One of my proudest moments as an After Effects artist was when Adobe asked me to put some of my elements into After Effects 7.

Here is an excerpt from a review of After Effects 7 from Creative Mac

First Look: After Effects 7.0 Pro Latest update gets new look
By Stephen Schleicher 01/16/06 Creative Mac

Templates and the Bridge
After Effects 7.0 now includes the Adobe Bridge that allows you to navigate and search for projects, files, and animation presets.

If you are in a rush, just starting out with After Effects, or have a client who insists on a look that has been beaten to death, then the Adobe Templates are a good place to start.  If some of the templates look familiar -- they should, as they are based on many of the projects created by Dean Velez.

  

The Bridge is wonderful as it allows you to see what the actual animation preset or template will look like when applied, thanks to the Preview window.  So if you want to see a moving sample of a Text Animation Preset, there it is.  Since the Bridge can be left open it is quickly accessible and is much easier to navigate to a preset gallery rather than using the online manual?s text gallery.

Even if you are not a fan of project templates and animation presets, you can open these projects and presets and see how they are built.  It is a great learning tool for any After Effects user.