Project-specific default paths for Save and Export operations

[Ludwig Tomaschko]

I would like to report a long-standing issue (or design inconsistency) that causes frequent workflow disruptions in multi-project environments:

Currently, After Effects globally remembers the last used path for Save As…, Export, and Render Queue output, regardless of which project is currently open. This results in the file dialog always opening in the last used folder – even if it belongs to a completely different project.

This behavior:

• Increases the risk of saving files to the wrong directory

• Leads to overwritten assets or misplaced renders

• Breaks structured workflows, especially in client projects or team-based production pipelines

• Is inconsistent with user expectations in project-centric workflows

Proposed improvement:
Please implement an option to make file dialogs (Save, Export, Render Queue Output Module) respect the current project’s location as the default directory – or store the last used path per project, not globally.

This would bring After Effects in line with industry-standard behaviors found in other professional software, and reduce user error significantly.

Thank you for considering this improvement, and for your continued work on After Effects!

Best regards,

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Ludwig Tomaschko,

Thanks very much for bringing this up. Since it is a feature request, I've moved it to the Ideas section of the AE forums.

This is a request we've heard from others as well, but I'd love to hear more details from you and others about the value of having default save paths per-project. Would they apply to other file-picking operations as well? E.g. importing foortage or selecting presets?

Thanks again,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team