You know the loop. The cut needs one establishing shot or a quick b-roll cutaway, so you pause the edit, open a browser, search a stock site, download a file, dig it out of your downloads folder, import it, and finally drag it onto the timeline. The round trip costs more time than the edit itself, and the next gap in the cut starts the whole dance over again.
Sourcer kills the round trip. It is a Filmit plugin for Premiere Pro and After Effects that puts three royalty free libraries, Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay, in a panel inside your editor. Search, hover to preview, click Insert, and the photo or video lands straight on your timeline. This guide follows the demo video above, from the one time key setup to dropping 4K video into both apps.
This video may reference an older version of Sourcer. Features and UI may have changed since recording.
What is Sourcer?
Sourcer is a stock media search panel for Premiere Pro and After Effects. Instead of leaving your editor to hunt for footage, you search Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay from one place, preview results on hover, and insert photos or videos onto your timeline in one click. Everything it pulls comes from those three royalty free libraries.
It installs through Filmit Studio, the free companion app for Windows and macOS, and once it is in, you open it the same way in either app: Window, then Extensions, then Sourcer. Same panel, same flow, in both Premiere Pro and After Effects.
First open: the one time API key setup
Here is the one thing to know up front. The first time you open Sourcer, nothing may load at all. That is expected, not broken. Sourcer talks to Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay directly, and each library wants its own free API key before it will serve results.
The links you need sit at the bottom of filmit.io, under the API setup links. Follow the instructions for each service, grab your keys, and paste them in. There is a full step by step walkthrough in the API keys guide if you want every step spelled out. Once the keys are in place, the panel comes alive, and you never think about them again.
Pro Tip: Set up all three keys in the same sitting. Each library has its own catalog and its own look, so the more sources Sourcer can search, the better your odds of finding the shot on the first query.
Insert a stock photo into After Effects
With the keys in, Sourcer is very straightforward. You have Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay across the panel. Say you want a photo in your After Effects composition: click Unsplash, type a search, mangrove in the demo, and browse the results without ever leaving the panel.
Find the photo you want, click Insert, and it drops directly into your timeline. Stock photos usually arrive much bigger than your comp, so scale the layer down to taste and keep moving. No browser, no downloads folder, no import dialog.
A small confession from the demo: the mangrove photo I inserted is one I took myself. It is not even really a mangrove, it is a botanical garden in Brooklyn, but it lives on Unsplash and people download it all the time. That is what I love about these libraries. They are full of real work from real photographers, mine included.
Pro Tip: That oversized import is a feature. Because stock photos come in larger than your frame, you have room to scale up, punch in, or add a slow push without the image going soft.
Insert stock video in After Effects
Video works the same way. Switch to Pexels, click over to videos, and scroll until something fits the cut. Click Insert and the clip lands on your timeline, ready to position.
That is the gist of Sourcer inside After Effects: pick a source, pick photos or videos, hit Insert. From there, feel free to nav through the settings and the different types of videos on offer, and you are good to go.
The same panel inside Premiere Pro
Next, Sourcer inside Premiere Pro. It is the same thing. Open the panel, go to Unsplash, and insert a photo straight into your sequence. Right click the clip and set it to frame size, and it is ready to cut around.
This is the part that makes Sourcer feel like one tool rather than two. Whether you are assembling a cut in Premiere Pro or comping in After Effects, the search and the insert behave the same, so there is nothing new to learn when you switch apps.
Filter for 4K, then Insert or Paste
Need more resolution? In Premiere Pro, go to Pexels, switch to videos, and click the 4K filter. Scroll down, grab one of the cloud clips like the demo does, and click Insert. The clip inserts into Premiere Pro just like you would expect.
Pixabay works the same way: videos, 4K, pick a clip. This time, click Paste instead. The clip lands on the track above your existing footage, so it overlays the cut instead of slotting into it. Two buttons, two behaviors: Insert puts the clip into your timeline, Paste stacks it on the track above.
Pro Tip: Delivering in 1080p? Grab the 4K version anyway. The extra pixels give you room to reframe, crop, and add movement in the edit while staying sharp.
Settings: keys, downloads, and getting help
The settings page is where the housekeeping lives. You can see at a glance that your API keys are configured for each source, all good to go. There is also a download directory, so you decide exactly where Sourcer saves the media you insert. Point it at your current project folder and every clip stays with the project it belongs to.
If you have a question, you are covered there too. Head to filmit.io to request a feature or reach support, or join our Discord. I am in there as Max, and if you message me directly, I will respond.
Key takeaways
Sourcer turns stock media from a browser detour into a panel that lives where you edit.
Search Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay without leaving your editor.
The same panel and the same search and insert flow in both apps.
Insert drops photos and videos straight in; Paste stacks a clip on the track above in Premiere Pro.
Filter video results to 4K before you insert, on Pexels and Pixabay alike.
Three free API keys unlock everything, with a guide for each, plus a download folder you control.
Why I built Sourcer
Sourcer exists because of how many times I have left an edit to fetch one shot. Every cutaway meant the same detour, and by the time the clip finally hit the timeline, I had lost the thread of the cut. None of that detour is editing. It is fetching, and fetching is exactly the kind of busywork a plugin should eat.
I also love these libraries from the other side. My own mangrove photo lives on Unsplash, and watching people download something I shot in a Brooklyn garden never gets old. There is so much great royalty free work sitting in Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay. Sourcer just closes the distance between that work and your timeline, so the browsing happens where the editing happens and the cut keeps moving.
Get started with Filmit
Sourcer installs through Filmit Studio, the free app that manages every Filmit plugin for Premiere Pro and After Effects. One install puts Sourcer in your editor, and the same app keeps it updated.
If found media is part of your daily workflow, pair Sourcer with GIFer, which brings the same search and insert flow to GIFs in Premiere Pro and After Effects. The whole toolkit runs under one subscription, always updated.
