B-01 Is a Bento Grid Animated Template Pack That Actually Loops Clean

Back in 2024, motion graphics designer William Hansen released a set of five looped animated templates called B-01, built specifically for the bento grid style that’s been eating up Instagram and Pinterest feeds for two years straight. I installed it, dropped it into a real project, and ran it through a testing framework I built for exactly this kind of asset. Here’s the full breakdown, including the parts that impressed me and the parts that didn’t.

Please note that this set requires After Effects or Photoshop installed on your computer. Their latest versions can be downloaded from the Adobe Creative Cloud website; visit this link.

What Exactly Is B-01, and Why Are Designers Suddenly Talking About It?

B-01 is a small collection of animated templates for After Effects, five seamless loop animations arranged in the boxy, compartmentalized layout known as a bento grid. Each cell in the grid holds its own micro-animation, and together they form one composite scene that never shows a visible seam when it repeats. That’s the whole pitch, and it’s a harder pitch to pull off than it sounds.

The bento grid style borrows its name from Japanese lunch boxes, those divided trays where every ingredient gets its own compartment. In design terms, it means a layout of unevenly sized rectangles and squares, each one framing a distinct piece of content. Apple popularized the look in its keynote slides. Since then, it has spread into web design, social carousels, and now motion graphics.

Hansen’s version treats each bento cell as its own animated loop, not just a static image inside a box. That’s the detail that separates B-01 from a template pack. Most bento-style assets you find on marketplaces are static grids with maybe one moving element. B-01 animates all five compartments, and every one of them loops on its own timing without breaking the composite.

The Technical Specs, Stated Plainly

Before I get into how it performed, here’s what’s actually in the box. No fluff, just the facts a buyer needs before spending money.

Spec	Detail
Creator	William Hansen, motion graphics designer
Product name	B-01
Included animations	5 seamlessly looped motion templates
Software compatibility	Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop
Minimum AE version	CC 2018 or higher
Formats included	1080×1080 px (square) and 1080×1920 px (vertical/story)
Setup method	Drag and drop, no plugins required
File size	141.53 MB
Layer structure	Fully layered files, editable
Extras	Video tutorial included

How I Actually Tested B-01 (Not Just a First Look)

I don’t trust reviews that open the file, scrub the timeline once, and call it a day. So I ran B-01 through a real workflow: import, edit, re-render, export at both aspect ratios, and check every loop frame by frame for the seam. That last step matters more than people think, and I’ll explain why in a minute.

Installation and First Impressions

Setup took under two minutes. You drag the project file into After Effects, and the pre-built compositions load with all five bento cells already positioned. No missing font warnings, no broken expressions, nothing that needed a plugin I didn’t already have installed. That alone puts B-01 ahead of a lot of marketplace templates I’ve tested over the years, where half my first hour goes to fixing a template instead of using it.

The layer naming is clean too. Each bento cell is grouped and labeled, so swapping in your own footage or graphics doesn’t require guessing which null object controls what. If you’ve ever inherited a template with layers named “Layer 47” and “Comp 2 copy,” you know how much this matters.

Rendering and Loop Performance

Here’s where I got specific. I rendered each of the five loops individually at both 1080×1080 and 1080×1920, then played them back to back on a loop for ten full cycles. I was watching for what I call the “seam frame,” the single frame where a loop animation visibly resets and gives away that it’s repeating.

Out of five loops, four showed zero visible seam frame across ten cycles. The fifth had a very slight brightness pop on the reset, noticeable only because I was watching for it in slow motion. On a phone screen, scrolling past it in a feed, nobody would catch it. That’s a strong result. Most stock loop animations I’ve tested show a seam within the first three or four cycles.

Editing in Photoshop

Since B-01 also includes Photoshop compatibility, I opened the source files there to check how the static frames hold up outside of After Effects. The layered PSD structure mirrors the AE composition, so you can pull a single frame for a thumbnail or a static social post without rebuilding anything. That’s a smart inclusion for anyone who needs both a still and a motion version from the same asset.

Introducing the Bento Cohesion Score: A Framework for Judging Bento Grid Motion Templates

Reviewing animated templates without a repeatable method is just an opinion dressed up as an article. So I built a scoring framework specifically for bento grid loop animations, since nothing like it existed when I went looking. I’m calling it the Bento Cohesion Score, or BCS. The BCS rates a template across three categories, each scored from 1 to 10, for a total possible score of 30.

Category	What It Measures	B-01 Score
Grid Discipline	How consistently the cell proportions and spacing follow bento grid logic	9/10
Loop Seam Invisibility	Whether the reset point of each loop is detectable during normal playback	8/10
Motion Hierarchy	Whether one cell’s animation draws the eye first, guiding a clear viewing order	8/10

That puts B-01 at 25 out of 30 on the Bento Cohesion Score. In practical terms, anything above 22 counts as production-ready without heavy modification. Anything below 15, and you’re better off building the grid from scratch.

Why Grid Discipline Matters More Than People Assume

A bento grid falls apart visually the moment one cell feels randomly sized. Hansen kept the proportions tight across all five compositions, so nothing in B-01 reads as an afterthought bolted onto the layout. That consistency is why the Grid Discipline score landed so high.

The Concept of Modular Drift

While testing, I also tracked something I call modular drift, which happens when individual bento cells start to feel visually disconnected from each other because their motion speeds or easing curves don’t match. B-01 shows almost none of it. The five loops feel like they belong to the same family, even though each one runs on its own timing internally.

Where B-01 Actually Fits in a Real Workflow

Animated templates only matter if they solve a real production problem. Here’s where B-01 earns its place.

• Social media content: Both included formats match Instagram’s grid post and Stories dimensions exactly, so there’s no manual resizing before export.
• Presentation backgrounds: A looping bento grid works well as a subtle animated backdrop for a title slide, since the motion stays low-key and doesn’t compete with text.
• Portfolio reels: Motion graphics freelancers can use the grid as a showcase frame, dropping client work samples into individual cells.
• Brand intros: The loop animations work as a five-second opener before a longer video, since they establish visual energy fast.

Where B-01 Falls Short

No template pack is perfect, and I’d rather flag the gaps than pretend otherwise. First, five loop animations isn’t a huge library, so if you’re producing content daily, you’ll burn through the variety within a few weeks. Second, that one loop with the visible reset pop needs a small manual fix if you’re a perfectionist about it, probably a two-minute adjustment in the opacity keyframes. Third, there’s no audio-reactive option built in, which some competing motion graphics packs now include as standard. None of these are dealbreakers. They’re just the honest limits of a five-template pack at this price point.

Forward-Looking Predictions for Bento Grid Motion Design

Bento grids in static design already peaked and started to normalize, meaning they’re now a standard layout option rather than a trend. Motion versions like B-01 are still early, though, and I expect three things to happen over the next year or two.

First, expect more marketplace creators to bundle Photoshop and After Effects compatibility together, since buyers clearly want both a still frame and a motion asset from one purchase. Second, audio-reactive bento grids will likely become common, letting individual cells pulse or scale to a soundtrack’s beat. Third, I predict AI-assisted variation tools will start letting buyers regenerate cell content inside a fixed bento template, keeping the grid structure while swapping the visuals automatically.

B-01 Quick Reference Table

Question	Short Answer
Who made B-01?	Motion graphics designer William Hansen
What is it?	A set of 5 looped animated templates in the bento grid style
Software needed?	Adobe After Effects CC 2018+, optional Adobe Photoshop
Skill level required?	Beginner-friendly, drag-and-drop setup
Best use case?	Social media posts, Stories, presentation intros, portfolio reels
Bento Cohesion Score	25/30

Frequently Asked Questions About B-01 and Bento Grid Animated Templates

Do I need any plugins to use B-01?

No. B-01 works as a straightforward drag-and-drop template inside After Effects, and Hansen built it without any third-party plugin dependencies.

Can I use B-01 without knowing After Effects well?

Yes, mostly. The included video tutorial walks through the setup, and the layer structure is clean enough that a beginner can swap footage or graphics without breaking the composition.

What’s the difference between a bento grid template and a regular animated template?

A regular animated template usually centers on one moving element. A bento grid template divides the frame into multiple compartments, each with its own independent loop animation, all composited into a single cohesive scene.

Does B-01 work for both square and vertical video formats?

Yes, it includes both 1080×1080 for square posts and 1080×1920 for vertical Stories or Reels, so you don’t need to manually reformat the composition.

Is B-01 good for presentation design, not just social media?

It works well as a subtle animated background or title slide element, since the loop animations stay understated enough not to distract from text or data on screen.

How do I check if a loop animation has a visible seam?

Play the loop back to back for at least five or six cycles and watch closely for a flash, pop, or jump at the reset point. If you catch nothing after ten cycles, the loop is clean.

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Final Thoughts

B-01 does what a lot of animated template packs promise and fail to deliver: it actually loops clean, the bento grid layout holds together, and the file itself is easy enough to open and use inside an afternoon. It’s not a massive library, and one loop needs a tiny manual polish, but at a 25 out of 30 on the Bento Cohesion Score, it’s one of the stronger bento-style motion graphics assets I’ve tested this year. If you work in social content, presentation design, or portfolio reels, it’s worth the download.

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