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Tim Kurkoski
Adobe Employee
Tim Kurkoski
Adobe Employee
April 19, 2017
Question

Bug fixes in the April 2017 update to After Effects CC (version 14.2)

  • April 19, 2017
  • 6 replies
  • 9944 views

The April 2017 update to After Effects CC (version 14.2) was released today. You can install the update using the Creative Cloud desktop application. Please note that it can take up to 24 hours for the update to be available on all of our global servers.

Details about new features in the update are available here:
Efficiency and Optimization at the Core of the Latest Release for After Effects CC | Creative Cloud blog by Adobe

Below are lists of miscellaneous changes an the most notable bugs fixed in After Effects 14.2. This will also be posted to our blog in the next couple of weeks.

Miscellaneous Changes

  • The Composition Settings dialog window is now slightly wider, which prevents truncation of text in the 3D Renderer tab in non-English languages.
  • Marker in and out icons have changed (the icons used when a marker has duration).
  • The Essentials workspace has been renamed to Default, to avoid confusion with the new Essential Graphics workspace.
  • Due to the changes to workspaces in this release, custom workspaces are not migrated from previous versions of After Effects.
  • Installing After Effects no longer also installs a set of fonts. The same fonts installed with previous versions of After Effects, such as Adobe Myriad Pro, remain available as part of your Creative Cloud subscription through Adobe Typekit. Please read the Creative Cloud Fonts FAQ for more information.

Notable bug fixes

  • The started time and render time of completed render items in the Render Queue panel are no longer reset when you start a new render.
  • Render Settings templates saved from earlier versions of After Effects can again be loaded instead of returning an error: could not convert Unicode characters. ( 23 :: 46 ).
  • Audio is no longer silent for the first 2 seconds of real-time playback of previews after the composition has been fully cached, if both the Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels preference and the Mute Audio When Preview Is Not Real-time preference are enabled.
  • Camera raw and DNG files with read-only permissions can be imported again instead of returning an error: File could't be opened for writing: "<file path>". ( 3 :: 0 ).
  • The Replace Footage dialog no longer disables Photoshop, Illustrator, DNG, or camera raw files on macOS if you have installed the Maxon C4DImporter plug-in (for the .aec file workflow).
  • Multiple missing JPEG files are again re-linked simultaneously when you choose Replace Footage for a missing file, if all missing JPEG files can be found in relative paths.
  • Applying animation presets from Bridge works as expected on macOS and no longer results in an error message: Can't import file "preset name.ffx": unsupported type or extension. ( 0 :: 1 ). IMPORTANT: This bug is not fixed on macOS when using the File > Open With menu in Bridge (double-click or use File > Open instead), and is not solved on Windows for any method of applying a preset from Bridge (use the Effects & Preset panel in After Effects instead). We will continue to investigate the remaining problems for a future update.
  • A text scale animator set to 0% in a composition that uses the CINEMA 4D renderer no longer causes an error: cannot normalize zero vector ( 17 :: 50 ).
  • Changes to a Character Animator scene or Premiere Pro sequence, such as muting the audio, that is dynamically linked into an After Effects composition are now properly recognized when you switch applications back to After Effects.
  • Layers using CC Composite, Calculations, Set Matte, or similar effects that composite the layer source with the previous effects on the layer, no longer sometimes randomly render in the upper-left corner of the composition when the disk cache is enabled.
  • After Effects no longer sometimes plays audio at the wrong sample rate through some channels of an external audio device (ex., MOTU 24ao or similar device).
  • After Effects no longer resets the Audio Output Mapping preferences to channels 1 and 2 after you select other channels on a multi-channel audio device.
  • After Effects updates the Composition panel immediately, instead of waiting for a redraw request, when you enable or disable the Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels preference.
  • Collect Files no long sometimes fails or gives an error message on macOS if you move the mouse pointer while files are being copied.
  • Collect Files again lists the effects used in the project in the project report file.
  • Post-render actions in the render queue are again evaluated after each render item is completed, instead of when the entire queue completes.
  • Render log files are no longer written when only a single render item is processed by the render queue and the render item is set to Log Errors only. This restores the render log behavior of After Effects 13.2 and previous releases.
  • File association of After Effects projects, to this version of After Effects, no longer breaks on Windows if you uninstall a 2015 release of After Effects after installing this version.
  • The Project Settings dialog now opens to the Color Settings tab when you choose Set Project Working Space from the Channel and Color Management Settings menu in the Composition, Layer, and Footage panels.
  • Drop-down menus in ScriptUI panels are no longer clipped on HiDPI displays on Windows.
  • The appearance of buttons, sliders, disclosure triangles ("twirly arrow"), scroll bar, progress bar, radio buttons, and checkboxes in ScriptUI embedded panels have been updated to match the appearance of After Effects native controls.
  • After Effects no longer crashes on launch if one of the workspace files is corrupted.
  • After Effects no longer crashes when the compPointToSource() scripting method is used with a 3D text layer.
  • After Effects no longer crashes when running a script that uses the FlashPlayer object.
  • If After Effects crashes during startup, some error dialogs will no longer appear to be blank or display dark gray text on an even darker gray background. Also fixed several causes of crashes when After Effects starts or quits that displayed such dialogs, such as this error: globals unborn ( 21 :: 1 ).
      This topic has been closed for replies.

      6 replies

      CEJLLC
      CEJLLC
      Known Participant
      May 8, 2017

      @

      Tim Kurkoski

      After Effects 14.2 FEEDBACK:  I just uninstalled 14.2 and rolled back to 14.1.0.57.  14.2 did not save my preferences or custom work-spaces even though I requested/clicked migrate prior to opening 140.2.  I also lost the Duik plug in which I depend on.

      As an animator and special effects creator it is exceedingly frustrating to re-create existing preferences and re-install plugins.  Kindly keep this in mind.

      I love After Effects.  Leave my love alone!

      Szalam
      Community Expert
      SzalamCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 8, 2017

      14.2 did not save my preferences or custom work-spaces even though I requested/clicked migrate prior to opening 140.2

      Workspaces could not be migrated to the new version because new panels and workspaces were added. (The Color workspace now has the scopes panel and there is a whole new Essential Graphics workspace with the new Essential Graphics panel [which is a really handy feature, by the way].)

      This was mentioned in several places including the fourth bullet point in this thread's main post.

      Frustrating? Perhaps, but the new features are worth it.

        I also lost the Duik plug in which I depend on.

      DUIK is not a plugin; it is a script UI panel. This is a vital difference because the two behave very differently in AE.

      Anyway, DUIK shouldn't be affected by the new version. Simply go the Window menu and load the Dugr.jsx and Duik.jsx panels again. And if, for some reason, they're no longer there, simply go to DUIK's website, download the latest version, and follow the installation instructions. (Once you do get the panel loaded in your AE interface again, I would recommend going into the panel's options and toggling the Use legacy UI option. It makes the DUIK panel look a lot better.)

      CEJLLC
      CEJLLC
      Known Participant
      May 8, 2017

      Szalam-Thanks for the reply.  I am relatively new to AF.  I have only been using it for about twelve years. And I still have not learned to research the update prior to installing AND set enough time aside after install for recreating preferences, work-spaces etc.  I have indeed re-installed Duik from time to time.

      When I install 14.2 I will check out the Essential Graphics work-space.  Looks like a template for TV series titles?

      Again, thanks.

      mave1969
      mave1969
      Known Participant
      May 6, 2017

      Here's another irritation about workspaces: why the Frak isn't the XML file associated with a workspace actually given the same name as the workspace itself? Having to sift through a folder of anonymous 'UserWorkspaceX.xml' files as a consequence of lazy programming is no fun, and even viewing the file in an editor doesn't make life much easier when the property that stores the name of the workspace is on line #1215 or something equally stupid. Obviously placing it at the top of the file was simply too easy!

      Grrrrr!

      arto_kmg
      arto_kmg
      Participant
      April 27, 2017

      Kind of a dick move to not not tell users that this update removes their old workspaces.. Could have at least given a heads up when updating.

        mave1969
        mave1969
        Known Participant
        May 6, 2017

        Exactly this. I don't know a single app that regularly makes such a complete hash of what should be a straightforward operation.

        Version 14.1 already had a problem of not properly preserving workspace layouts across relaunch (even though re-selecting the workspace from the menu would correct the layout) and now after this update I find that not only have all my workspaces gone, but the default one inexplicably has some random offset that leaves it straddling between my two monitors.

        Issues like this are so common across the CC suite I really don't think Adobe product managers realise how much annoying, easy to fix stuff like this tarnishes their users' view of the whole app.

          Camrb_1234
          Camrb_1234
          Participant
          April 26, 2017

          Anyone having trouble exporting Comps to Adobe Media Encoder after running these updates? Projects wont appear in the AME Queue window. Even if I import the AE project directly into AME it just wont appear. Also tried dragging comps and projects directly into AME and that didn't work. Restarted didnt work. Uninstalled AME and reinstalled didnt work.

          I seem to remember a similiar issue in last years update and Adobe sent out a patch a week or so later.

          MAC OS 10.10.5

          AE ver 2017.2

          AME ver 2017.1

            allenj15290054
            allenj15290054
            Participating Frequently
            April 20, 2017

            Is there a quick rundown on how to migrate custom workspaces anywhere?

            Szalam
            Community Expert
            SzalamCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            April 20, 2017

            It sucks that some updates don't let you carry over your workspaces. :/

            It seems to happen when they make significant changes to certain parts of AE.

            Anyway, you can try to copy your modified workspaces folder over (it's in the preferences folder you can get to by clicking the button inside the preferences), but you might need to grab the other workspaces folder too. Keep in mind, you might lose the new workspaces Adobe provided like the new scopes in the Color workspace and the Essential Graphics workspace.

            I usually find it's easier/better to rebuild. For one thing, it's a good chance to revisit why I've created certain workspaces and think of better/more efficient ways to do things.

              allenj15290054
              allenj15290054
              Participating Frequently
              April 20, 2017

              Thank you. I learned the hard way. I had to uninstall and reinstall after losing the newly added workspaces. Time to rebuild.

              Szalam
              Community Expert
              SzalamCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              April 19, 2017

              Lots of bug fixes, for sure!

              Also, lots of new features!

              The Essential Graphics Panel is great for working with editors who don't use AE, but it's even useful for AE artists. You can put your most-used properties in the panel and then you can adjust stuff there rather than having to twirl down into layers upon layers.

              I particularly like the new GPU-acceleration of Fractal Noise. I have a project that uses it very heavily and it is now rendering eight times faster!

                Roei Tzoref
                Roei Tzoref
                Legend
                April 19, 2017
                You can put your most-used properties in the panel and then you can adjust stuff there rather than having to twirl down into layers upon layers.

                do you suggest using it as a type of fancy controller? interesting. this would work as long as there are no keyframes for that property because changing a parameter would create a keyframe.

                Szalam
                Community Expert
                SzalamCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                April 19, 2017

                Right. If there are parameters you find yourself tweaking a lot, just toss them all into the panel and you can get to them much easier.

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