After Effects won't import PSD

[mundanejonah]

Hello, this is my first time posting here more or less so please bear with me.  I'm a new adobe user and although I've heard about these famous instability issues, this is pretty embarassing. 

Computer specs: m1 max macbook pro on monterey 12.3 

AE: 22.6

PSD: 23.5.1

I've just got a multilayered PSD that im trying to add parallax to in AE.  It crashes After effects.

I've use the timelord plugin from battleaxe in effort to circumvent the issue but it only works by importing PNGs, if I use it to import the PSD, AE crashes or just spins the pinwheel forever.

I've unistalled AE and PS, downscaled the image, removed layer styles, tried all the forum remedies I've read here and am pretty resigned about it-but I figure I'll post just in case.

Was literally just following along to this tutorial but have also had this problem with other PSD files:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tVyu-rjHbg

Hope you can help me,

Jonah

[Mylenium]

Rasterize the clipping paths and layer masks as well as the smart object for the background. The whole workflow is kind of odd both from an PS and AE standpoint and that tutorial is kind of questionable.

Mylenium

[mundanejonah]

Hey! Thanks for the quick response. I think this may be it but I'm not sure. I tried this and then I was able to import it no problem and I was shocked. Then I wanted to make sure it worked consistently and then it hasn't worked since.  I tried using a higher res version, nope. Lower res, also no. For reference- I'm just selecting all the layers and going to layers rasterize-> all layers and then saving again. Not sure if that's correct.

thanks

[Mylenium]

Fair enough. Did you change any settings recently in PS like color management, hardware acceleration or similar? Did you change document settings like color profiles or color mode? Have you checked the channels and path palettes for unassociated channels/ paths? Also check art boards and also dig into the BG smart object and check those things as well. As a last resort consider copy & pasting your layers to a new document.

Mylenium 

[mundanejonah]

I think you're on to something here, as I said I'm too new to the adobe suite to keep track of all these small settings, although I dont think I did anything strange.  I just tried importing a photo saved as a psd to AE and that worked fine, so I'll backtrack and start over somehow.  

Can you elaborate on what you meant by questionable workflow- from the tutorial perspective? what would be a better way of seperating layers in photoshop to work with in AE?

Thanks

[Mylenium]

There's no point in using vector paths unless you plan on animating masks. That's where the tutorial introduces unnecessary steps and only inflates the AE file. AE will handle existing transparency in PSDs just fine, including pixel based layer masks and those don't require drawing paths. They can simply be derived from selections and channel operations.

Mylenium 

[mundanejonah]

nice, I think I get what you're saying- I appreciate your help 🙂