How To Create Apple’s Liquid Glass in After Effects (100% No Plugins!)

Ever since Apple dropped their new liquid glass effect, I couldn't stop thinking about how to recreate it. So, in this video, I will show you how to rebuild the liquid glass look entirely inside of After Effects. We'll cover how to create realistic distortion, easily customize the shape, and bring it all to life with dynamic animation. Now, effects like this are usually best created in a 3D software, but I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to get really close to the original look using nothing but After Effects and no external plugins. So, let's get started. To get started, open After Effects and create a new composition. I've set mine to 4K resolution to see how the effect interacts with different backgrounds. I've added an image, some text, and a dark gray background to my composition. If you also plan to use multiple background layers, make sure to pre-mp them into a single composition first. To begin, click and hold on the rectangle tool to reveal more shape options. Then select the rounded rectangle tool. Make sure no layer is selected. You can either draw the shape directly on the composition or doubleclick the tool icon to create a centered shape with the anchor point properly aligned. This avoids complications later. Select the new shape layer and press enter to rename it. I will call mine main. Now open rectangle one, then rectangle path one. This is where you can adjust the size of your shape. If you want to control width and height separately, click the chain icon to unlink them and change each one individually. You can also adjust the roundness here. I'm going for a pillshaped button. While you can move the shape's position from within the path settings, I recommend adjusting its position directly on the main layer instead. So, just select it and move it anywhere inside your composition. If you look closely at Apple's demos, you will notice a subtle smooth highlight that wraps around parts of the glass edges. That's what we're going to recreate first. With your main shape selected, go to the toolbar, click on stroke, and set it to none. Then, change the fill color to solid white. Now select the main layer.