New in Beta: Welcome to Smooth Zoom in After Effects!

Report · Feb 18, 2025

We're excited to introduce Smooth Zoom in After Effects (Beta) version 25.2.0.113, a major improvement to zooming in After Effects that allows for precise, fluid magnification in the Composition, Layer, and Footage panels.

What’s New?

Since the earliest versions of After Effects, zooming was limited to fixed magnification levels (33.33%, 50%, 100%, 200%, etc). That’s no longer the case! With Smooth Zoom, you can now adjust magnification to any valid value with decimal-point precision using a new hot text control in the viewer.

All zooming tools in After Effects have been upgraded to incorporate this new capability:

Precise hot text Magnification control directly in the viewer.
Scroll wheel zooming with smoother, more precise adjustments.
Redesigned Zoom Tool behavior for a more intuitive experience.

Additional Enhancements
You can find new settings under Preferences -> Previews -> Magnification :

Type: Choose between Smooth and Legacy.
Behavior: Follow Cursor or Centered.
Trackpad Scrolling: Zooms or Pans.

Legacy Mode reverts to the original fixed increments when using various zooming methods if preferred.
Behavior : Follow Cursor magnifies the viewer based on the cursor's current location.

Behavior : Centered Always zooms to the center of the panel.

You can toggle between Follow Cursor and Centered behaviors dynamically by holding down the Alt/Option key while zooming. The view stays locked onto the intended area—whether zooming to the center or under the cursor.

Trackpad & Touch Enhancements:
Pinch to Zoom feels more natural and responsive.
A new mode Trackpad Scrolling : Pans allows two-finger drags to pan the viewer, mimicking the Hand Tool. The pan direction respects OS settings and can be reversed if desired (Natural Scrolling Trackpad setting).

Increased Maximum Zoom Levels: AE now allows zooming beyond previous limits if the image buffer size permits (e.g., if the maximum zoom allowed for the current composition size is 5000%, it can now be reached instead of the 3200% limit being imposed before due to the fixed magnification level).

Zoom Snapping & Speed Control:

Zoom will snap to the prior common zoom values for accuracy (eg. 33%, 50%, 100%, 200% etc).
Hold Shift to speed up zooming, Ctrl (Windows) / Cmd (Mac) to slow it down.

We Need Your Feedback!
We’d love to hear how Smooth Zoom fits into your workflow. Specifically:

Should the default Zoom Behavior be Follow Cursor or Centered?
Do you like the new Trackpad Scrolling: Pans functionality as the default?
Is Legacy Mode necessary, or would you be ok if it were removed?

Give it a try and let us know what you think in general!

Report · Apr 07, 2025

Hello devs,

Are there any plans for improving the zoom? It's still unusable via the zoom tool because it is not smooth. The biggest problem is that the axis of zoom in/out detection feels to be sort of at a 45 degree angle instead of horizontal or vertical. You can see in my video example the redicolous difference in stability between AE zoom and Mocha plugin zoom. I would expect the quality to be on par.

Report · Jun 11, 2025

@Amir Stone hi, I'm now on the latest beta 25.4b44 and most of the smooth zoom issues I highlighted in my previous post seem to be resolved and the threshold axis has been moved to vertical which to me at least is the best candidate! I'm very happy with these changes. It's still a bit finicky at small zoom levels because the relationship of amount of px of mouse movement vs zoom speed is very sensitive. Perhaps this is something that can still be improved.

Regardles it's at a much better state than that from my previous report. So thanks.

Report · Jun 17, 2025

Pan should not be set as default. I think that it should focus in on the curor, not zoom centered