It's time to have a nice chat with the system administrator.  (S)He will be able to help you a lot more than we can. Know that CS6 won't work well un der Win 10 or the last few versions of the Mac OS.   ... View more

You want to try those dimensions again, please?  The current ones make absolutely zero sense. ... View more

Do you know how to both scrub and preview audio in AE?  If not, I'd learn. ... View more

Is the Continuously Raterize switch ALSO turned on for the layer directly in your precomp? ... View more

What kind of fly-by-night help service did you use?  That doesn't look like Adobe! ... View more

Reinstall CC 2019, and remember this:  you never, EVER update Adobe software in the middle of a big project.  This has been truth since at least Version 3... maybe even before that. You've just learned a hard lesson. ... View more

If you go back to the COSA days, I'm a little bit surprised that you're surprised.    When there used to be installation CDs, Adobe had to get the software pretty much right.  Now the pressure's off -- get the code out the door, let the users find the bugs and get out bug fixes as necessary.   I'm just now mulling over whether I should install the final CC 2019.  They probably got all the bug fixes in they're going to do. ... View more

Yeah, I've noticed it, too.  I guess it bugs you more than it bugs me. ... View more

It could be a problem with the footage -- 4K is typically highly compressed, and can give AE fits on occasion.  I recommend transcoding the problem clip to a lossless or nearly-lossless codec.  If it's the exact same clip, you can simply replace it in the comp to see if it fixes the problem. ... View more

It looks like the comp's Work Area is set to one frame.  Go to the end of the comp and hit the "n" key to set the work area to the end of the comp. ... View more

I'm sorry, but this is a poor-resolution screen capture.  We can't see the image in enough detail to see what you are doing. But your description leads one to believe that you need to purge your caches.  If you have older versions of After Effects, delete their caches -- they are wasting valuable cache space. ... View more

Yeah, this new concept for user forums pretty much sucks.   Wait, I take that back -- it DEFINITELY sucks.  Big, green ones. ... View more

Remove Grain is a God-Awful -slow effect even under the best of circumstances.  Give AE the best shot at doing the job properly.  Assuming this is mp4/h.264 video, or even worse -video from a phone, I recommend transcoding it.  I like Quicktime movies in ProRes 422 for such chores.   And if the transcoded file size makes you gasp, there's an easy solution -- get more storage.  It's cheap. ... View more

Get more storage.  It's cheap. ... View more

You can also leave only the shapes in an After Effects composition, and simplify the project to contain only that composition.  Whedn you need the shapes, import the project into a current project. ... View more

It really depends on your breadth of AE knowledge and the project you're working on,   First, you have to know that AE plays back NOTHING.  It previews EVERYTHING.  So hitting the space bar and expecting real-time is a crap shoot, especially if you're working in 4K or on a complicated comp.  AE isn't a video editing application like premiere pro.  It plain-old works differently.   The same thing goes for hitting the zero key on the numeric keypad.  You may have a lot of memory, but if it isn't especially fast you'll have problems.  If your disk cache isn't on a fast drive, you'll have problems.    So dive deeply into the Views and Previews section of AE help to learn all the strategies available for previewing.  Rule #1 is not to hit the space bar. ... View more

To make it look realistic, you will need to determine WHERE the flash bulb is located, and then mask the level-changed portions of the shot to reflect that direction.  You can't just momentarily make the image bright and expect it to look like it's from a flash bulb. ... View more

This is a question for Adobe Customer Support.  After AE Version 11, Adobe adopted a rental policy.  You pay for the use of all Adobe products every month. ... View more

Make a black solid the same size as your comp. ... View more

If this template comes with instructions. please read them thoroughly.  DO NOT assume you can use it intuitively.   If it comes with no instructions, it will be VERY difficult to help you.  Templates are notoriously complex.  If they were easy to make, you could make one yourself.  You should also know that template makers assume that the user will already know how to use After Effects.  If you do not know, you are very large disadvantage. ... View more

If you have a corrupt project file, you're hosed.  Sorry. This is why people regularly make backups of project files in progress, and it's always a hard lesson to learn.  The good thing: it's a mistake you only make once.   You can try to recover your work by creating a brand-new project, and then importing the problem project into it.  If it works, great!  If it doesn't, you're out of luck. ... View more

"...this specific project, which is based on a template that has 100 precomps duplicated over 2500 precomps, forming a grid. Any heard of large and complicated projects..." We sure have!  You're choking your machine.  If I was going to have 2500 images on screen at the same time, I'd give AE the least work to do I could.  That means prerendering.  Go get busy! ... View more

...and don't try to run the software on a brand-new OS if this is a Mac.  Troubles ensue. ... View more

If the blend mode suggestion doesn't work, Reset (aka Trash) your Preferences.  There's an easily-found thread on how to do it. ... View more

I'm not sure what you mean by a speed slope, but you don't need the Graph Editor to do this.  Use Linear keyframes and not Bezier keyframes. ... View more

Here's another vote for the Mosaic effect.  I'd animate masks on solids in a precomp for the wipes, then use it in the main comp with Mosaic applied to it. ... View more

Well, ANY video file with an Alpha Channel is going to be big. If you go to all the trouble of having transparencies in your video, you probably want good image quality as well, right? ... View more

A word of advice:  figure out what how you intend to use it now and in the near future.   For example, multiple streams of 8K video demand one kind of machine, simple HD demands a different one.  And After Effects always likes as much memory as you can put in it. ... View more

The most likely reason for this is the captured footage itself.  Game-play video captured at irrationally-high frame rates (anything over 60 or 59.94 fps qualifies) and in the typically- poor codecs of cheap capture software is VERY likely to give AE fits.   I recommend using other capture software. ... View more