or newer, on macOS 12 or later and Windows 10 or later.

Are the generated assets editable?

Yes. They enter the project as standard media assets, so you can composite, mask, and animate them like any other footage.

Do I need an account and an internet connection?

Yes. Generation runs on Krea's servers, so you need to be online and signed in to your Krea account.

Does the After Effects plugin include Krea Realtime?

Yes. Krea Realtime powers the live preview in the panel, updating the image as you change the prompt, color, and composition.

Is there a free Krea plan?

Yes. Krea's free plan includes 100 compute units a day, with no credit card required. Compare plans on Krea pricing.