An AET file is essentially a master After Effects template, intended for repeated use so you open it, save a new project, and customize that copy, while the template stores the construction plan of the animation including comps, timelines, layers, keyframes, effects, expressions, camera/light settings, render configurations, and all the folder/interpretation organization that holds the project together.

What an AET generally doesn’t bundle is the full media; instead it stores links or paths to footage, images, and audio kept elsewhere, which explains why templates are often zipped with a Footage or assets folder and why missing-file prompts appear if media was omitted, plus the fact that AETs can depend on certain fonts or plugins means opening them on a different computer may cause font swaps until everything is installed, and since file extensions aren’t exclusive, verifying the file’s “Opens with” setting or checking its source location is the most reliable way to confirm its creator and needed companion files.

An AEP file functions as the main editable AE file, letting you import assets, edit compositions, and tweak effects over time, whereas an AET is designed as a template to be reused, making the key distinction that you update an AEP directly but open an AET only to produce a fresh project based on it without altering the master.

If you have any thoughts concerning exactly where and how to use file extension AET, you can get hold of us at our web page. That’s why AET files are typically used for template-based motion graphics (intros, lower-thirds, slideshows): the master AET stays unchanged while each new project starts by opening it and doing a Save As to create your AEP, where you modify text, colors, logos, and media, and although both formats include the same elements—comps, layers, effects, keyframes, expressions, cameras/lights, and settings—and both rely on external footage paths, the AET is meant for safe templating and repeatable output, while the AEP is the editable project you keep refining.

An AET file captures the structural and behavioral setup of an After Effects project without always embedding media, including compositions with their resolution, frame rate, duration, and nesting, alongside the full timeline build of layers like text, shapes, solids, adjustment layers, precomps, and placeholders, each with properties such as position, scale, rotation, opacity, masks, mattes, blending modes, and parenting, plus animation data like keyframes, easing, markers, and any expressions that automate movement.

On top of that, the template remembers all effects and their settings—color correction, blurs, glows, distortions, transitions, and more—along with any 3D setup such as cameras, lights, 3D layer properties, and render/preview settings, plus project-level organization like folders, label colors, interpretation rules, and sometimes proxies, but it typically does not bundle full footage, images, audio, fonts, or plugins, instead keeping links and dependencies that may trigger missing-asset or missing-plugin warnings on another computer until everything is relinked or installed.