After Effects

After Effects 27.0 Is Here: AI Assistant, 3D Materials, and What to Try First 🚀

After Effects 27.0 is here! Here's what to try first.Scrolling through release notes to find what matters for your work takes time. So here's the short version. This release brings the AI Assistant, plus new ways to use layers as 3D materials and to texture 3D text and shapes. What’s new in 27.0 After Effects AI Assistant Describe what you need in the new Assistant panel, and let it organize your project, write and fix expressions, generate images and videos, and more. Learn more › Use layers as material sources Use animated precomps, solids, images, and videos as materials for 3D objects when you’re working with the Advanced 3D renderer. Learn more › Apply materials to 3D text and shapes Put Substance materials straight onto 3D text and shape layers, in place of the default legacy ones. Learn more › Import Illustrator text as editable text layers Convert Illustrator text to editable text layers, preserving fo

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Nishu KushwahaCommunity Manager

New in Ae 27.0: Tidy Your Project and Decode Expressions with the After Effects AI Assistant 🤖

Stop menu-diving. Just tell After Effects what you want. 🤖Tidying a messy project, decoding a gnarly expression, or making a reference image all mean a lot of clicking around. The After Effects AI Assistant lets you describe the task in plain language and handles the steps for you. Here’s how to get started. Before you startVersion: 27.0 Credits: AI Assistant uses credits for most AI-powered creative actions, such as generating and editing content. Credit usage varies by action. To check how many credits an action used, hover over the credits icon after an action is completed. Credit rates are introductory and may change as the product experience evolves. Hardware and OS: Check out After Effects system requirements 1. Open the panel and make it yours Click the AI Assistant icon in the header bar, or go to Window > AI Assistant. It works like any other panel, so you can: Move it Dock it Group it with other panels The AI Assistant docks like any other panel

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3 days ago

Nishu KushwahaCommunity Manager

New in Ae 27.0: Use Layers as Material Sources in After Effects: Put Your Comp on a 3D Object 🎨

Stop exporting textures. Use your layers as the material in After Effects 27.0. 🎨Getting a design onto a 3D object usually means importing a texture or picking from a fixed library. In After Effects 27.0, you can use any layers as material sources. A precomp, solid, image, or video already in your project becomes the surface. Animate the source and the 3D object updates with it, with no export or reimport. 1. Set up your comp Before anything else: Select Advanced 3D in the 3D Renderer menu Make sure your comp has a parametric mesh, 3D model, or 3D text/shape layer Add a precomp, solid, image, or video to use as the material source Start with Advanced 3D 2. Drag your source into the comp Drop the precomp, solid, image, or video into the same composition as your 3D layer. Both layers live in one comp 3. Assign it from the Material dropdown Select your 3D layer, then: In the Timeline panel, expand Material Assignment and open the Material dropdown

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3 days ago

Nishu KushwahaCommunity Manager

Apply Substance 3D Materials to 3D Text and Shapes in After Effects ✨

Give your 3D text a real surface (and a different one on every face) in After Effects 27.0✨Until now, 3D text and shapes only got default legacy materials. In After Effects 27.0, you can use Substance 3D materials (.sbsar files) like wood, stone, or brushed metal, and set a different one on the front, side, back, and bevel. Your text and shapes stay editable. 1. Turn your text or shape into a 3D layer Create a text or shape layer, then turn on the 3D Layer switch. Check that Advanced 3D is selected in the 3D Renderer menu. Import any .sbsar files you want to use. Switch on 3D Layer to get started 2. Add an override for each surface Select Add Override and pick a surface: Front Side Back Bevel All (one material everywhere) Surfaces you haven’t overridden keep their default material. Material Assignment is where it all starts 3. Open Material Assignment Select your 3D text or shape layer. In the Timeline panel, expand Material Assi

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3 days ago

robby999Participating Frequently

Anyone else seeing that AE is not deleting cache after the last update?

I have to manually delete the files from the directories listed on the Disk page in preferences in the Conformed Media Cache area in order to actually clear the cache. Kind of annoying every time an audio file update results in an increase in its length, I have to do this manually, or else AE cuts the audio at the previous end time (while playing the new audio 👏).

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5 hours ago

Ben RussellParticipant

AI assistants in Premiere, After Effects being able to communicate with one another to diagnose issuesOpen for Voting

Bouncing between After Effects and Premiere (and Photoshop, Illustrator) is a huge benefit to working with the tools, but when using the AI assistant in Premiere (or After Effects) it can only look at what’s happening in its own program, and not communicating with the others on that level. That’s at least what it told me when I was diagnosing some color space issues with a dynamic link of some R3D footage.

8 hours ago

Jaydude-wbInspiring

Virtual Slider of Lens Blur / Blur Focal Distance not working correctlyOpen for Voting

Set document to 32bpcApply Lens BlurSlide the value of Blur Focal Distance, and se how it hops from 0 to 32768, no showing any value in between. This can only be done by twirling the Slide open and then slide it. Other values can be easily virtual slided in Ae, but this one seems to fail.

DontPanicParticipating Frequently

27.0 - Thin rotated layer renders as sheared slivers and the rest of the layer is missingOpen for Voting

IssueA layer scaled to a very small X scale (about 1% or less) and rotated to an angle away from 0/90/180/270 doesn't render as a thin straight line. It renders correctly for part of its length, then turns into a stack of sheared, saw-tooth slivers, and everything past that is missing. It happens on a plain solid in a brand-new project.Steps to reproduceFile > New > New Project. New Composition, 1920x1080, 30 fps. Layer > New > Solid, 3840x2160, any colour. Unlink Scale and set it to 0.32, 100. Set Rotation to 252.5. Leave Position at the comp centre. Set the Composition panel's Resolution to Full.Or open the attached thin_rotated_layer_slivers_v001.aep, which opens on this setup with a note in the comp.Expected resultOne straight, thin (~12 px) line through the centre of the comp, edge to edge.Actual resultA clean line from the left edge to about a sixth of the way across, then a stack of sheared slivers, then nothing for the rest of the layer.At Resolution Full, X scale 0

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maxarch3Participant

After Effects 2026 and 2027 freeze when changing composition settings after latest updateOpen for Voting

Since yesterday's update, After Effects has started freezing when I change composition settings, specifically: Changing the frame rate. Changing the composition dimensions (width and height). Affected versions: After Effects 2026 After Effects 2027 The issue happens in both versions.What happens:When I modify the frame rate or composition size, After Effects freezes and stops responding.The only way I have found to recover is: Go to the After Effects icon in the Windows taskbar. Close the application using the taskbar. After attempting to close it, I can click Cancel in the composition settings dialog. After that, After Effects becomes responsive again and I can continue working. This is unusual because the application appears frozen, but clicking Cancel after attempting to close it restores normal operation.When did it start?The issue started immediately after installing the latest update on November 12, 2026.It affects both After Effects 2026 and 2027.Computer specification

nicolasd23169085Known Participant

Best practice to keep HDR iPhone's color with After Effects 2025

Hello everyone, I’m creating this topic about an issue that has been discussed many times before: preserving colors for videos shot on an iPhone in HDR (15 Pro Max, in this case).I’ve watched every YouTube video imaginable: some are outdated, while others offer slight improvements but don’t achieve perfection. First point: all the tutorials I found were for Premiere Pro, not After Effects. I understand that most professional editors will use Premiere Pro instead of After Effects, but as a motion designer, I strongly prefer the latter. So, let’s get straight to the point: attached is a sample footage shot last week https://we.tl/t-ex5ol0a1vBHere’s how the colors look in the Photos app on my Mac/iPhone, or when I play the video in Preview or QuickTime (although they appear darker in the screenshot).  Now, here’s how they look when I import the video into After Effects without any adjustments. The colors are completely washed out.  Next, if I try to

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Simeon36939858cu16Participant

Bug - typing in a new frame number in a time remap parameter in the timeline doesnt work

Issue - typing in a new frame number in a time remap parameter in the timeline produces the wrong number. Steps to reproduce - 1. take a footage layer, set it to 'freeze current frame' 2.edit the frame number in the text field next to time remap in the timelineExpected result - it should show the correct numberActual result -  it shows the wrong number. the workaround is to carefully drag the text slider to the correct number.Adobe After Effects version - this bug has been present at least since 2020 until 2025Operating system - Windows 10 or 11GPU driver version (Windows only) - any driver version

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11 hours ago

PuppetGuyKnown Participant

Opt out of Ai Assistant/Agent features.Open for Voting

The inclusion of Agentic Ai/Assistive features without the option to opt out of them further removes agency for the user when using After Effects. For many users (including myself) there is zero use case for such features, so it would only be fair for them to be optional for us to be able to continue using After Effects without them.

12 hours ago

Ethereal_ease0f9aParticipant

After effects can't continue : The required CINEMA 4D effect plugin could not be loaded.

After effects can't continue : The required CINEMA 4D effect plugin could not be loaded. i deleted maxon cinema 4d files in /after effects/support files/plug-ins and got this error message any help please

12 hours ago

MahaMN

Photoshop icon not there

Photoshop icon does not show in the project file though the extension is PSD. I have Ps app. This was not the case before. What is the reason?

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12 hours ago

nwitchellParticipant

Cryptomatte brokenOpen for Voting

Hi there, I’m on 2026.5.0 on a Mac Studio M2 chip running MacOS 26.6.2. Cryptomatte is not working consistently in this latest version. When freshly opened for the first time, I can apply Cryptomatte and select a single color to create a matte and after that the plugin becomes almost entirely unresponsive. Shift+clicking other colors does nothing in the viewport. Deselecting the current color does nothing in the viewport. The only indication I have that something is happening under the hood is that when I shift click to add colors to the matter I see the additional color ID being added to the list of color IDs that cryptomatte is using, but the minute I move my cursor off of said color, the ID disappears and nothing happens. The viewport is unchanged by this as well. Clicking a second color and seeing the ID list update is only showing in the effect control panel. the additional selected color in the viewport remains its original color. Once this behavior begins it occurs in every othe

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13 hours ago

anna-luise_4559Participant

Import Ae 2027 content into Pr 2027 message error After Effects 2027 is not installed, while Ae 2027 is open.Open for Voting

This error while both Premiere and After Effects are both installed and 2027 Versions

14 hours ago

imakevideosforalivingParticipant

Make Essential Graphics fully accessible to scripting and AIOpen for Voting

Please expand the Essential Graphics Panel scripting API to support:creating and managing groups and comments reordering, moving and removing controllers reading the complete panel hierarchy configuring Source Text “Edit Properties” options accessing other Essential Graphics functionality currently available only through the user interfaceThese features are essential for workflows that generate or maintain MOGRTs at scale, including third-party localization and rendering platforms, data-driven video tools and organizations managing large numbers of complex templates. Groups and comments are not merely visual formatting: they provide the structure and instructions needed to make complex templates understandable. In some workflows, they are essential parts of the template interface rather than optional organizational features.Adobe’s AI Assistant and MCP-based tools can already automate many After Effects tasks through the currently exposed scripting interfaces. However, they cannot full

14 hours ago

simon0815Inspiring

ESC tools: they did it againOpen for Voting

elementsupply did dynamically patch After Effects to add 4 quality of life tools natively.1: Favorites in Quick Apply menu2: key framing blend modes3: multiple track mattes per layer4: dynamic parent switching Here is the link:https://elementsupply.co/products/esc-toolsAdobe, can you implement this Tools?

15 hours ago

xjuanfxInspiring

Color management in Interpret Footage - AE 2027 does not work as it shouldOpen for Voting

Color interpretation in AE 2027 does not work as it should, unlike AE 2026. I am attaching a video of what I mentioned.https://files.catbox.moe/iaiukk.mp4

22 hours ago

adamograssoKnown Participant

Effects panel visual previewsOpen for Voting

The new ‘effects pannel visual previews’ in Premiere Pro Beta are super helpful. It’d be great to see the same feature come to After Effects as well. There’s so many great fx in AE that it’s sometimes hard to remember what each one of them actually does.

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23 hours ago

seanrowleyKnown Participant

Safezones for current Social Media platforms PLEEEAAAAASEOpen for Voting

Please add safezone options for current social media platforms to After Effects and Premiere!99% of the videos I create professinally are for social media campaigns, yet there are only guides in AE for broadcast safezones.

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Jessica McMillanCommunity Manager

After Effects 27.0 SDK Now AvailableNews

We're excited to share that the After Effects 27.0 SDK is now available! Download and recompile your plugins to take advantage of the updated features. UTF-8 opt-in for EffectsAfter Effects 27.0 adds an opt-in for effects to use UTF-8 for strings they emit and consume. Set PF_OutFlag2_STRINGS_ARE_UTF8 during PF_Cmd_GLOBAL_SETUP and keep the corresponding PiPL flags in sync with your source. Effects that do not opt in continue using locale-dependent multibyte strings, so you can adopt UTF-8 when you're ready.This change applies to After Effects only. See the Localization guide for details.Prior to the release of 27.0, there was a bug in 26.x versions that would incorrectly attempt to display locale-dependent multibyte strings as UTF-8 strings. This could result in empty fields, mojibake, or missing characters. Version 27.0 restores the old behavior to correctly display these strings and allows developers the option to opt into the use of UTF-8 strings. The release of 27.0 also fixes a

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John27915527fj29Participant

AE 2023 Download

Hi, Would anyone have an available download link to a version of AE 2023 for Mac?I have a project file that I need to amend and I can only go as far as 2022 on my machine due to my OS limitations. I was in conatct with Adobe Support where they downloaded the project file via remote desktop to convert it but after several attempts it still would not open. They advised me to conatct the community to see if anyone could help. Thanks in advance, John

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Point LineParticipating Frequently

Make the UI font size Adjustable.Open for Voting

Many people have trouble with eye strain especially animators. Why in the world was this functionality removed from After Effects? Please add this feature.

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YuK1_WorksInspiring

Timeline UI gets progressively slower as more keyframes are selected with marquee selectionOpen for Voting

When selecting a large number of keyframes in the Timeline using marquee selection, the After Effects UI becomes progressively slower as the number of selected keyframes increases.This is especially noticeable when repeatedly adding more keyframes to the current selection.Steps to reproduce Create a composition with a large number of keyframes across one or more properties/layers. In the Timeline, use marquee selection to select some of the keyframes. Keep adding more keyframes to the selection using additional marquee selections. Observe the Timeline UI responsiveness as the number of selected keyframes increases. Actual resultThe Timeline gradually becomes less responsive as more keyframes are selected.In my case, the slowdown starts becoming clearly noticeable at around 100 selected keyframes. As the selection grows further, marquee selection and other Timeline interactions become increasingly sluggish.The important point is that this does not appear to be caused simply by hav

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