Crashes When Using Lottie JSON with Layer Effects on Precomps

[benw11]

Hi everyone, I'm an editor currently working with an Indonesian-based app company called boothcool.net. We're handling a promo video for their app where we need to showcase multiple features in a clean, modern animated style. The client specifically asked for Lottie compatibility, so the final output needs to be exported via Bodymovin for integration into their app.

While working on the animation in After Effects, everything looks and previews fine inside AE. However, the issue starts when I try to use layer styles (like Drop Shadow or Gradient Overlay) on precomposed shape layers. As soon as I enable any layer style on a precomp that includes vector shapes or shape animations, After Effects either lags extremely or instantly crashes especially when I enable motion blur or collapse transformations. I tested this on two different systems and both behave the same. Removing the layer style fixes it instantly, but of course, we lose the look the client wants.

I’ve tried all usual tricks like clearing cache, purging memory, updating GPU drivers, etc., but the issue persists. Even exporting a JSON through Bodymovin breaks at the render step if those styles are active.

This seems to be a conflict between how AE renders precomps with styles and how Lottie handles vector-based content. But I couldn’t find any solid explanation or solution—even on YouTube or Reddit. Would really appreciate any expert insight into this. Is this a rendering bug, or just an incompatibility with Lottie and layer styles? And is there any workaround besides rasterizing the effect manually?

[ShiveringCactus · Accepted solution]

I had a similar problem with exporting Lottie files.  I was tearing my hair out.  My problem turned out to be a 3rd party font I was using.

I identified the issue by turning off all the comp layers, except one.  Then exporting.  When that worked, I did the next layer and so on until the export crashed.  That was I was able to identify the issue.

You say you think it is the Layer Styles - looking at the page on AEScripts, Bodymovin does not appear to support Layer Styles:

https://aescripts.com/bodymovin/?srsltid=AfmBOopwvVFAGLJ4aZsw3QSeRLjHz39k4DXDZ57qODbYU5193D3tNT1a

Although with other non-supported elements it usually just ignores them.  If you have to have the layer styles, I think you'll need to render out as images and use those within your comp instead.

[benw11]

Thanks a ton for sharing your experience! That breakdown method sounds super helpful I'll give it a try. And yeah, looks like rendering out the styles as images might be the way to go. Appreciate the insight!