Draft mode seems to crash AE when working in Advanced 3D with gltf/glb models in the scene

Report · Aug 07, 2025

iNTERMITTENT CRASHES WHEN WORKING IN ADVANCED 3D MODE WITH DRAFT MODE TURNED ON. AE goes milky and need to be closed by ending the task.

It seems to be happening on a section where I have the following:

GLB/GLTF 3D models

Adjustment layer with CC composite to duplicate the 3D model and allow effect usage x2 - one with Change to colour, one with CC Toner

Unclear on the exact steps to repro as of yet, but it seems to happen soon after turning on Draft 3D in the viewport. I'll update if I can get exact steps.

Win 11 24H2

4090fe on Studio driver 572.16

AE Beta 25.6.0 build 17

Report · Aug 07, 2025

Thanks for reaching out, Mike.

Could you provide the rest of the specs (CPU, RAM)? Are there any error messages or crash reports? Please collect them on the next crash. Also, can you test if it happens in the official version?

Let me know. Moving this thread to the After Effects Beta community.

Thanks,
Nishu

Report · Aug 08, 2025

Hi @nishu_kush ,

No problem, the system specs are as follows:

i9-10850K CPU

128Gb RAM

4090fe 24gb GPU

Working off various SSD drives

No crash messages so far - AE goes to the tinted white screen when it fails, and so far leaving it for any amount of time does not seem to recover. If I get a chance I'll test in the stable build and let you know. I'll also update here if it persists with the newest Beta builds.

Report · Aug 12, 2025

Hey Mike, sorry to hear about the crashes. Without being able to repro in-house, we won't know for sure what's going on. Are you able to send me the project if you can repro?

Either way, hopefully point you to a better solution. Draft 3D mode is meant for fast positioning of geometry and throwing 2D pixel effects into the mix is actually going to slow things down. Instead, can you try setting your Render Quality to 1? This should make things much speedier and quality should be similar to Draft, although, yes, it will be noisier, depenending on what's in your scene.

Edit: Do you you have the Extended Viewer enabled when the crash is happening? Also, can you pinpoint the crash to CC Composite? If you leave draft on, but turned off CC Composite (understanding it's probably necessary for whatever you're working on) does the crash still happen?

Thanks,
- David, After Effects Engineering Team

Report · Aug 18, 2025

Hey @David.Arbor , thanks for the tips, I'll give those a go. IIRC, the extended comp viewer was not on at the time of these crashes.

And if I can reliably repro I'll send you a project file for sure. Not sure if CC Composite was the culprit or not - I'm back on that project soon so I'll let you know if I figure out any common factors etc.

Cheers,

Mike