Not immediate solutions, but just some thoughts:   Apple silicon has specific internal hardware that encodes and decodes ProRes formats, so you'll always get the best results if you stick to ProRes source footage and output formats.   The contents of your projects may also be a factor.  After Effects is an unusual beast, in that it channels some processing through the GPU and others through the CPU.  The combination of GPU accelerated plugins with non-accelarated plugins can cause bottlenecks in the precessing pipeline.   I can tell you that the M2 Max Macbook Pro I'm currently using doesn't have astoundingly different render times compared to my 2019 Intel Mac Pro, probably about 50% faster on most jobs, depending on the content. The difference in performance while working is where it shines - scrolling through the timeline in AE on the Mac Pro is like a knife in refrigerated butter, whereas the M2 MBP slides along the timeline seamlessly, like warmed butter.   ... View more

Please post a picture of your own timeline with the text layer selected and all edited parameters displayed (Press UU to reveal all edited parameters.) ... View more

Adobe doesn't seem to provide a specific GPU compatibility list for After Effects.  They say that the list for Premiere Pro is a good starting point, and ufortunately your Intel HD 4600 doesn't appear on the list. https://helpx.adobe.com/au/premiere-pro/system-requirements.html#graphics-cards   Someone with better GPU knowledge than me may chime in, but the best I can suggest is to try installing an older version of AE, to see if it's a little more compliant with older GPUs.  Currently you can still install AE 22.0 from the CC Manager, I'd give that a go. ... View more

Your screengrabs don't give away much, because they only show one layer, and you haven't revealed the Position parameter in the timeline so we can't see where the layer is positioned in space.   After Effects 2D layers appear in the order they're stacked in the timeline.  Layers at the top of the stack appear on top of layers at the bottom.  Just as they do in Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro etc.   After Effects 3D layers have X Y and Z position values, allowing you to position them in 3D space.  A layer's position in space determines whether its in front of another layer, rather than its level in the layer stack.  So, assuming your 3D camera is in a conventional position in front of your layers,  a layer with a Z value of 200 will appear behind a layer with a Z value of 100.  A layer with a Z value of 10,000 will be way off in the distance, while a layer with a Z space value of -200 may be so far forward that you (or the 3D camera) can't even see it.    As soon as you switch your layers to 3D, you have to think about their position in 3D space, rather than their hierarchy in the timeline layer stack. ... View more

Sorry, you need to explain what you mean.  What are you missing?  If you mean you can't see the transform properties on your timeline, use the smalll arrows in the timeline to twirl down parameters. ... View more

If it's just a demo reel, why do you need transparency?  If you need to demonstrate your ability to work with transparency, you could just have your element on a grey/white chequerboard background, perhaps?   If you explain your end goal it might be easier for us to offer suggestions. ... View more

The first obvious question is, has something changed in the Illustrator document? Did you edit it recently?     There was an issue with GPU accelerated Illustrator files in the past.  Open your Illustrator files in Illustrator, turn off GPU acceleration and then resave.   Are you using the Puppet tool?   My next step would be to uninstall Duik and After Effects, then reinstall After Effects and see if anything changes. ... View more

Sorry, didn't mean to imply using a Solid had any advantage, just me being old school more than anything.  You can use any layer, including a Shape layer, as the bar.  But, as I said in my earlier repsonse, you need to move the Position of that bar in order to tie it to your other layer using parenting, unless you want a significantly more complex set of expressions to calculate what you require.   Rick's post highlights the latter - obviously a far more robust and impressive solution, but also more complex.  My simple explanation is better highlighted with this very simple solution - two pickwhipped expressions is the total job.     ... View more

1 - Select any element of the Shape layer in the timeline window to get the bounding box. 2 - Then select any of the path's anchor points in the preview window to reveal the bezier handles etc.   1   2     ... View more

As Mylenium said, please provide more info.   Meanwhile, try the new Safe Mode startup to see if it works. ... View more

Because you're using Trim Paths to expand or "grow" your graph bar, parenting your dot to the bar won't work, because you're not using  a standard transform function (like Position) to expand the column.  You could almost certainly create expressions that mathematically synchronise the position of the dot over the trimmed shape layer, but I think it may be over-complicating the problem.   If you create the bar with a layer (probably a solid) that is matted at the base of the graph, you can simply "grow" the bar by moving it's position upward, revealing the bar as it moves above the matte.  Use your slider expression to "grow" the bar using the position parameter.     Now, because you're using Position as the tool to grow the bar, you can simply parent the dot to the bar. ... View more

As Mylenium said, AE doesn't support the specific keyframing between font styles that the website demo you posted can do.   But you can fake it a bit, with limitations, by converting your text to a shape layer and animating stroke width and skew to artificially bold and italicise your text.  I've attached a simple project with exactly that to show you what I mean.     ... View more

Sorry, this doesn't provide me with any troubleshooting info.  Please provide an uncropped screenshot of your entire project window, with all edited parameters of your comp layers diapled using the UU command.  It would also be useful to see the contents of the precomps, if you can provide screengrabs of their timelines as well. ... View more

When it comes to animation templates do you recommend just not using them altogether?  y @Callum25178930w43f Not at all, templates are a great resource.  But just be conscious of their size and what they contain.   If you're using a  template that has 3 scenes you like and 7 you don't, use the File > Dependencies tool to get rid of the template content you don't need.  Once you know what you need, of course. ... View more

OKAY.  THANKS-FOR-POSTING. ... View more

Keylight is built to work with green and blue screens, it has all sorts of issues if your key colour is something other than that.   Use Linear Colour Key as a tool to key grey out of your image, it's a much simpler plugin than Keylight, but will key any colour you throw at it.  As you've noted, the redundant "Key Colour" plugin would also work. ... View more

Try turning off GPU acceleration in Project Settings, to determine if it might be a GPU issue.   Can't see any part of your comp to understand what it is, as your cropped screengrab shows no parameters.  Can you see content when you are viewing within the precomps? ... View more

Definitely still there.     ... View more

The instructions are very clear - contact Videcopilot.    If you want any educated responses here, you need to provide a lot more info:  hardware specs inc GPU, OS version, AE version, Element version etc.  When does the error occur, when you apply the effect?  When you import an object?   ... View more

It looks like you may have some easing applied to the Animators, or are using an inappropriate wave shape.  Can you post a still screengrab of the timeline after pressing UU on each layer to reveal all edited parameters? ... View more

What kind of rotoscoping?  Are you using Rotobrush?  Rotobrush can be quite resource hungry.  Delete old rotobrush comps wherever possible.     Sounds to me like the project is just getting too big and cumbersome.  Template files are often built quite large to make them better structured for changes, at the cost of resource efficiency.  You've combined several templates, so the file size might be huge,     How big is your project file on the disk?  And how big was the original version in comparison?  Anything more than 15-20 Mb would be ringing alarm bells for me. ... View more

This machine has plenty of power for After Effects and Premiere Pro.     However, if money is no object, go for a faster SSD as mentioned above,  and/or more RAM (96 or 128Gb). ... View more

Unfortunately, Particular really is the easiest way to approach this type of animation.  My approach would be to use your text layer as a layer emitter, explode the layer into particles, then reverse the comp so that the layers implode back into the text.  There are loads of tutorials around demonstrating this process. ... View more

What specific problems are you concerned about? ... View more

If this is happening on random frames, my first guess would be a decoding issue of the source footage.  What format is the source footage?  If its not already, try converting it to a reliable production format and replacing the footage in your project.   Also, try turning off Hardware Decoding and Multiframe Rendering to see if it helps.       ... View more