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ClaireUser303
ClaireUser303
Participant
April 27, 2026

Environment light (3D scene)

  • April 27, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 50 views

Hello, I have a recurring issue: it involves create and animate an environment light layer with shadows enabled and even more when it has keyframes in a 3D scene. I’m unable to export a composition that uses the environment light. And when my composition has more than five layers, I can’t create an environment light layer with shadows enabled. After Effects crashes. How can I fix this?

3 replies

David.Arbor
Community Manager
David.ArborCommunity Manager
Community Manager
May 4, 2026

Hi ​@ClaireUser303 , what exact version of After Effects are you running? You can find this info under Help > About Adobe After Effects. Also, what GPU do you have?

 

The recent 26.2 release included some significant performance increases for the Advanced 3D Render engine on machines with AMD, Intel, and Apple GPUs.

 

Thanks,

David, After Effects Engineering Team

 

 

    ClaireUser303
    ClaireUser303Author
    Participant
    May 5, 2026

    Hello David, 
    Thank you very much for your message. I am using After Effects version 26.2.1. 
    Here is my GPU informations : 
    - The manufacturer is Intel
    - The device is an Intel(R) UHD Graphics; 
    - The memory is 14.431640625 GB. 
    3D rendering: available

    David.Arbor
    Community Manager
    David.ArborCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    May 11, 2026

    Hi ​@ClaireUser303 , sorry for the delay.

     

    I confirmed that this is indeed an issue with your Intel UHD graphics card. The issue is not with your 32 GB of memory, but with the older GPU. Unfortunately, Intel has not been able to find a fix for it, so the only solution to avoid a crash is to disable shadows for Environment lights. You can use the new shadows for Spot and Parallel lights in the Advanced 3D Renderer, though.

     

    -David, After Effects Engineering Team

    OussK
    Community Expert
    OussKCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 28, 2026

    Most properly it’s a system limitation 

      R
      Community Expert
      RobShultzCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 28, 2026

      Please give us more information like your system specs and media type and video resolution. A screen shot of your workspace and timeline might also be helpful.

        ClaireUser303
        ClaireUser303Author
        Participant
        May 3, 2026

        Hello, here is a screenshot of the error message After Effects displays after I added an ambient light with shadows. It’s in French, but it says, “After Effects: (error) Crash in progress. Last recorded message: <12652> etc...” 
        In this composition and its timeline, I only have three layers, two of which are in 3D.
        My computer is an HP laptop with 32 GB of RAM.

        Do you think it's because of my computer's processing power? 

         

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