The Free Guide: Make Motion Graphics With AI (Built 2026-09-20)

Every step below comes from a file that was checked. The file is named on the step. Nothing here is from memory. Where a step could not be confirmed from those files, the line says VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING instead of guessing.

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What you get (read this first, it is honest)

This is the free way. It works, and it is more manual than the way it is done in the video.

Say it plainly to yourself before you start: the free route is manual, it takes more attempts, and it is not perfect. A free model is weaker than a paid one, so you will ask twice, look at the render, and ask again.

The one command that does the whole install for you, the skill that runs the copy step in one go, and the full project library live inside Wealth Academy Pro. No price is named here. (Source for the split between the manual method and the automated one: FREE-CLAUDE-PROJECT-X-METHODS-FOR-VIEWERS-2026-09-02.md.)

What is proven and what is not (be careful here)

Source: free-brain-after-effects-check-2026-09-20.md, section 4.

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The paid tools, named as paid

You do not need Higgsfield or a paid model to follow this guide. You do need After Effects.

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Step 1: install Claude Code free and swap the brain (the manual Project X method)

All six lines below are from FREE-CLAUDE-PROJECT-X-METHODS-FOR-VIEWERS-2026-09-02.md.

1. Install Claude Code. It is free to install. It runs on a computer, and inside the Claude phone app on the web.

1. Install the free keyring router called OmniRoute (the GitHub repo with over 50,000 stars). It installs with one line.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: the exact install line is not written in any checked file, so read it off the repo page on camera.

1. Get a free key with no card. NVIDIA first, at build.nvidia.com: sign in, go to API keys, generate one. The key

lasts 12 months and gives you about 40 requests a minute. Then add OpenRouter, Gemini, Groq or GitHub if you want more. Paste each key into the ring's settings window.

1. Point Claude Code at the ring's local address and open it. When one provider's free allowance runs dry, the ring

moves to the next one by itself. Your MCP connections come across with it.

1. The real numbers, as of 2026-09-01: about 1.3 billion free tokens a month across about 50 providers, and NVIDIA

at about 40 requests a minute. Free tiers shrink and get pulled without warning. That is exactly why the ring holds many keys instead of one.

1. One warning so nobody is fooled: the free model may claim it is "Opus 5" and show you a fake cost. That is the

harness's own surface data, not the model. Ignore it.

Codex counts as free the same way. The same ring serves it. (One note from free-brain-after-effects-check-2026-09-20.md: whether Codex CLI truly runs on the ChatGPT Free plan is NOT CONFIRMED. OpenAI's own pricing pages blocked every check on 2026-09-20 with a 403 and a bot wall, and two write-ups contradict each other. VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING.)

The automated version of steps 1 to 4, in one command, plus the skill that runs the copy step, is inside Wealth Academy Pro.

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Step 2: add the free After Effects bridge

A bridge is a small free program that lets the AI drive After Effects itself: read your project, write keyframes, render a frame, look at it, and fix it. All of these are free and open source (MIT licence). Source for this whole table: free-brain-after-effects-check-2026-09-20.md.

Pick ishu86 as your default. It has the most tools and it is the one that ships a ready Claude Code skill.

VERIFY LIVE BEFORE FILMING: the exact install commands for the bridge are not written in any checked file. Read them off the repository's own page on camera. What IS confirmed in the file is how each one connects (a panel inside After Effects that must be open, talking to a small program on your own machine).

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Step 3: copy one motion graphic, the manual way

This is the slow, honest version of the copy step. It is more work than the automated one and it will not be perfect first time. That is the trade for free.

1. Pick one short motion graphic from a reference video you like. One graphic, not a whole video.

1. Open After Effects, open the bridge panel, and leave it open.

1. Tell the AI, in your own plain words, to rebuild that graphic inside After Effects: the shapes, the movement,

the timing, the colours. Describe what you see. Be specific about how long each move takes.

1. Ask it to render one frame and look at that frame against your reference.

1. Tell it what is wrong. Ask again. Do this until it is close enough.

Expect several rounds on a free model. This is the part the paid route shortens.

1. When it looks right, save the whole thing as an After Effects project file (.aep). That project file is now yours.

Keep it. Next time you want that look, you open a copy of that project instead of building it again.

That last point is the whole idea in one line: the copy step makes a file, and the file is the asset. (Confirmed in Reis's own motion step file: a recreated style is kept as its whole editable project, saved next to the reference it came from, and later a fresh COPY of that project is handed back to the AI to adapt to a new video, never the original. Source: MOTION-STEPS.md. The exact prompts and the exact run order in that file are the paid method and are not in this guide.)

Always work on a copy. Keep the original project file untouched.

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Step 4: use the library with no AI at all

This is the part that is completely free, forever, for everybody. Adobe's own help page confirms it. Source for this whole section: free-brain-after-effects-check-2026-09-20.md, section 2, quoting helpx.adobe.com.

A project file (.aep) needs no AI and no code:

1. Double click the project file, or use File then Open Project.
2. Click the text layer and type your own words.
3. Click the colour swatch and pick your colour.
4. Replace the placeholder footage with your own video.
5. Drag the keyframes to change the timing.

That is normal After Effects work. No install, no permission, no script.

If you are ever given a script file (.jsx) instead, Adobe's exact menu path is: File > Scripts > Run Script File, then find the script, select it, and choose Open. Three clicks. No AI, no plugin, no install.

Two extra facts from the same Adobe page:

• A script is not allowed to write files or use the network by default. If a script needs that, on a Mac you turn it on

once at After Effects > Settings > Scripting & Expressions, then tick Allow Scripts To Write Files And Access Network.

• To stop a script that is running, press Esc.

Which one to take: take the project file. A beginner can change a project file with no AI and no code. A script file is only better as the thing that builds a brand new graphic from nothing, and that is the AI's job.

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Step 5: where the money is

Numbers below come from card-video1-motion-designer-2026-09-20.md and updated-tools-ideas-1-and-9-2026-09-20.md.

What people actually charge

Nobody prices a 5 second clip. The day rate is the number you show a client.

The proof this pays

The simple money math

• One 10 second job a week at $500 is $2,000 a month.
• One day a week at $1,500 is $6,000 a month.
• $27,000 a month is what Matt Carr Jr did, and that is the ceiling shown, not the starting point.

Three ways to get paid

1. Client work by the day. Charge the day rate, not the hour.

1. Sell the project file. A finished After Effects project made this way is a product, not a gig.

Template shops: Payhip (payhip.com) and Getly (getly.store), where sellers keep 80 to 90 percent. VideoHive and FilterGrade also take listings. Most marketplaces take a cut.

1. Get your first client with no outreach at all. Post the before and after breakdown itself.

The proof of work is the marketing. Breakdown posts pull on X, in motion design Discords, and in the subreddits.

TRACKED LINK NEEDED BEFORE PUBLISHING on every link that leaves with the video: the free guide link, the community link and the ending card link each go out as a named tracked address on Reis's own domain, added to the tracker first, never the raw destination (source: card-video1-motion-designer-2026-09-20.md, metric 11).

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Safe to let the AI into your files?

Yes, with one rule file. Here is how to keep it fenced in.

The AI reads a plain text rules file sitting in the folder you work in, and it follows it every single time.

Put it in the folder you work in, and write the fences in plain words, for example:

• Never touch, move or delete anything outside this folder.
• Never delete a file. Move it to a folder called Old instead.
• Never open my keys, my passwords, or any settings file that holds them.
• Never send anything anywhere: no email, no post, no upload, without asking me first.
• Always work on a copy of a project, never the original.

Two habits that matter more than the rules file:

• Back up the original project before you let the AI near it.
• Keep the After Effects bridge panel open only while you are working, and close it after.

Everything the bridge does runs on your own machine. The connection addresses listed in step 2 (127.0.0.1) are your own computer talking to itself, not the internet.

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The honest line, straight from the research

"I built these with a paid model so you do not have to. Here they are, free, open them in After Effects and swap your own video in." That claim is fully backed as of 2026-09-20.

A claim that a free AI copies brand new styles by itself is NOT backed yet. (Source: free-brain-after-effects-check-2026-09-20.md, line 8 of the honest answer.)

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Open items before this guide is published