Every preset is made up of different components. There are three categories of components: Render, Trans and Misc. Render draws shapes, Trans transforms the current image and Misc contains the components that don't fit in other two categories. The components are plugged into a list, which is executed from top to bottom, each component doing something with the image and sending the result to the next one. A lot of components are configurable and a few are even codable. Effect lists can be included, which act as presets within presets.

AVS comes with a set of built-in components, but third party components can be added and are called APEs (AVS Plug-in Effects). The most used APEs are Channel Shift, Color Map, Color Reduction and Texer by Steven Wittens and the Convolution Filter by Tom Holden. Some of these APEs are included in the standard AVS install. Others are included in the preset collections, or packs, that need them.

The codable components allow the most customizability, when a preset author can control and program effects through AVS' simple scripting language. The codable Renders are the Superscope, which draws lines or dots, and the Texer II, which draws bitmaps. The codable Trans are Movement, Dynamic Movement, Dynamic Distance Modifier, Dynamic Shift and Bump. The only codable Misc component is the Effect List.