Do files with a lot of shape and text layers makes AE slow?

Report · Mar 26, 2020

Hello,

My After Effects 2020 project is extremely slow and I want to know how to fix it.

It consists of 9 comps (about 12 seconds each) each containing 10 to 20 shape layers and 5 to 10 text layers with trim paths and opacity animations on each. That's litterally it. Then the 9 comps are put together in a sequence.

It's so laggy that I have to work in quarter resolution and preview (I also skip frames in the preview) for it to work fine, and even then, I wait 5 seconds every time I click somewhere or change the text. It's driving me nuts.

I purged the memory and cache, restarted AE (it sorta works but after half an hour or so, it slows down more and more), rebooted my computer. Anyone knows how I can work efficiently with such a project?

Thanks in advance!

Report · Mar 26, 2020

Please click the 3D switch and confirm that it is set for classic 3D. Even if you’re not in 3D I’ve found that sometimes the other settings slow things down.

Report · Mar 26, 2020

Comp size and frame rate? Motion Blur? What else is going on? On my system, you have to get to 50 or more of shape layers rendering at the same time to see noticeable slowdown.

A screenshot with the modified properties (uu will do that) and maybe a flow chart that has been expanded might help us figure out what is going on or it may help you diagnose the problem. That's always my first step - press UU and start turning things off or resetting them.

Report · Sep 02, 2021

I am dealing with this same issue as well. This is a brand new computer. High end build and 3d shape layers are slwoing everything to a crawl

Report · Sep 27, 2021

totally! me too , this is an absolute joke , im on a powerful machine, i have a buch of shape layers and its borderline unworkable, im so tired of adobe and their constant failings and issues.

Report · Nov 21, 2024

it's the "mee too" generation, I can't do a dang thing with only 6 shape layers, AE just crashes and burns. I even (blindly) bought OVERLORD pLUGIN to see if the illustrator files would import more expediantly, nope, big fail. So bummed.
I could see that if the shapes were super simple things might be ok but I am dealing with "auto traced vectors" in illustrator from my hand drawn cartoons, they are incredibly complex. It appears that the auto traced creates 100's of paths within the illustrator groups. idk??? feel like giving up. tried to figure out how to flatten the paths but found no real answer and AE just chokes on the shape layers and dies a slow death.