Adobe's subscription model has pushed a lot of creators to look for alternatives, and for years the honest answer was that nothing quite covered everything. That gap is now closing fast.
Coming to you from Joris Hermans, this practical video walks through what he calls a now-complete free Adobe alternative ecosystem, built around tools he actually uses in his own workflow. Hermans has been Adobe-free for two years, leaning on DaVinci Resolve for video editing, color grading, and even raw photo editing since the DaVinci Resolve 21 update, and on Affinity for photo work, layouts, and graphics. Both have free versions, and both have been part of his stack for a while. The missing piece was always After Effects, specifically motion graphics work, and that's where this video gets interesting.
Two apps have recently gone completely free: Cavalry and Autograph. Hermans spends real time with Cavalry, which is built around procedural motion graphics rather than compositing. He's only been using it for about a week, but he found the difference from Fusion noticeable almost immediately. Text animations, duplicators, and animation timing controls all feel faster and less complicated, especially for the kind of animated overlays and moving text that editors reach for After Effects to do. The catch worth knowing: Cavalry was acquired by Canva, the same company that bought Affinity and then made it free. Hermans is upfront that he doesn't fully trust the long-term picture there.
Autograph is the other new free app, and it's arguably the more ambitious of the two. Where Cavalry focuses on motion design, Autograph is trying to combine compositing, motion graphics, procedural systems, and both timeline and node-based workflows into a single application. Some people are already calling it a glimpse of what next-generation creative software could look like. One feature that will matter a lot to Resolve users is the Autograph Live Link, which installs directly inside DaVinci Resolve as an OpenFX plugin. Hermans hasn't tested that integration himself yet, but it points toward something more ecosystem-like than a loose collection of separate tools. He's also quick to note that Autograph still has bugs and rough edges, so it's a watch-closely situation rather than a drop-in replacement today.
The bigger question Hermans raises is whether these apps from different companies can actually function as a coherent ecosystem the way Adobe's suite does. Affinity photo files can open in Resolve with layers intact, and the Autograph Live Link adds another thread. It's starting to feel connected, but whether it holds together for your specific workflow depends on what you actually make. For some creators it already works. For others, not quite yet. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Hermans.
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