Pikimov: The Wildly Popular New Free After Effects Alternative
People are always searching for free alternatives to expensive photo and video editing software. But for a long time, it has been hard to find a solid After Effects alternative online. That recently changed with the launch of Pikimov from creator Clément Cordier, aka Pikilipita.
Here’s a bit more about the founder: ‘I live and work in France. I am the founder & CTO of XR+, a web studio to create and publish augmented reality experiences (https://xr.plus)’
Pikimov is a free online motion design and video editor
Pikimov is easy to use. Being free, it very quickly gained traction around the web. Pikimov made it to the front page of r/vfx on Reddit, and this tweet about that received over 1.3 million impressions!
https://x.com/pikilipita/status/1806755016276873623
The founder describes the story as:
Many years ago, I made VJ softwares (to mix live visuals in clubs) for unexpected platforms like the Game Boy Advance, the Playstation 2 and the Raspberry Pi. This year, I’m back with a web-app: Pikimov. Inspired by Photopea (a free Photoshop clone), I created this web-based motion design & video editor as an alternative to After Effects, to fill an empty void.
As a creative developer working daily on a Linux machine, I often found myself in need of an After Effects alternative, with compositions, layers, keyframes, masks… so I ended up creating Pikimov on which I worked during my free time, as a side project. It’s a free online motion design & video editor that runs directly in web browsers, on all systems: Windows, macOS and Linux.
Pikimov is free, without signup, without cloud servers uploads (your files stay on your machine), and your projects are not used for AI models training.
This is not yet another magic AI tool, I like to think of it as a traditional NLE video editor, with compositions, layers, keyframes and filters.
Technology
Made using the following web tools:
- Threejs: 2D/3D compositions render engine
- Emberjs: to manage the UI
- WebGL GLSL shaders: render video effects
- JQuery: bits & pieces
Features in Pikimov
Pikimov has a wide range of features making it a great video editor, all based in the browser.
- Projects – Save and share projects with others
- Keyframes and animation feature
- Web-based: nothing to install
- For Windows, macOS and Linux
- Import images, videos, audios and 3D models
- Video effects and filters
- Layer based compositions and editing
- Keyframes animation system
- Your files stay on your computer, they are not uploaded to a server
- Create motion design compositions, quickly crop, cut, or trim videos online.
Does Pikimov require fast internet?
Not at all, the whole app is around 5MB, a bit more if you load demo projects, and that’s it.
All the processing is done locally on your machine, your files do not travel across internet, there is no video streaming involved.
Get more of your questions about Pikimov answered on their FAQ page.
More Information About Pikimov
Pikimov is truly an impressive and free After Effects alternative. An online motion design and video editing program right in the browser.
Pikimov homepage- https://pikimov.com
Pikimov FAQ – https://pikimov.com/faq
Reddit – https://www.reddit.com/r/pikimov/
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@pikimov
