After Effects

[Guest]

Seriously, this programme is a total joke. Why can I not drag and drop a new composition into the "New Composition" box upon programme startup, why do I have to actually go to File > Open a new Project?In addition, why after a while, can I not select any command in the pogramme? Why should I have to restart the programme for this chocolate firegard to actually do what I tell it to. 

Seriously, have these developers not ironed out the most blatantely obvious of bugs? 

I am sick to the back bloody teeth of ripping my hair out over an inanimate object. It's a piece of software, not a disobidient child. 

[Warren Heaton]

Heya, @Deleted User 

Were you looking for some tips on how to use After Effeets or just looking to vent frustration? 

It does have a bit of a steep learning curve.

Compositions are part of a Project, hence the need to have a Project open in order to animated.

The "New Composition" and "New Composition from Footage" options only appear where a Composition goes to get things started.

What you described is done by dragging a Composition onto the "Create a New Composition" button at the bottom of the Project tab to do what's called "New Composition from Selection".  It can also be done by right-clicking on a Comp or by selecting a Comp and choosig File > New Composition from Selection or by selecting a Comp and using the keyboard shortcut (option backslash, Mac or alt backslash, Windows).

If over time you are not able to choose options in the application, you may be experiencing a memory leak.  This is mostly likely caused by third-party plug-ins (effects), add-ons, or extensions.  The best way to troubleshoot this is to try disabling those as well as making sure that your hardware exceeds the After Effects system requirements.
There's a lot to learn about it.  Have you had a chance to go through the free Learn tutorials from Adobe?  Learn How to Use After Effects

-Warren

[Guest]

Sorry, but If I'm following several a tutorials to the letter and I am not getting the same result that they're getting, then there's an issue with the software, which needs to be recitifed. 

[Mylenium]

Without any system information and other details about your settings for hardware acceleration, caches, memory and all that we cannot tell you why the program goes unresponsive.

Mylenium