Keylight Crashing After Effects

[betterfeelingfilms]

Hello,

For the past few weeks Keylight has been crashing on me constantly while i use Ram Preview. It's a right pain especially when you are working on a green screen heavy project with a deadline looming. Several weeks ago it worked fine, no issues. However recently its just been crashing non stop, after checking my events viewer every error log states 'KEYLIGHT' as the problem. I currently have the newest most up to date version of the the software, have tried uninstalling/reinstalling the software, tried downgrading to previous versions of After Effects and have even re installed windows several times. I even changed my graphics card in a hope that would solve the issue but nope. My new graphics card driver is up to date and I have tried the keylight 1.2v16 update via The Foundry

I have contacted Adobe Technical support but they said that it's an issue with Keylight and to take it up with the. I have tried to get in contact with the Foundry numerous times via male and phone... but to no avail.

I have noticed several people have a similar issue to me, and I was wondering if they have found a solution to this?

I have attached images of my specs and error logs -

Previous Graphics Card

GIGABYTE - Graphics Card - NVIDIA - PCI Express Solution - GeForce 600 Series - GV-N650OC-2GI (rev. ...

Current Graphics Card

GIGABYTE - Graphics Card - NVIDIA - PCI Express Solution - GeForce 900 Series - GV-N960IXOC-4GD

I would really appreciate any help you guys could give me as this is affecting my job and I really have no idea what to do at this point.

Thanks,

Oliver Jones

[JaydenLawson]

That is not the answer. And neither does turning on Caps Lock. This is really disappointing 

[Szalam]

Also, make sure your version of AE is 13.8.1 - there have been many bug fixes in that version.

[davidw47313387]

I'll try the ultra keyer to make "pre keyed footage" that's a good idea. Yes problems started when I updated to 13.8 1 only with keylight everything else works fine/smooth

[Szalam]

Well, I'm glad you've got a workflow you can use. I wish we could solve your Keylight problem though. I can't get it to crash on my system. 😕

[RaraGirl]

When I add the Keylight + Key Cleaner + Advanced Spill Suppression effects, it crashes. I can't use it at all. When I add those one-by-one - the guilty culprit it the Key Cleaner. I am able to use the other 2 effects without issue. I'm on AE202 on Apple Catalina 10.15.6

[Michal5ECE]

I had the same problem, when I added them one by one it solved the issue. Thank you for this tip. 

[ProKaader]

Hi, thanks for the tips. I've noticed that many users have the "cannot produce timestamp" error with latest build of AE. I have the 14.01 version and updated GPU drivers and emptied cache. Still no luck. Now I will try to reinstall AE and see if that fixes it.

[samerk40343547]

I'm facing the same problem now, but the new thing that when I only use the Pre-blur option or the Softness, it crashes.When i just use the heylight without activating the last 2 features nothing happens,but the picture is not clear cuz of that.

BTW i've tried this :

AE 2015 and it's the same

Reinstalling AE 2017

Updating Keylight Version

Changing the video codecs

All the same verdict,so What the heck should I do???!!!!!!!!!!

[Szalam]

What codecs have you tried? Most people I've talked to have had great success using image sequences.

[Whispering_Flamingo15D5]

Ran into this same issue with keylight on a decently large resolution project, 6480x1080, also using the "pre-blur" setting. What solved the issue for me is turning on the caps lock key while rendering which will also prevent the frames from being viewed while rendering.

[astalsberg]

I dont get it... This "effect" or plugin is absolutley worthless!!
Crashes no matter what I try from the tips above. Doesnt matter if I dont touch the Pre Blur, export as another codec, image sequence or what the f*** what I try NOT to touch!

Why do you keep including this plugin Adobe? It's CLEARLY trash in its current state!
If it worked as expected I assume it would be great! But as is... This is useless!

[Szalam]

Let me make sure I understand the issue you're having.

You converted your footage to an image sequence (What kind? PNG? JPEG? TIFF?).

Then you imported that image sequence and dropped it into a composition.

Then you applied Keylight and it immediately crashed? If not, at what point in the process does it crash?

[astalsberg]

You didnt really read the original post now did you?

Now this isnt something new. A quick google search and you will find this problem with this plfrom WAY back.
Original post is from back in April 2016, that's about 2 and a half years ago.

Here's a few more posts from other places with the same problem that has been ignored by Adobe for years:

• CreativeCOW (Jan 2017)
• https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterEffects/comments/5pqcb1/key_light_causing_crashes_fix/  (2017)
• CGTalk | URGENT: Keylight(1.2) crashes AE during rendering (NOVEMBER 2010)

If you have some greenscreen footage (I've ried DNxHD, ProRes 422, and some other different codecs as well), and you want to remove the background, as Keylight was MADE for.
Now, you can apply the effect and it doesnt immedietly happen.
So you start tweaking your settings and getting things right. Now you might even get to where you wanted! It all looks good!
Other times, you might not even get there. It can crash when trying to give you a single frame preview.

But god forbid you try to render this and preview it.
You can basically see your RAM usage go through the roof. Now I wouldnt have an issue with this, as pr. usual AE just stops the render when you dont have more RAM to use, and previews what it could. But no, Keylight crashes AE.

Now as mentioned above, do NOT use the mouse to drag the "pre blur". As this will in 90% crash it.
And if that was all, that would be great! But no...

Add to render queue (inside AE), and you might wanna export an AVI file with color and alpha. But no this will most likly crash again.

Ok, turn on Caps Lock to stop the RAM preview... But no, crash again...
Ok, add to Media Encoder and export as PNG sequence... This will work a while longer, but eventually... Crash again!

I stand by my previous statement, at the moment, Keylight is completly useless, and should be removed from AfterEffects as it causes more issues than it's worth.

My suggestion to anyone out there running into the same issue. Concider buying a third-party plugin for keying.

[Szalam]

I wasn't responding to the original post in the thread; I was responding to your post. Often on forums like this, people will be experiencing problems with similar symptoms, but with different underlying causes. Also, a number of issues with Keylight have been fixed over the years, so everytime someone new makes a post that they're experiencing issues, I like to try to find out exactly what kind of problem they're having and try to find ways to solve or work around the issue.

If you don't want help and just came here to rant, that's fine and I understand! It's very frustrating to have crashes like you're describing.

[astalsberg]

Fair enough. I on the other hand tend to stick to the original problem when posting.
But ok, yes, I'm frustrated, and yes, I'm ranting. That still doesnt mean I dont appreciate any help in the matter.

However, as I stated above, this issue is several years old.

I've even found an old project where I ran into the same issue from early 2017 myself.

I just forgot it, as the place I was at that time had an alternative key effect.

This issue has been neglected by both Adobe and the developer of Keylight for years now, and I still claim that this effect should be removed from AE until a working version is in place.
It's been the source of many a rant on many forums.

[JaydenLawson]

Here is what should be the accepted answer: Go to Preferences > Display, and then un-tick "Hardware Accelerate Composition, Layer, and Footage Panels"