Most After Effects users don't understand how the application works under the hood. They expect AE to playback their composition with a zillion effects like a video player and are often frustrated when that's not the case. This video explains it beautifully 👏🏻
Makes 0 sense. Unreal Engine can be real time with thousands of particle effects, when After Effects struggles to rotate a simple text layer. AE is outdated, but unfortunately nothing else on the market can compare
It blows my mind that UE5 can render hundreds of millions of polygons, volumetric light effects, post effects, motion blur.... all in real time and I can barely play back a 4k video with some text in AE. The solutions are always non viable, and there seems to be little interest in rebuilding AE from the ground up. Im actively looking for alternatives and every adobe user I know says the same.
3D game engines works in an entirely different way to video compression, decoding and playback. UE5 is very, very impressive, but you’re comparing a car to an oven. And pleased to meet you, I’m someone you know who’s not looking to switch.
The 4k Video contains 8.3 million pixels in which there would be dozens of frames in a single second. To decode, process and playback such a video is resource intensive even if only text in a black background. It is incredibly resource intensive and you should stop comparing it to game engines.
I use AE and unreal in lots of similar ways, AE 3D is slow, AE effects are slow, AE particles are slow, AE depth of field is slow. You're right, I dont have a developer level understanding of software, but as a long time user I like AE layer based editing and 3rd party plugins, I just need it to be faster. It seems like with the development of something as ground breaking as nanite for a free engine, adobe is slacking.
Well Adobe actually did "rebuild" AE from the ground up, that's what the live RAM preview is supposed to be. They just didn't think ahead to the fact most of their consumer base is on Windows that don't handle live RAM rendering very well due to system configurations unlike Mac. The old way was obviously best, full RAM previews, no looping live updating, 100% smooth playback 100% of the time unless you make a change to even just one layer. It was consistent, now it's not.
I cant belive my 4 years of XP is in the mud with this your explanation. Thanks for this troubleshoot. I had to raise RAM thinking it as a RAM issue but apparently no. Your explanation helped me solve it!
in my case, its that when i click on the spacebar to play the preview but it takes around 10secs before it finally starts playing (but with no lag, and the problem only applies to one project.)
That sound similar to an issue I had with audio files. Does your project contain a WAV or MP3 file? If so, then After Effects is waiting to process that audio into its ram. Try swapping the file out for another and see if that improves it.
@@ShiveringCactus i found out the cause and it was similar to that. i had an mp3 file in the project which i added some effects on, and disabling those effects was good enough to get it going again
my fps was on 60 fps but i changed it to 30 and it ran smoother but the audio went slow mo in the preview! so i changed the fps to 29 and when i click play it switched it back to 60 fps every time! why! help someonee
@@ShiveringCactus thanks but I just ended up switching folder where my ae saved cache and its a bit smoother now but as soon as I add like twixtor to a clip it goes Slow again.. might have to upgdrade my pc parts 😪
M2 Macbook 16 Ram still struggles. I wonder if there is a better configuration for faster previews. Sometimes it gets stuck in a small parte of the video and it wont render further, only after I click after. Why?
Hmm. Adobe are now stating that 16gb is the minimum required. Which should still allow you to do some things. Are your videos 4K with a codec like GoPro’s?
@@ShiveringCactus my videos are all 4k and they are from my Sony A6400. Should I really convert them before working? Is that the workflow you guys use? Sometimes is really annoying when AE gets stuck.
in the info mine is show ( 60fps realtime ) but in my eyes is not like that, like 25 fps and the sound doesnt matching and it just raw video no edits. So is there anyway to reset my AE?
@@ShiveringCactus no fr its adorable plus i love havin a lil dude i can watch in the corner of my screen like its gameplay, thx for the tips btw, gamer :0
What if you record off, for example, a Canon M50 Mark 2 and when you import the footage into after effects, the video itself is slow, and plays in half the speed, but when you render it and watch it, it's normal speed?
@ShiveringCactus ok, but when i apply any effect like 3d camera then postion, rotation scale etc then dotted green line appear over the layer in short when i render my preview it uses cpu in 70-80% efficiency on the other hand gpu 5% or less why? If you want i'll send a screenshot
Everytime I try to change my fps to a lower frame rate, the speed of my whole entire project goes fast and everytime I make the fps high, it goes in slow motion. For some reason, I have to stay on 23.900 fps for my project to go normal speed. Do you think you can tell me what’s wrong with that? If so, please help🙏
Why isn't there an option like the 'Render In to out' in premiere pro in After Effects? So you can render your project without having to export. Or am I just unaware of this option?
Bro i can't see the preview and hear the audio in same time in 30 FPS.but when i put it 10 FPS. I Can see and here the both of them. i want really to see the preview ans hear the audio in same time in 30 FPS but i can't even with Green line it Say Always frames not realtime. Plsssss give me a solution (my labtob is 8gb RAM ddr3 Intel uhd graphics card and i5 4th) should i upgrade my labtob ?
Unfortunately 8gb of RAM is the issue here. AE processes audio separately to video and that just isn’t enough. Until you can upgrade, you’ll need to use the audio preview and marker method to line up your animations, I think.
@@ADEMJARI1239 looking at Adobe minimum requirements: helpx.adobe.com/uk/after-effects/system-requirements/2023.html 16Gb is the minimum, so you'll have a better experience, but no, you won't be able to preview and have perfect audio. I have 64Gb, a Core-9 and still have the odd slowdown. It's more about working smart than throwing hardware at the issue. AE isn't an editor at the end of the day.
I have rtx 4060ti, 16gb, purchased an after effects template from envato elements. Sure it has a lot of effects and so beautiful template!! And then i render using adobe media encoder, and it turns out to be 12 hours rendering lmao. But it is a beautiful template oh well. Its a 1 minute template btw
That can often be the case with purchased templates. Either they are massive because all the elements have been rendered out as video or they are highly complex either to disguise how they are done or its the only way to achieve certain looks. Also not all effects in AE are optimised for GPU so that might contribute to the long render time.
I have this weird bug, so everything was supposed to be fine Even the green line is full But, today, my after effect got an error, where my preview stuck at 1 Second, and then reset back to 0 and proceed to 1 Sec and back to 0 again But the green line is full But then I tried, new project, white blank, nothing And I click enter to see if it an actual bug or my ram And yes, it stuck at 1 Second It seems it's only me, I can't find the fix on UA-cam or even people talked about it Can you help please?
Not heard of this one myself. But my guess would be your graphics card. Try updating the drivers and if that is no improvement, go to Project Settings and switch to “software render only”
@@ShiveringCactus Thanks man, still I don't know what to do Well I'm just gonna use the old version then C6, I don't know where this bug come from, but the bug came not in the right time haha
@@Djhcfggnndsdn I'm sadly I don't know, you said you fixed it by clearing your disk space right? How about now, still not fixed? You said it was fixed right? But then got error again? What do you think is the cause? And about your computer graphic and ram? I'm very sure 100% certain, this is a bug, not our computer is old You can't fix this bug, try use the old Version of After Effect Recommendation: After Effect C6 Is the best, there no bug for the preview Note: please back up your video file with hardisk/flashdisk first before read down But my after effect 2020, fixed on it own, after using After effect C6, then uninstall after effect 2020 But then change your default after effect into C6, and then uninstall after effect C6 entirely And then there is no after effect on your computer, make sure there is no single after effect program Note: this is why I said back up And then install 2020 after effect again Mine fixed, but not recommended, so don't do it Just install After Effect C6, it is a good Visual Effect edit too, not a big change tho. Edit: wrong spelling typo keyboard, make missunderstand
Hi! when I add a simple recorded video without effects to after effects and press the spacebar, only the first seconds play normally. then the slide show starts. is that how it should be? It really annoys me, because my computer is rtx 4090, i912900 and 32 ddr5 and I have a strong feeling that I'm doing something wrong :(
@@ShiveringCactus I cleaned this 100 mb of cache on my nvme, at least this is what program saying :) but no changes .. file is on computer. I only have Windows Defender, I'll try to turn it off in the morning .. while I have to divide the video into small fragments and throw the necessary ones into after effects. Then wait 3 or 5 minutes for the loading (half minute video🥲) and already work.. eh:(
@@RVladimirP I wonder if the video format is the issue. I'm guessing here, but maybe try converting the video using Media Encoder and see if performance improves.
@@ShiveringCactus hevc video format. I tried everything I could, but I decided to put animations like this. as a result, after exporting this small fragment back to premiere, i can clearly see that it has a different color range from the rest of the video .. in the properties it says rec709, while the rest of the video is 2100 pq .. exported everything to rec 2020 , but the situation with the fragment didn’t change :( even more, there were two texts of the same font on the screen, but one inscription was all in pixel cubes, and the second one looks great! Why is this happening with me ahahah:(
How much RAM does your computer have and where is your cache stored? Could it be your hard drive is almost full? Also, how long is your video? And, can you render out an individual frame?
@@patsavdo7762 RAM is a physical component on your computer. Buying new RAM stick and installing is straight forward but you have to take care. I’m no expert though
yes i have my dad bought me some extra ram for my laptop to meet the minimum amount to run after effects which made it run a bit better but its still struggling alot it might just be my laptop though its quite old @@ShiveringCactus
True. So the expected workflow is you edit in premiere then isolate the section you want a fancy transition on and use the send to After Effects option. Or you can make a transition in After Effects and export it as a motion graphic
Bro I have 16 gigs of ram Rtx 3050 my composition duration is 10 mins and I have a quite complex project but I have done all the hacks my playback still is not working properly audio is reverbing which is a glitch of aftereffects can you pls help me bro I will get you subs from my whole house plzz
Audio in After Effects is often problematic. AE uncompresses audio files ahead of playback, but it stores this data in the RAM and if your RAM has other calls on it, that's when it can get messed up. Sometimes the best option is to render out a video and check the timing that way.
Most After Effects users don't understand how the application works under the hood. They expect AE to playback their composition with a zillion effects like a video player and are often frustrated when that's not the case. This video explains it beautifully 👏🏻
Thank you, the idea for this video came from answering all those questions on the forums. Hopefully it helps explain the issue.
Makes 0 sense. Unreal Engine can be real time with thousands of particle effects, when After Effects struggles to rotate a simple text layer. AE is outdated, but unfortunately nothing else on the market can compare
@@EnterMyDreams 100% Agreed, as long as they don't have strong competition, they won't change. I hope Blackmagic fixes this at least.
@@EnterMyDreams Aren't they very different to each other?
@@basedcheese1if ae preview is struggling with even simple effects it doesn’t matter how different they are its bad regardless
Thank you for that comprehensive explanation - it was helpful to have a rundown of how AE works and a number of different strategies!
Thank you for commenting, it helps promote this video to help others. Fingers crossed you found a solution that works for you.
It blows my mind that UE5 can render hundreds of millions of polygons, volumetric light effects, post effects, motion blur.... all in real time and I can barely play back a 4k video with some text in AE. The solutions are always non viable, and there seems to be little interest in rebuilding AE from the ground up. Im actively looking for alternatives and every adobe user I know says the same.
3D game engines works in an entirely different way to video compression, decoding and playback. UE5 is very, very impressive, but you’re comparing a car to an oven. And pleased to meet you, I’m someone you know who’s not looking to switch.
I'm also not looking to leave Ae and I regularly use Blender and UE for their intended uses.
The 4k Video contains 8.3 million pixels in which there would be dozens of frames in a single second. To decode, process and playback such a video is resource intensive even if only text in a black background. It is incredibly resource intensive and you should stop comparing it to game engines.
I use AE and unreal in lots of similar ways, AE 3D is slow, AE effects are slow, AE particles are slow, AE depth of field is slow. You're right, I dont have a developer level understanding of software, but as a long time user I like AE layer based editing and 3rd party plugins, I just need it to be faster. It seems like with the development of something as ground breaking as nanite for a free engine, adobe is slacking.
Well Adobe actually did "rebuild" AE from the ground up, that's what the live RAM preview is supposed to be. They just didn't think ahead to the fact most of their consumer base is on Windows that don't handle live RAM rendering very well due to system configurations unlike Mac. The old way was obviously best, full RAM previews, no looping live updating, 100% smooth playback 100% of the time unless you make a change to even just one layer. It was consistent, now it's not.
I cant belive my 4 years of XP is in the mud with this your explanation. Thanks for this troubleshoot. I had to raise RAM thinking it as a RAM issue but apparently no. Your explanation helped me solve it!
Glad it helped!
Did you get your timeline to render playback faster ?
in my case, its that when i click on the spacebar to play the preview but it takes around 10secs before it finally starts playing (but with no lag, and the problem only applies to one project.)
That sound similar to an issue I had with audio files. Does your project contain a WAV or MP3 file? If so, then After Effects is waiting to process that audio into its ram. Try swapping the file out for another and see if that improves it.
@@ShiveringCactus i found out the cause and it was similar to that. i had an mp3 file in the project which i added some effects on, and disabling those effects was good enough to get it going again
have the same problem tq
TYSM i was going crazy omg
SAVED MY LIFE THANK YOU
Yay! Another happy and alive viewer
for me all the frames are rendered and i can go over all of them fast but when I click play it runs at like 2 frames
Do you have audio? It might be that AE is struggling as it compiles the audio each timd
Did you manage to fix this? If so please tell me how lol
@@urinferior5897 I never got a response from @Burgerand_olive so I'm not sure what the issue was.
my fps was on 60 fps but i changed it to 30 and it ran smoother but the audio went slow mo in the preview! so i changed the fps to 29 and when i click play it switched it back to 60 fps every time! why! help someonee
Audio can be tricky. You might have to use audio previews and markers for previews
@@ShiveringCactus thanks but I just ended up switching folder where my ae saved cache and its a bit smoother now but as soon as I add like twixtor to a clip it goes Slow again.. might have to upgdrade my pc parts 😪
Nice tip with the cache thing.
Twixtor is notoriously RAM hungry. I don’t think you’ll be able to get a smooth preview with it active
@@ShiveringCactus yeah youre probably right 😪
@@Lofieloveswhat folder did u switch it to?
M2 Macbook 16 Ram still struggles. I wonder if there is a better configuration for faster previews. Sometimes it gets stuck in a small parte of the video and it wont render further, only after I click after. Why?
Hmm. Adobe are now stating that 16gb is the minimum required. Which should still allow you to do some things. Are your videos 4K with a codec like GoPro’s?
@@ShiveringCactus my videos are all 4k and they are from my Sony A6400. Should I really convert them before working? Is that the workflow you guys use? Sometimes is really annoying when AE gets stuck.
@@ePICS8 ideally you shouildn't have to convert, but it might be worth experimenting with that to see if it makes a difference.
Thanks, I'll try that out@@ShiveringCactus
Bro, thank you so much!
You’re very welcome
in the info mine is show ( 60fps realtime ) but in my eyes is not like that, like 25 fps and the sound doesnt matching and it just raw video no edits. So is there anyway to reset my AE?
Try using the skip frames in preview option, that might help due to the way AE handles audio
ur southpark esc vtuber is so silly i love u fr like fuuuuuccckkk its geeeenius, why didn't i think of that????
Thank you. Some people don’t like him, but one thing is sure, you’ll always know you’re watching one of my videos.
@@ShiveringCactus no fr its adorable plus i love havin a lil dude i can watch in the corner of my screen like its gameplay, thx for the tips btw, gamer :0
What if you record off, for example, a Canon M50 Mark 2 and when you import the footage into after effects, the video itself is slow, and plays in half the speed, but when you render it and watch it, it's normal speed?
That sounds like a frame rate issue, are you recording at 60fps and rendering at the same?
you just saved me from a final, THANK YOU SO MUCH
Yay, happy this helped you. Good luck with your grade!
When greenline appear which was using cpu or gpu?
If I remember correctly green is RAM/CPU, blue is GPU
@ShiveringCactus ok, but when i apply any effect like 3d camera then postion, rotation scale etc then dotted green line appear over the layer in short when i render my preview it uses cpu in 70-80% efficiency on the other hand gpu 5% or less why? If you want i'll send a screenshot
Everytime I try to change my fps to a lower frame rate, the speed of my whole entire project goes fast and everytime I make the fps high, it goes in slow motion. For some reason, I have to stay on 23.900 fps for my project to go normal speed. Do you think you can tell me what’s wrong with that? If so, please help🙏
Don’t change your comp’s fps, change the preview controls to skip frames.
Why isn't there an option like the 'Render In to out' in premiere pro in After Effects? So you can render your project without having to export.
Or am I just unaware of this option?
Yeah, that doesn’t really exist in After Effects. The green preview line takes care of that.
Thank You very much 😀👍
You’re very welcome
Bro i can't see the preview and hear the audio in same time in 30 FPS.but when i put it 10 FPS. I Can see and here the both of them. i want really to see the preview ans hear the audio in same time in 30 FPS but i can't even with Green line it Say Always frames not realtime. Plsssss give me a solution (my labtob is 8gb RAM ddr3 Intel uhd graphics card and i5 4th) should i upgrade my labtob ?
Unfortunately 8gb of RAM is the issue here. AE processes audio separately to video and that just isn’t enough. Until you can upgrade, you’ll need to use the audio preview and marker method to line up your animations, I think.
@@ShiveringCactus Can i work without this issue with 16gb ram ?
@@ADEMJARI1239 looking at Adobe minimum requirements: helpx.adobe.com/uk/after-effects/system-requirements/2023.html
16Gb is the minimum, so you'll have a better experience, but no, you won't be able to preview and have perfect audio. I have 64Gb, a Core-9 and still have the odd slowdown. It's more about working smart than throwing hardware at the issue. AE isn't an editor at the end of the day.
I have rtx 4060ti, 16gb, purchased an after effects template from envato elements. Sure it has a lot of effects and so beautiful template!!
And then i render using adobe media encoder, and it turns out to be 12 hours rendering lmao. But it is a beautiful template oh well. Its a 1 minute template btw
That can often be the case with purchased templates. Either they are massive because all the elements have been rendered out as video or they are highly complex either to disguise how they are done or its the only way to achieve certain looks.
Also not all effects in AE are optimised for GPU so that might contribute to the long render time.
I tried this and when I try to play a video it only does one part other part fets left out pls help😢
That sounds like you might be limited by the amount of ram you have. Have you tried the skip frames option?
I have this weird bug, so everything was supposed to be fine
Even the green line is full
But, today, my after effect got an error, where my preview stuck at 1 Second, and then reset back to 0 and proceed to 1 Sec and back to 0 again
But the green line is full
But then I tried, new project, white blank, nothing
And I click enter to see if it an actual bug or my ram
And yes, it stuck at 1 Second
It seems it's only me, I can't find the fix on UA-cam or even people talked about it
Can you help please?
Not heard of this one myself. But my guess would be your graphics card. Try updating the drivers and if that is no improvement, go to Project Settings and switch to “software render only”
@@ShiveringCactus Thanks man, still I don't know what to do
Well I'm just gonna use the old version then C6, I don't know where this bug come from, but the bug came not in the right time haha
OMG I HAVE THE SAME BUG
did u fix it? I have the same bug, and i also had it on my old computer but i fixed it by clearing my disk cache.
But not nothing is working
@@Djhcfggnndsdn I'm sadly I don't know, you said you fixed it by clearing your disk space right?
How about now, still not fixed? You said it was fixed right? But then got error again?
What do you think is the cause?
And about your computer graphic and ram?
I'm very sure 100% certain, this is a bug, not our computer is old
You can't fix this bug, try use the old Version of After Effect
Recommendation:
After Effect C6
Is the best, there no bug for the preview
Note: please back up your video file with hardisk/flashdisk first before read down
But my after effect 2020, fixed on it own, after using After effect C6, then uninstall after effect 2020
But then change your default after effect into C6, and then uninstall after effect C6 entirely
And then there is no after effect on your computer, make sure there is no single after effect program
Note: this is why I said back up
And then install 2020 after effect again
Mine fixed, but not recommended, so don't do it
Just install After Effect C6, it is a good Visual Effect edit too, not a big change tho.
Edit: wrong spelling typo keyboard, make missunderstand
Hi! when I add a simple recorded video without effects to after effects and press the spacebar, only the first seconds play normally. then the slide show starts. is that how it should be? It really annoys me, because my computer is rtx 4090, i912900 and 32 ddr5 and I have a strong feeling that I'm doing something wrong :(
That does sound like there's something else going on. Is your cache drive clear, your anti-virus not running, the video file local (not on a network).
@@ShiveringCactus I cleaned this 100 mb of cache on my nvme, at least this is what program saying :) but no changes .. file is on computer. I only have Windows Defender, I'll try to turn it off in the morning .. while I have to divide the video into small fragments and throw the necessary ones into after effects. Then wait 3 or 5 minutes for the loading (half minute video🥲) and already work.. eh:(
@@RVladimirP I wonder if the video format is the issue. I'm guessing here, but maybe try converting the video using Media Encoder and see if performance improves.
@@ShiveringCactus hevc video format. I tried everything I could, but I decided to put animations like this. as a result, after exporting this small fragment back to premiere, i can clearly see that it has a different color range from the rest of the video .. in the properties it says rec709, while the rest of the video is 2100 pq .. exported everything to rec 2020 , but the situation with the fragment didn’t change :( even more, there were two texts of the same font on the screen, but one inscription was all in pixel cubes, and the second one looks great! Why is this happening with me ahahah:(
I tried all of them and it still doesn’t work😭 could someone pls help me?😭
How much RAM does your computer have and where is your cache stored? Could it be your hard drive is almost full?
Also, how long is your video? And, can you render out an individual frame?
@@ShiveringCactus my storage is almost full is it because of that?
@@Blairwalorf I think it’s likely. Try rendering out the image sequence. That way you can render in chunks if needed
@@ShiveringCactus how do u get more RAM ??
@@patsavdo7762 RAM is a physical component on your computer. Buying new RAM stick and installing is straight forward but you have to take care. I’m no expert though
thanks, good video
Thank you too. Always nice to receive positive comments.
Thanks! Brother... its working..
Glad I could help
I still have the same problem, i have i7 10750H 16gb ram, Rtx 3060
What do you mean by the same problem? Have you tried all the options including soloing layers?
You’re amazing
I think you’re pretty cool too.
thanks you i love you man
Gee, I think you’re swell.
thanks mate
Your welcome, glad this helped
literally nothing is working its so frustrating and im losing motivation
Hi Jasmine,
I’m sorry you are struggling. Have you checked your computer has enough RAM etc… to run After Effects?
yes i have my dad bought me some extra ram for my laptop to meet the minimum amount to run after effects which made it run a bit better but its still struggling alot it might just be my laptop though its quite old @@ShiveringCactus
Well After Effects is not an Editor, but Premier Pro is laking if you really wanna have custom fancy transitions.
True. So the expected workflow is you edit in premiere then isolate the section you want a fancy transition on and use the send to After Effects option. Or you can make a transition in After Effects and export it as a motion graphic
Formidable Tips! Thank You!
Thank you too. Posting comments helps with UA-cam promoting my videos but more importantly compliments like this encourage me to keep making videos.
Bro I have 16 gigs of ram Rtx 3050 my composition duration is 10 mins and I have a quite complex project but I have done all the hacks my playback still is not working properly audio is reverbing which is a glitch of aftereffects can you pls help me bro I will get you subs from my whole house plzz
Audio in After Effects is often problematic. AE uncompresses audio files ahead of playback, but it stores this data in the RAM and if your RAM has other calls on it, that's when it can get messed up. Sometimes the best option is to render out a video and check the timing that way.
thnaks
Tank you!
You’re welcome
W man
Thank you
nice
Cheers
Loads helpful
Glad you liked it
feel free to shill merch and channel subs! but making a 2 min vid 7 mins is more demeaning
What would you like me to have left out? I tried to cover all the causes and workarounds I could think of.