Crates Rec Overlay - Free Plugin for After Effects and Premiere Pro

Free VHS & CCTV Interface Overlay Generator for After Effects and Premiere Pro

Crate’s Rec Overlay is a high-performance, free plugin for Premiere Pro and After Effects designed to quickly add various camera-overlays to your videos, including a flashing "Rec" icon, "Live", "Camera A", "Low Battery" and a dynamic timecode.

Perfect for Creators and Storytellers

Whether you are building a fun YouTube video, a tense horror sequence, a retro music video, or a high-tech surveillance feed, this plugin provides the essential one-click application of your interface.

It combines a procedural VHS texture engine with a fully customizable UI system to transform clean digital footage into a living, breathing recording.

One-Click Interface Presets

Crate’s Rec Overlay comes packed with a versatile collection of presets that instantly set the mood for your scene. These are designed to help you tell your story in a fun visual way.
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Basic REC - A classic "Recording" overlay, with a flashing red circle
Basic Pause - Freeze frame styled pausing of your video
Basic Play - An overlay that works well for the playback of a video
Low Battery - Useful for immersive video, a flashing battery icon is in the corner
Cam A & Cam B Styles - Emulate a classic CCTV appearance to show an event
Tinted CCTV - A quick template for a techy drone/robot vision camera
Full REWIND & PAUSE - Tell your story creatively by PAUSING and REWINDING
Action Replay - Highlight your best moments with an Action Replay overlay
Live - Create the illusion of a live broadcast

Smart UI Elements

The heart of the plugin is its robust Text Elements system. You can activate and customize up to four independent UI elements to build a unique on-screen display.
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Dynamic Indicators - Choose from Rec, Play, Rewind, Pause, Live, Action Replay, etc
Battery Status - High, Medium and a flashing Low Battery icon
Automatic Timecode - A realtime clock measured in HH:MM:SS

Border Controls

Border Thickness - Control how thick your outer border is for added character
Border Masking - How much of the border to cut out, leaving only the corneers
Border Padding - How close to the edges you want your borders to be.

Built-in VHS Distortion

Crate’s Rec Overlay isn't just about the interface; it includes a dedicated Footage FX engine to degrade your video signal realistically.
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Scanlines - Horizontal black waves that cover the screen, emulating a techy video signal overlay.
Grain and Noise - Break down the quality of your video feed by adding grain and noise
Rolling/Tracking Bar distortion - A vertically sliding bar that warps the video feed, which is a classic cornerstone of all CCTV/Camera/VHS feeds.
Glitches - A classic set of glitch controls to disrupt and corrupt your videos.

You can disable the distortion by unchecking the Footage FX parameter.
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Ready for After Effects and Premiere Pro

Crates Rec Overlay is a Free plugin that you can use on any video, whether it's a fun gaming commentary, or a long documentary investigating a thriling story.

Use the plugin to add production value to your videos, and customize it to fit your needs however you require.

The plugin works exceptionally well in Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Works great with Crates VHS Master

Crates Rec Overlay works as a brilliant companion to our other plugin, Crates VHS Master. This plugin can be applied afterwards, and adds a beautiful, realistic VHS filter that is ready for professional film-quality productions.

FREE TO USE

Crates Rec Overlay is a convenient free plugin for Premiere Pro and After Effects. Built out of passion, we wanted to share this for all users.

COMPATIBLE ON WINDOWS + MAC

Crates Rec Overlay plugin is compatible on Windows and Mac devices on the latest versions of After Effects!

INCLUDES 20+ PLUGINS

Crates Rec Overlay is included in the our collection of ProductionCrate Plugins, featuring 20+ exciting plugins such including Chromatic Aberrations, 3D Fractals, Glows and Hologram Generators.

TRY FOR FREE

Crates Rec Overlay is a free plugin in ProductionCrate Plugins. Some other plugins available for Pro Users can be tried with a watermark. Simply install Portal, register for a Free account, and install the ProductionCrate Plugins collection.

We offer a collection of 20+ powerful plugins. With a Pro subscription, you can unlock these plugins, and access the entire ProductionCrate asset library.

free PREMIERE PRO PLUGIN

REC OVERLAY

Included with ProductionCrate Plugins