issues with Keylight plugin

[mollyp589426]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me. I'm using After Effects to edit a template I purchased (off Videohive) for a personal project but when I open the template I get the warning "effect control conversion required in effect "Keylight (1.2)". Some effect controls will be reset. To avoid silently resetting these same effect controls on all subsequently loaded projects, save this project and then quit and re-launch After Effects."

Now, it still lets me edit the template but it won't actually play the clip and when I export to media encoder it just sits on processing for AGES. It doesn't move. I'm at a loss as to what to do. It's the simplest smallest clip I need to edit and I have no clue how to fix it. 

I have After Effects CC through Creative Cloud and I'm on macOS Catalina 10.15.

[Rick Gerard]

The template was probably created with an earlier version of Keylight. There are more controls in the latest version.

There could be other issues with your system. What happens if you just create a comp from your greenscreen footage and apply Keylight? If you still get the slow down then the problem is system resources or settings related. If it works as you expect it should, then there is something else going on in the template. 

If you cannot figure it out we need screenshots embedded using the toolbar instead of just uploaded and those screenshots should show us the modified properties of the layers that are giving you problems. Select the layer, press uu, then take a screenshot of the entire UI and embed it in the forum so we can help.

[mollyp589426]

I don't honestly know how to use After Effects other than using templates where I just plug in the text or image I want to replace the template. I just checked and the template was created back in 2018 so do you think downloading an older version of After Effects will work?

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Using the same AE version as the one used to create the template is a good troubleshooting position to take.
I also suggest rendering directly from AE - if your final deliverable is H264 then use AE to render to a high quality CODEC such as QuickTime Animation. Then import this file into Adobe Media Encoder, to render to H264.

You should also get in touch with the template author; to see if he/she knows of a solution to your issues. HTH

[mollyp589426]

I'm downloading the oldest version that Creative Cloud has (I recognize the insignia from the last time I used AE so hoping it'll work). I'm SO sorry to ask (I'm such a novice) but how do I render from inside AE? I don't know how to export other than to add to the media render queue. What steps do I take before I do that? I'm sorry I genuinely have no clue what I'm doing. It's never been this complicated to use a template before.

[mollyp589426]

Oh I think I figured out how to render it to Quicktime. Fingers crossed that works. I tried downloading the oldest version Creative Cloud would allow and I got the same error.

[mollyp589426]

Your suggestion worked! I rendered it in AE like you suggested (took a few hours but it did it) and then I converted it to something my Mac would actually acknowledge using VideoProc. Worked a treat! Thank you so much for that suggestion!

[Roland Kahlenberg]

I'm  glad you've sorted out your issues and thank you for reporting back.

Lastly, please follow through with Rick's suggestion AND use the TWO tutorial options in AE's Help Menu. These are curated tutorials which will provide you with a good foundation in AE.

[Rick Gerard]

If you are new to AE the best thing you can do for yourself is to at least go through the Beginning section of the User Guide. It will save you more time than you can imagine. AE is just too complex for anyone without a very strong background in motion graphics and compositing to just open up and start using.

[Kai262895649do3]

Or you could say something useful.

[Rick Gerard]

If you are new to AE, studying the user guide for an hour or two will save you days of fiddling and frustration. That's useful.