The glow plugin that motion designers install first, producing a physically believable falloff instead of the flat blown out halo the built in effect gives you.
Overview
Deep Glow exists because the glow effect built into After Effects has never looked convincing. It blows out highlights, clips colour, and produces a halo with a hard edge that reads as a filter rather than as light. Deep Glow models the falloff the way an actual lens scatters bright light, and the difference is obvious the moment the two are compared on the same layer.
The second version rebuilt the render path around the GPU, which changes how it fits into a working session. Previews that used to force a render queue trip now update live on the timeline, and stacking several instances across a busy composition no longer collapses playback to a slideshow.
Colour handling is the quieter improvement. The plugin now works in a linear space internally regardless of the project setting, so a glow no longer shifts hue as it brightens and no longer produces the grey wash that appeared on saturated sources in the previous version.
The control set stays small on purpose. Threshold, radius, exposure, and a colour ramp cover almost every use, with the compositing mode and chromatic aberration controls tucked underneath for the cases that need them. Presets ship for the common looks so a usable result is one click away.
Feature set
Models the way bright light scatters through a lens rather than applying a flat blur to bright pixels.
Live previews on the timeline with several instances stacked in a single composition.
Works in linear regardless of the project setting, so glows brighten without shifting hue.
Tint the glow across its own gradient for warm cores with cooler outer scatter.
Optional per channel offset in the outer falloff for a lens accurate result.
Common looks included so a believable glow is available without building it from scratch.
Changes in this build
Installation
Hardware
| Processor | Any 64-bit processor supported by After Effects |
|---|---|
| Memory | 16 GB recommended |
| Graphics | GPU with 4 GB VRAM for accelerated rendering, software fallback available |
| Storage | 200 MB |
| Display | 1920 x 1080 |
| System | Windows 10 version 22H2 or Windows 11 with After Effects 2022 or newer |
Package
| Title | Aescripts Deep Glow 2 for After Effects |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.1.1 |
| Developer | Aescripts |
| Category | Video Editing |
| Platform | Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit) |
| Package size | 48 MB |
| Interface languages | English |
| Release identifier | BS-01010101 |
| Listed | 3 years ago |
| Last rebuilt | 1 week ago |
| Total downloads | 276,923 |
Questions
It is an After Effects plugin. Premiere can use it through a dynamic linked composition rather than directly.
No, but rendering falls back to the processor and is considerably slower.
Yes. Version one settings are read and converted, though the result may need a small exposure adjustment.
The plugin landed in the wrong folder. Copy it into the Plug-ins directory inside the After Effects program folder.
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