After Effects Dynamic Link Breaks

[alexs4549680]

Since the 2021 update, every time I go to After Effects and back to Premiere, every single dynamic link for every composition pertaining to my project breaks. This isn't just exiting and restarting the program (which should no doubt be fine anyways) but by simply hitting save on After effects and switching the window back to premiere.

This bug is absurd as the compositions need to be re-linked every time and is massively infuriating.

[scrozier]

@jenkmeister @Fergus H  Any response to this one. It basically makes Dynamic Link functionally useless half the time, one of the Adobe suite's supposed strong points. 

[stevenprobets]

I must say the most recent versions of Premeire and After Effcets are possibly the most solid I have ever used ... I Sony breaks in the links anymore.  I did reinstall my whole machine including the OS though and started from scratch. 

[jenkmeister]

We test dynamic link literally every single day on every single build. There are times when DL can get zombied and stop responding and we are working on fixing that. That said, normally a restart of the machine will clear this up. 

If there is a particular set of steps/workflow that is causing DL to break, please let us know what those are or with projects and we'll see what we can find. 

[scrozier]

@jenkmeister 

Here is a video of what happens to me on a near daily basis. I think this happens for a lot of other people as well. I'll see if I can make a dummy project that I can send that has this issue for me. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxCeibV-kNE

Steps to reproduce:

reposting from my other bug report:

I feel like I've posted this before or on user voice but can't find the thread. 

This bug has been around for a couple years now and it's a realy knife to the old workflow. There are two ways to trigger this bug: 

Option A (most common) 

1. Open PrPro

2. Start a project

3. Add some dynamic linked files (anything, text, vfx, doesn't matter)

4. Leave AE open.

5. In PR. Render timeline green. 

6. Close AE

7. PrPro kicks open the BG AE render for dynamic link

8. All render files are now set to red. You just lost whatever renders you've had even though you made 0 changes to the dynamic link file. 

Option B: 

1. Open premiere project with dynamic links. 

2. Render entire timeline green 

3. Open after effects proejct file into the foreground (CMD/CTR+E is usually what does it for me) 

4. Change literally nothing.

5. Close AE

6. All Render files go from green to Red, wasting a lot of time here!

Workaround: Don't open or close AE after you've rendered your files. You will still have to re-render though if you ever close and reopen your project.

Workaround 2: Use Render and Replace? Not idea, not as easy as mashing the enter key, slows you down and can cause other issues. 

[scrozier]

@jenkmeister emailed this project file let me know if its just me! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLfHd7afy3w

[jenkmeister]

Thanks for sending me the project and posting the steps. Option A and B definitely does switch the AE renderer between UI-based and background processs, but the cache of frames should still be good. So if that's not working, we definitely need to fix. 

[dhpd]

Dynamic link has been broken for so long they should rename it Dynamic Unlink. To fix this, you have to replace all of the previously imported AE comps with the same comp. This should inform your workflow, i.e. make few comps (nest all your comps in one comp!)
I've heard Adobe plans to fix this in 2055, after everyone has moved to DaVinci. 

[guntramp26642460]

@dhpd you can switch to Davinci, but can you write some javascript/webpage automizing stuff in Davinci?
And if so, can you easily communicate between all apps in use (vulcan, bridgetalk)?

Also, UXP is on its way (I know there is no official release date yet), and I am very much looking forward to refactoring for this better environment.

Additionally, I am hoping that bugged or missing features will be fixed/added/refactored in UXP, so that they get more stable.

But I also know that it sucks when links get broken. 🙂