Questions

I’m working with Particle Playground the most heavily I’ve ever used it, and using it for some fairly unusual purposes (essentially layer instancing). It works fine overall, but I am noticing some significant inconsistencies with the results I’m getting when I preview a comp versus what I get when I render out the whole project. In particular there seem to be far fewer particles/instances being generated in the full render than there appear to be when I preview. There’s a lot of randomness going on so it’s hard to really quantify, but visually this definitely seems to be the case. I’ve monitored many of my renders and AE does not appear to be running out of RAM -- the highest I’ve seen the RAM use so far has been about 80% of my 256Gbs. Most of my experience with particles has been in 3D (Maya specifically), and I know particle systems are quirky, but this seems to be a consistent problem. I know Particle Playground is super old, though I’d never realized quite how useful it can be til

Certain layers in my comp do not populate any settings in the effects control panel, where it used to have Transform, Opacity, Unassigned masks, etc. This just happened today as yesterday all of this functionality was working and nothing has since changed. - restarted computer- reset prefs- cleared cacheWhy is this happening now? And if this is normal functionality, who thought it was a smart idea to remove the default layer settings (transform + opacity, etc) out from the effects control panel? 

 Any Idea what is wrong with it? I honestly so frustrated with Adobe changing the layout so often. If you work with many of their programs it becomes truly painful experience. 

Using an M4 MBP with and iPad with Mercury Transmit. I work with lots of Black comps and I need to be able to see the borders of the comp, otherwise the Mercury Transmit feature is useless to me. Confusing why the BG isn’t the same as the pasteboard or just customizable.  If I’m missing something, I would appreciate your help!Cheers

There is a new behaviour after the latest update of After Effects v16.1.3 build 5, OSX Mojave.   When you have a mask on a layer, you have the "Toggle mask and shape path visibility" switched on, and you have the layer selected, you can't move the layer with the selection tool (V) anymore. Using the selection tool transforms the shape of the mask.   If I disable the toggle mask, or deselect the layer, or select multiple layers ... it works as it used to be. Any feedback would be helpful, Thank you,   Sam     This is annoying. Is this normal, and can this be set back to the way it worked before (just moving a layer)?  

in after effects 2023I have a full res EXR Z depth frame, i set proxy to a low res sequence of the same exr format, XTractoR does not detect/use the sequence and displays the original still frame.I get the same behaviour with the cryptomatte plugin, so i cannot work with any of these passes using proxies. Is there a way around this?

I animated a .png of an item falling, and rotating as it falls until it hits the floor. After the animation ended, I moved the CTI a few frames ahead and rotated it a bit to add a new keyframe, and moved the CTI again and rotated it again to make it seem more like a bounce when it hit the ground. I want to make the bounce seem a bit more natural. I spent some time online and I read about Expressions, and I copied some Bounce Expression that I found, and I want to paste it so I press alt and clicked on the Stopwatch for  Rotation to paste the Expression since this is the last thing that I added to the animation. The Expression editor opens withtransform.rotationWhen I paste the following Bounce Expression after this it just gives me an error. “This project contans an expression error: error 1 of 1. What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance! e = .5;g = 20000;nMax = 9;n = 0;if (numKeys > 0){n = nearestKey(time).index;if (key(n).time > time) n–;}if (n > 0){t = time – key(n).time;v

I am developing a script for After Effects that launches a small window and lets the user generate various compositions. I want to include a small image of a company logo on the window: One version that works with a light color theme and a different version that works with After Effects’ dark color themes. However, what ExtendScript code can I use to detect the currently active theme (e.g. ‘light’, ‘dark’ or ‘darkest’?)I’ve scoured forums and Github for answers but I’ve not found anything yet that works.

I am an AE plugin developer. With this new MacOS update to Tahoe (or maybe it's the upgrade to AE2026) my customers aren't able to load my plugins via Mediacore, it only works in the Plug-ins folder.Does anyone know how to solve this?

Hi use creative cloud desktop to do a free trial on adobe after effect and I want to cancel the plan but when I go to my account it doesn't show so I don't know what to do. I tried to contact adobe but I don't know how and everytime I search for their contact I get a link to a virtual assistance. I didn't use my card to do the free trial so was wondering when the free trial is done will i not get charge due to me not using my card? Pls help thank you

Hello. Recently Ive encountered a serious issue with the After Effects interface. It becomes extremely laggy after any click or action. The problem appears randomly - sometimes the program opens and works fine, but most of the time it freezes constantly.Interestingly, if I move the program window to my second monitor, the issue disappears completely.I’ve already tried the following:Updated and rolled back GPU drivers (twice),Reinstalled After Effects,Removed all third-party plugins,Changed monitor refresh rateSometimes the issue temporarily goes away if I switch between fullscreen and windowed mode, but it always comes back eventually.

Hallo liebes Forum,ich habe leider ein kleines Problem. Mein After Effects lässt sich nicht mehr öffnen. Ich bekomme jedes mal wieder eine Fehlermeldung, dass das Programm "beschädigt" sei. Ich habe es schon mehrmals (de-)installiert und auch verschiedene Versionen schon ausprobiert. Es funktioniert leider gar nichts. Ich hoffe ihr könnt mir weiterhelfen und würde mich über jede Hilfe freuen!LG

I was working 30 minutes ago, everything was ok. I tried to log in to continue working, but I got this window (screenshot). I tried reinstalling with saved settings, but it didn't help.I also tried this instruction - https://community.adobe.com/questions-529/after-effects-can-t-continue-an-unexpected-error-has-occurred-and-after-effects-will-now-shutdown-56063.This also didn't solve the problem. All folders have the appropriate permissions.This is annoying because I didn't change anything in the files or settings. All I did was open another guy's project, then close it without saving. That was the last successful launch of AE.I also installed a few fonts from Envato.What could have damaged AE?Latest version of AE installed. And latest version of MacOS. Macbook Pro M1.

Is Adobe ever going to stop making their apps worse? Every f* day I'm spending more time troubleshooting than working. The slowdown is literally costing me money because your business plan seems to be "Let's justify the subscription model and abusive cancellation practices by rushing out a new version every year" Your priorities are an absolute joke! People don't want crappy new AI tools that slow down the whole app, they want reliability! I know this isn't how you report a bug, but what does it even matter any more? If you actually did fix a bug there's countless more and you will never fix them before moving them along to the next major release.  I'm struggling to do my job because you can't do yours. After nearly 20 years of being an Adobe customer I cannot wait to leave this ridiculous company and its staggering incompetence behind

I am familiar with Premiere and am learning the basics of AE and my brain is having a hard time transitioning, and I have some basic questions:1. Are there any issues if you establish the Composition Settings before you start a project in AE vs. if you just drag graphics into the timeline animate them, and later go and change the resolution, frame rate and duration in the Composition Settings afterwards?My composition/project has a duration of 30 seconds based on what I entered in the settings, and the graphic I dragged in also has this duration and I already animated it, though I am trying to shorten the duration it displays. I am having a hard time dragging the end of the file in the timeline to the left to shorten it. I also do not see a way to change the duration in Properties for the graphic so I can just manually enter time code for it. I have other layers in the Timeline and I want the entire video to have a duration of 30 seconds, though the graphic I am trying to shorten will

Stuck, downloaded adobe and set my account up, went to download after effects, its gave me the prompt to download it on my Home Screen, opened it, it automatically does it through the creative cloud and then brings up a box and says enter password, which I do but it “shakes’ and indicates I'm using the wrong password and I'm not, I'm very confused and was wondering has anyone had the same problem before, yes I've already logged in and out of everything multiple times with no luck, please help 

Hi,I want to animate only X of Scale properties of the white rectangle. But I notice a tiny movement in Y axis as well. I set the anchors perfectly. I dnt want any movement in Y axis. Please guide me. I tried both keeping the constrain and breaking it too. in both case the Y axis moves. 😣 

My IT Manager mentioned that Mocha AE may introduce a vulnerability on my MacBook Pro and has advised me to remove it. Before doing so, I would like to confirm whether removing all Mocha AE–related plugins could cause Adobe After Effects to crash or generate errors.

The question is above : ) Thanks! 

I had this perfect footage with perfect colors and quality however when i imported into ae it has changed now it looks like mud. I've changed the working colors setting as gemini advised me yet it didnt change anything 

To Adobe Developer Support Team,I hope you are doing well. I am writing to request assistance and official documentation regarding the correct way to build an After Effects plugin from scratch, especially for After Effects 2025/2026 (v25+ / v26).OverviewI am currently developing a custom rendering plugin intended to integrate with Adobe After Effects. We have set up the following: A native C++ plugin project in Visual Studio A Rust-based rendering engine compiled as a DLL A Windows .aex plugin built as a native x64 DLL Resources compiled using a .rc and .pipl file Compilation against the latest AE SDK (25.6+) Despite following available SDK examples and developer documentation, the plugin is still being rejected by After Effects with the message:“No loaders recognized this plugin, so the plugin is set to Ignore.”Issue DetailsWe have confirmed that: The .aex file exports a proper EntryPoint symbol. The plugin is built as a native Win32 DLL (not .NET or static lib). Architect

Yesterday I was using After Effects with no problems. I don’t know what happened between then and now because I can’t open project files (I only can when I launch AE through an .aep) or save/apply animation presets through the ‘Animation’ tab. Every time I try to do either my AE gets a pop-up with the crash error and then gives me the chance to save my project file before it quits.  These are the pop-ups I get when I try to save/apply an animation preset: When trying to save a preset When trying to apply a preset These are the pop-ups I get when I try to open a project through the After Effects home screen:  I’ve only been able to find a few threads about similar problems that I am experiencing. These are the solutions I’ve tried based off of suggestions: Reset preferences, disable plug-ins, sign out and back in Creative Cloud, allow AE to communicate through Windows Defender Firewall on both private and public, allow AE to override system settings in ‘Block untrusted fonts.’ None of t

I uploaded another project to mine and when I went to time remapping the graph editor and it looked like this.  The keyframes were eased, but it still looked this way. 

3D Camera Tracking in After Effects is currently very basic and needs a few important updates: No built-in tool to calculate lens distortion from a calibration grid/checkerboard. No option to place and solve from manual tracking points (true supervised tracking/constraints). No object tracking No reliable workflow to export/import 3D camera tracking data between After Effects and professional 3D/VFX packages. The Maya Live Link is unreliable, fails far too often, and the whole round-trip is frustrating—honestly not professional enough for production workflows. Request: Please add a native import/export tool for AE 3D camera tracking data, so we can reliably exchange solves between After Effects and the most important DCC/VFX tools, e.g. Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, Houdini, Unreal Engine, Cinema 4D, Nuke, PFTrack, SynthEyes, Mocha Pro, etc.Ideally, this should support: Camera animation (position / rotation / FOV) Film back / sensor size Focal length / zoom curves Lens distortion

The 3D Origin is useful, but it makes it nearly impossible to rotate a camera or light around its point of interest.Right now, the only workaround is to open the Viewport Options, disable the Origin, do the rotation, and then enable it again. That workflow is slow and frustrating.What we need:a) A dedicated Origin on/off toggle directly in the toolbar (with a keyboard shortcut) when the 3D Origin is enabled.orb) An updated 3D Origin design that includes a center handle (Point), allowing us to rotate directly around the point of interest without disabling the Origin.