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Inspiring
September 28, 2022

Interface is Slow and Laggy

  • September 28, 2022
  • 312 replies
  • 33461 views
Dear Adobe,

Me again.

Please stop everything that you're doing with the development of new bells and whistles and doodads and put all your resources and firepower into resolving the years-old issue of the Slow and Laggy Interface in After Effects. Seriously. It's been YEARS. I kept thinking, "ah, they'll fix it soon.." and hope for the best and I end up feeling like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football every time a new update for After Effects comes out. "Maybe they fixed it!" And it's still not fixed.

When I contact Support I'm told, "the issue that you are facing is a known issue and the same has been highlighted to the designated team who are working on getting the issue fixed in the future releases," but it has yet to be fixed.

Old After Effects was FASTER on OLDER laptops - I have been on modern workstation-build DESKTOPS that are slower in response. Makes me not want to work in After Effects. I feel bad for those starting out in motion graphics in 2020 and this is what they are introduced to.

SpaceX put two astronauts on the space station. Surely we can get a butter smooth interface in After Effects.

Thank you.

https://vimeo.com/441661685/b7aba12cba

312 replies

Participating Frequently
September 21, 2023

@jenkmeister17177426 

Thank you for watching videos.

I'm relieved that my understanding is correct.

 

I am currently working with a 4K(3840x2160) monitor.
I was working on a WQHD(2560x1440) monitor until a few months ago, and I remember there were similar UI lag.

Jenkmeister
September 21, 2023

@tsuku_si Thanks for those videos. The menu option for layer controls is the one I was talking about. 

 

What screen resolution are you running on that monitor? 

Participating Frequently
September 21, 2023

@jenkmeister17177426 

 

Thank you for your reply.
I didn't know what "show overlays" meant, so I just uploaded a new full-screen recording.

If you were saying to the display options in the layer controls, the results were about the same for both enabled and disabled.

 

I also additionally recorded the state of having view updates enabled and the latency that occurs when you move a batch of key frames using a script.

 

Check out the video at the link below.

CC2014(13.2)

https://autode.sk/3rlm6Um

 

2023(23.6)

https://autode.sk/3EThRSZ

 

*Please note that due to project data involving third-party rights, a black plane is placed in the foreground of the composition.

Jenkmeister
September 20, 2023

@tsuku_si Just to confirm, do you have Show Overlays on or off in the 2014 release? We know that's the major cause of slowdowns of the UI on Windows, which we are working improving, but I can't tell from the cropped video. 

 

Carlos Zenzuke Albarran
Participating Frequently
September 20, 2023

Oh man, this is the clearest example I've seen yet. I was starting to think I was imagining I used to work a lot faster in a crappy laptop on 2014.

Inspiring
September 20, 2023

This is wild. 

Participating Frequently
September 20, 2023

I'm surprised so many users are struggling with UI issues.

 

This is my case, but when the number of selected key frames exceeds 50, I have a problem with the selected key frames being slow to manipulate.
This has been the issue in the past with AfterEffects, but I feel like this has gotten worse at an accelerated rate since the major updates in the last few years.

Whether it's a change to 3Dgizmos, a UI refresh for keyframe, or the addition of labeling features, it's not clear which feature additions are affecting the UI issue.
I hope you can fix this issue as soon as possible.

 

I screen-recorded the actual malfunction happening and uploaded it to the link.
https://autode.sk/3ELGLE8

 

In this video, you open the same project in 2 versions of AfterEffects, the latest stable version and CC 2014, and do the exact same thing.
UI settings are set to the default state and preview updates are disabled.
use the same hardware environment.

Known Participant
August 24, 2023

Yes, this. The very basics of the software seem broken while they are adding all kinds of useless junk that will never be used by professionals. Shape and text layers have become a joke, especially in 2.5D space. Every project is taking longer because of perpetual lag. 

Inspiring
August 13, 2023

@jenkmeister17177426 

 

Not a new example - part and parcel of the Laggy After Effects Interface I’ve been describing for years - but just thought I’d share the following screen grab to illustrate my pain.  Again, not new, not limited to the computer I’m currently on - I’ve experienced this over multiple computers where After Effects has been installed from scratch.  Enjoy

 

https://vimeo.com/854172880

Inspiring
August 2, 2023

@jenkmeister This is with all projects - old projects re-opened, current projects, and new-from-scratch projects, given there are a sufficient enough number of layers to see the delay.  It’s been this way since After Effects’ interface lag started years ago. 

 

I’ve experienced this Slow Solo and the overall lag on 3 computers since then - a desktop and two laptops, neither a clone of the others.  Broad brushstrokes, the only shared features are 1) Windows 10 machines 2) Nvidia graphics cards (each different) and 3) After Effects.  Pretty much every other program on these computers works as expected which leaves me giving After Effects the evil eye.