Relight AI Anime Footage Without Regenerating It (Free After Effects Plugin)

Relight Anime is a new free, open-source plugin for After Effects that relights footage you’ve already generated, so you don’t have to regenerate the whole shot.

How it works: It estimates depth (how far each part of the frame is from the camera), then lets you add movable lights, shadows, rim lighting and cel shading, with line protection to keep the outlines clean. There are presets too.

What you need: Windows 11 and After Effects 2025 or newer. After setup, no Python or ComfyUI at runtime. Heads up: there’s no one-click installer yet. You build it from the GitHub source with Visual Studio Build Tools and the After Effects SDK, so setup is for the technically comfortable.

Who it helps: small studios and creators making AI anime ads, explainers and social clips who need a different lighting mood without losing the character.

The fine print:

• The performance numbers are reported by the project itself.
• The large depth model used by the remote quality mode has a non-commercial license. Check which model you’re using before client work.

Try it safely:

1. Test the Small depth model on a short clip first
2. Scrub frame by frame and watch for flicker
3. Review the depth model’s license before any commercial use