Native Alembic (.ABC) Import Support for 3D Geometry Cache Animations

Dear Adobe After Effects Team,

First, I would like to thank you for the incredible progress made in the native 3D workflow inside After Effects. The addition of GLB, glTF, FBX, and OBJ support has opened many new possibilities for motion designers and artists who rely on After Effects as their primary creative environment.

I would like to submit a feature request that I believe would have a significant impact on the future of After Effects: native support for Alembic (.ABC) files.

Alembic has become an industry-standard format for exchanging complex animated geometry between 3D applications. It is widely used for:

• Ocean and water simulations

• Cloth simulations

• Hair and fur animation

• Destruction and VFX caches

• Geometry Nodes workflows

• Vertex and point-level animation

• High-end character deformation caches

Currently, many artists can import static or skeletal animated models into After Effects, but simulations and vertex-based animations are often lost because they rely on geometry cache data rather than bones or transforms.

Native Alembic support would allow artists to bring complex animated assets directly into After Effects without relying on external rendering workflows or intermediary applications. This would greatly benefit motion designers, VFX artists, broadcast designers, architectural visualization artists, and creative studios around the world.

As the native 3D capabilities of After Effects continue to evolve, Alembic support feels like a natural next step toward making After Effects a more complete 3D compositing and motion design platform.

Thank you for your time, your innovation, and your continued investment in the After Effects community.

Best regards,

Othman Ahmed Akram
Creative Technologist