Persistent black frame problem in After Effects

[branker]

For many videos now I have had a black frame problem in After Effects. Random black frames appearing in the preview window and export. As well as random frames from a different part of the video, although that is less frequent.

It seems like it would be a frame rate problem, but it still happens when frame rates are all matched. As I edit in Premiere and then export, which is then brought into After Effects. I also bring in separate videos in the an After Effects comp for B roll that will have the black frame problem, and the frame rate of those videos is not something I have control over. That is unless I exported a copy of the video from Premiere and changed the frame rate settings before export. This would be tedious to do, and there is no guarantee it would work.

But if this problem does not happen in Premiere it seems like it is a problem that can be fixed in After Effects. Regardless it seems like something that should be possible to fix.

Can Adobe fix this problem for future updates?

[Edit] I don't remember this problem until a fairly recent update, so it's a possible glitch of some change that happened. Which affirms this problem is unnecessary.

[Dave_LaRonde]

Well, the best you can do is to file a detailed bug report.  They don't refer to a  CC subscription as membership in the Adobe Unpaid Beta Tester Program for nothin', y'know.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi branker,

Are you using any GPU accelerated effects?

Thanks,

Kevin

[patrick-vici]

I have consistently had this exact same problem for many months now. It is VERY annoying and unprofessional to have in final videos.

It only affects my video file layers (the video file will go black for a single frame, but the other layers will not).
This happens in the project window, in the source window – even though the original file when played outside AE does not contain the black frame.

It is very common and seems to not be consistent when it will show up, but does so several times per video.

I have gotten on with Adobe customer support chat twice just tonight! Both times, they removed any third party plugins, cleared preferences, and caches. Both times the problem came back shortly after closing the chat.

I am on a 27" 5k iMac running latest osX and the lastest CC.

[patrick-vici]

Btw, I think when I just cleared my cache, it stopped showing the frames for a bit. Eventually, it comes back but at least its a temporary fix so you can render them out without any black frames.

My cache is 100GB btw.

Adobe, please fix this.

[core787]

This has been happening to me as well. iMac Pro, AE 15.1.2

[MattOliverKing]

I have been having the same issue recently a lot, it only just started to happen around the same time I was trying to fix GPU issues for other software. So im guessing its GPU related? Is this why you mentioned GPU?Constantly clear cache and then hit CAPS before rendering to stop it from happening . SO annoying !!!!!!

[patrick-vici]

Now instead of a random black frame, I'm getting a distortion effect like an old TV.

@Adobe... any ideas? Any fixes?

[Omar Gontier]

i turned off GPU Acceleration (CUDA) to solve this and used mercury software only in the Project Settings
but what if i needed to use any gpu based effects ? is there a problem with my GPU then? i have RTX 2060 Super with a latest driver update, and this was happening on my old machine also with Gt610 so i think it's something with adobe?

[torjusa46429338]

I'm having the same problem now suddenly in 2021. first started to happen after some warings about running out of vram, but does not go away when rendering on mercury software only. I also have the RTX 2060 super and according to HW monitor i never even used more than 86 % of my vram. Super anoyed cause i can't finnish my project now.. 

[VR Editor]

ive had this problem and what i did was right click composition settings then change the frame rate to a preset one 15. 29.7 or 60 whichever there.

[Angelique2343685208hs]

Hi there,

I had the same problem and just noticed that when i selected one of my elements on my comp (which was an element created with the pen tool on a solid), the element was going beyond the frame size (some automatic red guides show this when selecting this element on a solid). When i placed back this element (a line created with a pen tool on a solid), so that the "red guides" would stay within the frame size, the export worked well and didn't have those black zones anymore (in fact, before changing that, those black zones were the same areas as the areas where the "red guides" shown, in other words, where one of my element -a line created with the pen tool on a solid- was placed beyond the frame size).

[jdiazgarzon]

Its incredible that theres not answer for this... 

[JP22250309e9yo]

I found out if you reload your footage in the project tab (right click on footage, reload) fix it temporarily

[v ms14986408]

I FOUND THE FIX. This problem is really annoying, but I found a fix. It was a graphic issue. I just turned off hardware acceleration in preferences and and change project settings from Mercury GPU Acceleration (OpenCL) to Mercury Playback Engine Software Only. Try this, hopefully it works. Really sucks I need to disable my rtx 3060 ti, but this is the only fix as far as I have found.

[arvydas26749766ikdd]

reload footage is the best choise. the same problem on PC and on mac m1.

[Ondrej2464823311dz]

I have the same problem (Apple Macbook Pro M1), it is very annoying, black frames or green distorted frames appearing randomly in footage, both in timeline and exports. Reloading footage and purging the cache helps only marginally, because yes, it fixes black frames, but concurrently creates new black frames elsewhere in timeline. This bug renders whole After Effects unusable for me.

[rish26934433oktl]

Yeah I have the same problem and Adobe has no solution for this yet. i hope they fix this ASAP it's really frustrating

[jdiazgarzon]

in the project files tab click the footage that gives you the black frame (usually a video file), right click and reload footage, should fix him for a while. I found out after commenting here, thats the only fix and the render will be ok. 

[Ondrej2464823311dz]

Well seems I have found a workaround: Purge all memory and disk cache before each export. 

[Mandy17737777ell0]

I just found the problem on my side! In French, we have a specific accent on some letters. The frames appeared each time I typed it. So I quit without saving, opened the document again and typed my text without the accent.