Try the free rebuilds of Premiere and After Effects

On 30 September 2026 Brandon Thomas made the first commit of FilmCraft. A week later PetaPixel was reporting free, open-source rebuilds of Photoshop, Premiere and Lightroom, and by CineD’s count on 12 October there were seven apps modeled on Adobe’s, all from his company ArtCraft, all written in Rust. He says he used Claude Opus 5.5 to write the code. Two of them are for video. Here are the real links, and what their own pages say they can and can’t do.

The FilmCraft owl icon and the EffectCraft unicorn icon, for Premiere Pro and After Effects users — 01Get themfrom their own pages

A close-up of FilmCraft's timeline: clips with dissolves on V1, an insert on V2, the score as a waveform — 01Get themfrom their own pages

sound familiar?

You pay for Adobe every month, and leaving an annual plan early costs a fee.
You saw “Claude rebuilt Adobe” everywhere and don’t know which download is the real one.
You want to know if it opens your real work before you give it a weekend.

Try it on a copy. Not on client work, yet.

before you start

What you need

Both apps are free and run on macOS, Windows and Linux, and in a browser.

A Mac, a Windows PC or LinuxThere are builds for Apple silicon and Intel Macs, 64-bit, ARM and 32-bit Windows, and the common Linux formats.
A copy of a short projectA cut you know well, as a copy. These are alpha releases.
Claude Code, for step 03Only if you want Claude to drive the apps. Everything else works by hand.

the two apps

FilmCraftfor Premiere Pro users

what: a non-linear video editor: edit, color, sound
first commit: 30 Sep 2026
on its page: 0.6.0
on GitHub: 0.13.0 (25 Oct)

EffectCraftfor After Effects users

what: motion graphics, compositing and effects
first commit: 1 Oct 2026
on its page: 0.8.0
on GitHub: 0.17.0 (25 Oct)

The two apps as their own pages and GitHub listed them on 27 October 2026. Both are free and open source, MIT or Apache-2.0, by the ArtCraft team and community.

step 01

Get them from the source

Download them from one of two places only: the app’s page on getartcraft.com, which its README calls the easiest way to install it, or its releases on GitHub, under storytold. Each links to the other.

FilmCraftgetartcraft.com/apps/filmcraftgithub.com/storytold/filmcraft
EffectCraftgetartcraft.com/apps/effectcraftgithub.com/storytold/effectcraft

Then pick the build for your computer:

WindowsThe 64-bit MSI (windows-x64.msi). By default it installs for your account, into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\ArtCraft\FilmCraft (or \EffectCraft). ARM and 32-bit builds are there too.
macOSThe universal DMG, for Apple silicon and Intel Macs, signed and notarized.
LinuxAn AppImage, a Flatpak (flatpak install --user <file>), a .deb or an .rpm.
Every Craft appThe ArtCraft Launcher installs and updates them all from one window. Their pages call it the recommended way.

They move fast. On 27 October the pages offered FilmCraft 0.6.0 and EffectCraft 0.8.0, while GitHub’s newest releases were 0.13.0 and 0.17.0. Every release lists a checksum for each file in SHA256SUMS.txt. Or let Claude do the download:

say to Claude

Download FilmCraft for my computer from its latest release on github.com/storytold/filmcraft/releases, check the file against that release's SHA256SUMS.txt, and install it. Then do the same for EffectCraft from github.com/storytold/effectcraft/releases.

Only from these two places.

FilmCraft's Assembly workspace: bins of film thumbnails, a Source and a Program monitor with black and white film frames, and a timeline with video and audio tracks — FilmCraft's Assembly workspace, from its README: bins, the Source and Program monitors and a three-track timeline, cutting a trailer for Night of the Living Dead (1968, public domain).

step 02

Open a copy of a real cut

FilmCraft can’t open a Premiere project (.prproj) yet. Its README says to bring sequences over as FCP 7 XML, AAF or OpenTimelineIO: the import brings in the bins, the media and the sequences, and links each media file it finds on disk.

Premiere ProFile > Export > Final Cut Pro XML
Final Cut ProFile > Export XML (FilmCraft reads FCPXML 1.9 to 1.11)
EffectCraftno .aep: rebuild the piece, or bring an animation in with File > Import > Lottie

A FilmCraft timeline: black and white clips with dissolves, an insert above them, a green music waveform below, markers along the top and loudness meters at the side — FilmCraft's own close-up: dissolves on V1, an insert on V2, the score on A2, coloured markers along the ruler, and the loudness meters on the right.

Its README says editing, trimming, multicam, colour, keyframes, effects, titles, captions, mixing, codecs and export work today. Try the parts you use most, first:

Three-point editingMark In and Out in the Source monitor, then press the comma to insert or the period to overwrite.

Every trimRipple, roll, slip and slide, and J, K, L to trim while it plays.

ColorThe grading panel with its scopes, all in linear light.

ExportAn H.264 MP4, from its own encoders, with no FFmpeg inside.

EffectCraft keyframesThe Graph Editor, Easy Ease on F9, an expression like wiggle.

EffectCraft 3DA camera and a light with soft shadows, then the Render Queue.

EffectCraft's window with a glowing EFFECTCRAFT title in the composition and a yellow eased curve in the Graph Editor below — EffectCraft's own screenshot: an eased value curve for a text animator in the Graph Editor, with its buttons for hold, linear, auto Bezier and Easy Ease.

step 03

Let Claude drive it

Every menu item, button and slider in FilmCraft is a command, more than 650 of them, and both apps serve their commands over MCP, so Claude can cut, trim, grade and export the way you do. The Windows installer and the Linux .deb and .rpm include each app’s command-line tool (on a Mac it is a separate download), so one line in a terminal connects it to Claude Code.

in a terminal · Windows PowerShell

claude mcp add filmcraft -- "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\ArtCraft\FilmCraft\filmcraft-cli.exe" mcp claude mcp add effectcraft -- "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\ArtCraft\EffectCraft\effectcraft-cli.exe" mcp

The default install folders, from their docs.

in a terminal · macOS or Linux

claude mcp add filmcraft -- filmcraft-cli mcp claude mcp add effectcraft -- effectcraft-cli mcp

On a Mac the tool is its own download (filmcraft-cli-<version>-macos-universal.zip): unzip it onto your PATH first.

This starts each one headless, an editing session with no window, on an empty project. Add --demo after mcp to start on its demo project. Then ask:

say to Claude

Use the filmcraft tools. List the commands for trimming and for export. Then import [my-cut.xml], tell me what came in and what did not, and render the frame at 10 seconds so I can see it.

Swap in your own exported sequence.

FilmCraft's Color workspace: the Saturn V launch in the Program monitor with a lower third and a subtitle, effect controls, the grading panel and a long timeline — FilmCraft's own screenshot of an Apollo 11 documentary cut from NASA's public-domain footage. Its README says the trailer and the grades in its screenshots were built by an agent driving the running app.

step 04

Know where they stop

Both are alpha releases, and both READMEs say so plainly. This is what they say they don’t do yet.

in their own words

FilmCraftEffectCraft

status

FilmCraft: Alpha. About 86% feature breadth and about 56% ready for real work, its own estimate (re-measured 10 October).

EffectCraft: Alpha, first commit 1 October 2026. About 91% of its tracked features exist, about 45% of the way to production work.

your projects

FilmCraft: Can’t open .prproj files yet. Bring sequences over as FCP 7 XML, AAF or OTIO.

EffectCraft: “Proprietary project formats and After Effects SDK plug-ins are not supported.” It saves its own .ecproj.

plug-ins

FilmCraft: No VST3, Audio Units or OpenFX hosting.

EffectCraft: No After Effects SDK plug-ins.

speed, systems

FilmCraft: Color grading, keys and export rendering still run on the CPU. Windows and Linux get far less testing than macOS.

EffectCraft: macOS is the most tested. Linux and Windows users have hit basic interaction bugs. Fidelity is still being refined.

export

FilmCraft: H.264 is its only software delivery-codec export (ProRes and DNxHR too). H.265 only through a hardware encoder, no AV1 export, no camera RAW.

EffectCraft: H.264, ProRes, HEVC, AV1, WebM, image sequences, GIF and Lottie, all its own encoders.

client work

FilmCraft: Its README makes no client-work call. It rates itself about 56% ready for real work.

EffectCraft: “It isn’t yet recommended for production client work.”

From the two READMEs on 27 October 2026. The quotes are EffectCraft's own lines.

And “built with Claude” is Brandon Thomas’s own account. CineD, which wrote about both apps on 12 October, notes that how much of the code the model wrote rests on what he says.

before you rely on it

A copyWork on a copy of a project, never the only one.

Export earlyExport a short piece before a long edit, and watch it.

ComparePut a few exported frames beside the same frames from your current editor.

Report itTheir READMEs ask for bug reports, on GitHub or on their Discord.

if something breaks

Quick fixes

FilmCraft flashes and quits on Windows

Its README: the app starts with Vulkan or DirectX 12, and some AMD drivers crash before the window appears. In PowerShell, in the app's folder, run $env:WGPU_BACKEND = "vulkan" and then & .\filmcraft.exe (or try "dx12"). Remove-Item Env:WGPU_BACKEND puts the default back.

It won't open my Premiere project

FilmCraft can't open .prproj files yet. Export the sequence from Premiere as Final Cut Pro XML (or AAF or OTIO) and import that (step 02).

It won't open my After Effects project

EffectCraft does not read .aep files and runs no After Effects plug-ins. Rebuild the piece in it, or bring an animation in as Lottie JSON.

Drag and drop does nothing on Linux

EffectCraft's README: on native Wayland the window gets no drop events. Use File > Import > File, or start it under XWayland with env -u WAYLAND_DISPLAY effectcraft.

The version on the page is older than GitHub's

Both are official. On 27 October getartcraft.com offered FilmCraft 0.6.0 and EffectCraft 0.8.0, and GitHub's latest releases were 0.13.0 and 0.17.0. Check any file against its release's SHA256SUMS.txt.

Did Claude really write it?

That is Brandon Thomas's own account: he says he used Claude Opus 5.5 to write the code, and CineD notes that how much of it the model wrote rests on what he says. Both repositories carry a CLAUDE.md and an AGENTS.md, the instructions agents read when they work on the code.

Where do I report a bug?

On each app's GitHub page, under Issues, or on the ArtCraft Discord (discord.gg/artcraft), both linked from their READMEs.

bonus · prompts once Claude can drive them

say to Claude

Use the filmcraft tools to list every command that is enabled right now, grouped by menu.

say to Claude

Put these clips on V1 in this order: [clips]. Then render the frame at every cut so I can check them.

say to Claude

Use the effectcraft tools to make a five-second lower third with my name, then export it as Lottie JSON.

say to Claude

Read the README of github.com/storytold/effectcraft and tell me which of my After Effects habits it does not support yet.

An independent guide by Luka (@omgluka), made at Engram. FilmCraft and EffectCraft are made by Brandon Thomas and the ArtCraft team and community, and dual-licensed MIT or Apache-2.0. The screenshots and app icons on this page are theirs (Copyright (c) 2026 ArtCraft Team and the FilmCraft and EffectCraft contributors, MIT or Apache-2.0), only resized and cropped; the film frames in them are public domain, as their ATTRIBUTION.md lists. ArtCraft is a trademark of the ArtCraft Team. Premiere Pro and After Effects are trademarks of Adobe, Final Cut Pro of Apple. Claude and Claude Code are made by Anthropic. None are affiliated with this guide.

Let agents run the rest of your work.