The Composition panel turns completely black whenever preview playback stops. During playback, the composition displays normally. As soon as playback stops, the entire Composition panel becomes black and remains black.

Title: After Effects Composition panel turns completely black when preview playback stops — RTX 5080 / Ryzen 9 9950X / Windows 11

Issue description

The Composition panel turns completely black whenever preview playback stops. During playback, the composition displays normally. As soon as playback stops, the entire Composition panel becomes black and remains black.

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch After Effects 2025 or After Effects 2026.

2. Create a new composition.

3. Add a solid layer.

4. Start preview playback using the Spacebar or numpad 0.

5. Stop playback using either method.

Expected result

The Composition panel should continue displaying the current frame after playback stops.

Actual result

The entire Composition panel turns black. Scrubbing to another frame and switching between RGB and Alpha channels do not restore the image.

Scope and environment

• Operating system: Windows 11

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X

• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080

• Affected applications: After Effects 2025 and 2026

• Reproducible in every composition tested, including a newly created composition containing only a solid layer.

• The issue began after the PC had been powered off for approximately one week. No intentional software or driver update was performed.

Troubleshooting already attempted

• Disabled the AMD integrated GPU.

• Switched the renderer to Software Only.

• Toggled hardware acceleration for the Composition, Layer and Footage panels off and on.

• Purged caches and restarted the PC.

• Rolled back the NVIDIA driver.

• Performed a clean installation of the NVIDIA Studio driver.

• Reset After Effects preferences.

• Tried the Windows graphics driver reset shortcut (Win + Ctrl + Shift + B).

None of these steps resolved the issue.

Windows diagnostic evidence

Reliability Monitor recorded a LiveKernelEvent with code 1b8. The dump analysis reported VIDEO_MINIPORT_BLACK_SCREEN_LIVEDUMP (1b8), with PROCESS_NAME: dwm.exe and IMAGE_NAME: dxgkrnl.sys.

Event Viewer also contains NVIDIA nvlddmkm Event ID 153 entries reporting a TDR restart. These entries predate the current issue and may not be directly related.

Request

Could the After Effects team investigate whether this is a Composition panel rendering issue or a Windows/NVIDIA graphics driver interaction? The problem reproduces in both After Effects 2025 and 2026 and persists with Software Only rendering and after a clean driver installation.

I can provide a screen recording, exact application build numbers, GPU driver details, and the Windows diagnostic dump if needed.