What you get for free
Four templates in the catalog are free. Each one is a complete product, not a cut-down sample: a Premiere Pro .mogrt, the 4K After Effects project it was built from, and the font files it uses.
- Liquid Glass Pill: name and role on one line in a clear glass capsule that bends the shot behind it, like Apple's iOS 26 glass. In Premiere, drop the same clip into its Background clip slot, or leave it empty for smoked glass. One of the 13 templates in the Liquid Glass Kit.
- Social Handle: a rounded pill with a profile icon badge, plus an optional profile picture slot for your own image. Your handle types itself in and the pill stretches to fit it. Use it for your channel name, a guest's handle or a collaborator credit in a podcast clip.
- Key Verse Lower Third: an italic serif verse with a gold bar and a small-caps reference, plus an optional soft panel. It's built for church services, but works for any short quote with a source.
- Now Playing: a compact pill with a looping mini equalizer, a Now Playing label and the track and artist. For music credits in streams, vlogs and edits.
The free templates carry the same license as the paid ones: unlimited personal and client projects, including monetized, broadcast and streamed video. You just can't resell or share the files.
What to check before you use any free lower third
Before a free template goes into a client edit, check five things:
- The license. Some free templates are personal use only, or require a credit in your description. For monetized or client work you want commercial use in writing.
- The fonts. A template can be free while its font isn't. Check the font is licensed for commercial video, or swap it.
- Whether the box follows the text. Type the longest name in your project. If the panel stays the same size and the text spills out, you'll be resizing it by hand on every clip.
- What happens when you trim. Cut the clip to three seconds, then extend it to fifteen. Templates without protected in and out regions lose their exit animation when shortened.
- Plugins and version. A template that needs a third-party plugin won't render properly on a machine without it, and that includes your client's.
All four free LaunchFrame templates pass. The fonts are free under the SIL Open Font License and included, panels resize to the text, trimming only changes the hold, and there are no plugins. You need Premiere Pro or After Effects 2023 or newer.
Placing a lower third so it reads
A good template still needs good placement. These habits hold up on YouTube, social and broadcast:
- Stay inside title safe. Keep text at least 5% in from each edge. Turn on Safe Margins from the wrench menu in the Program Monitor to check.
- Use the open side of the frame. If your subject sits frame right, put the lower third bottom left, clear of their face and hands.
- Hold it for at least four seconds. Viewers should be able to read it twice. Because the intro and outro are protected, you can trim the clip to exactly the hold you want.
- Add contrast over busy footage. Key Verse has an optional soft panel, Social Handle and Now Playing have a pill opacity control, and the Liquid Glass Pill has an Opacity slider. Test over the brightest shot in the edit, not the one you designed on.
- Keep one position per video. Viewers learn where to look.
Building your own in Premiere, and when a template is worth it
For a static name and title, Premiere can do the job alone. Draw a rectangle and a text layer, then use Pin To under Responsive Design in the Essential Graphics panel to pin the rectangle to the text, so the box grows as you type. Add Opacity or Position keyframes for the in and out, and you have a basic lower third to reuse.
That approach runs out at animation. Hand-set keyframes need moving every time the clip length changes, and per-letter reveals, typing, bounce or a drawn accent line need After Effects.
When you need more, the Glide Lower Third and Pill Lower Third cover interviews and podcasts, and the Speaker Lower Third matches the Key Verse style for church work. The Creator Pack ($39) bundles the Social Handle with ten other creator templates.
Try one before you download
The Social Handle demo on this page runs in your browser: type your handle and the pill resizes the same way it does in Premiere. You don't need After Effects to use the .mogrt; the project is there if you want to change the design.
