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

[Amir Stone]

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!

[Shebbe]

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.

[Shebbe]

@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.

[CannonMcClain]

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

[Wabber_HM]

This is my first time using the new zoom behavior in the latest public After Effects. I guess following the cursor is intuitive. It was always more of an "After Effects-only" way, of just zooming to the center and at fixed increments. But I kind of miss the fixed increments. Now it's just zooming to arbitrary, multi-decimal place zoom levels which often make the preview look blurry. And is there a way to re-center the view? What was even a problem before was if I pan around and then zoom, it won't take me back to a centered view. I feel lost without it. In Photoshop, I just press the Home key and it centers the view to the top. And I could always press Ctrl+1 to reset to 100%. How do I reset to base easily in this?

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Wabber_HM,

To easily center the view, either press Alt + / (Option + / on Mac) which will zoom up to 100% and center the view, or use Alt+double click on the Zoom tool to center without changing the zoom level. You can also customize how the zoom behaves in Preferences -> Previews -> Magnification—you can switch back to the Legacy zooming, or simply change the smooth zoom to be centered on the comp view (rather than the cursor).

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team