Why is After Effects importing my PSD's as a folder of layers and a flat composition?

I've imported Photoshop files to after effects tons of times. But suddenly, I'm having problems importing them. I make sure that I click keep layers and all that, but it imports a strange, short, flat layer in after effects and then a folder of all my layers as opposed to a precomp with the layers. I've tired saving the files again and making sure all of the settings are correct and its not helping at all. I've even tried precomping the folders content and the weird layer and it does nothing.
Can someone please help me? All I want is for this photoshop file to be imported as a precomp, but it keeps opening as layers in one folder which isn't linked to the photoshop file.

There's got to be something different with the PSD. Is it RGB? That's the first thing to check. What is the structure of the PSD. Layer Groups? Effects? There are so many things that could go wrong that without more information we would just be guessing.

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FAQ: Why won't After Effects import my PSD file as a composition but flattens it?

from the "Preparing and importing Photoshop files" section of After Effects Help:
"Layered Photoshop (PSD) files need to be saved in RGB or Grayscale color mode for After Effects to import them as a composition and to separate the layers. CMYK, LAB, Duotone, Monotone, and Tritone color modes are not supported for layered files; After Effects will import a file that uses one of these color modes as a single, flattened image."

There's got to be something different with the PSD. Is it RGB? That's the first thing to check. What is the structure of the PSD. Layer Groups? Effects? There are so many things that could go wrong that without more information we would just be guessing.

After Effects CC 2014 will not upgrade? Gets to 100% and then says application failed. Why does this not upgrade?

After Effects CC 2014 will not upgrade? Gets to 100% and then says application failed. Why does this not upgrade?

We can't know anything. You have not provided any useful details like system information or the install logs.
Mylenium

Downloaded from the site of adobe after effects cs6 want to install click on the install button and it won't open

downloaded from the site of adobe after effects cs6 want to install click on the install button and it won't open

Wrong forum.
This place supports Apple software. You need to ask this on the Adobe AE forum.
Good luck.
x

Why can't my After Effects import .MP4 XDCAM files ???

I've searched everywhere for this and couldn't find the solution to it.
Whenever I try to import a .MP4 file my After effects says "After Effects error: file 'xxx.mp4 cannot be imported - this 'xxx.mp4' file is damaged or unsupported"
....but I've edited with XDCAM .MP4 files before, they worked on CS4 and CS6, and they are the best quality in my perspective.
Anyone know the solution to this problem ? if you do then please give me an answer, Thanks!!
Computer Specs:
CPU: Core2Duo E6600 2.4Ghz
Graphics card: GT630 4GB
RAM: 4GB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate
Thank you for your time!
-Fl

Ignore this terrible advice. Some people here blame every single problem on K-Lite, never with any sort of proof, just based on bad assumptions and myths. You should never re-install Windows to fix a simple software problem.
Some FACTS:
* K-Lite does not modify, remove, damage, or touch any Adobe product or related codecs in any way.
* K-Lite does not damage or mess up systems.
* Uninstalling K-Lite will correctly remove all its codecs and settings. It does a thorough cleanup of the registry. It reverts tweaks and restored things such as file associations to original backed up values. It does not leave anything behind. It does not make any permanent changes to your system.
* K-Lite has special functionality for detecting and fixing several types of codec related problems. For example left-over codec references in the registry. It is well know for its ability to actually fix problems instead of creating them.
Anyone who does not believe the above can easily verify it for themselves by creating and comparing snapshots of their filesystem and registry before install and after uninstall. Specialized tools exist for that purpose.
It is of course possible that a compatibility problem exists between a specific codec (from a pack or standalone) and another program. That can happen with manually installed codecs as well. But if a problem continues after uninstalling a codec (pack), then it is highly unlikely that that codec (pack) is responsible. When in doubt, just contact the codec developers, they are very knowledgable and helpful.
Here are some tips for diagnosing codec problems:
1) Create a list of all installed codecs. Codec Tweak Tool can generate a detailed log, and is able to filter out the standard stuff from Windows, so you can see just the third party ones. That should allow Tim to see if you got any bad ones installed. You would be surprised what kind of garbage gets installed by certain programs such a video converters.
2) Analyze a problematic file with MediaInfo. This is a tool that shows details about media files. That allows you to give others detailed information about the type of file and its audio/video contents.
3) Test playback in Windows Media Player. This will use either Media Foundation or DirectShow filters.
4) Test playback in GraphStudioNext. This is a special DirectShow testing tool. It shows you exactly which filters its uses.
5) Test playback in QuickTime player. Some programs, including AE, use QuickTime for encoding/decoding. A broken QuickTime installation (or one of its dependencies) is a common cause of AE problems.

After Effects Import Vector Continuously Rasterize not working

Hello.
I'm trying to import a vector into After Effects and it's not working the way I need. Yes I have Continuously Rasterize turned on. No the original Illustrator file does not have any effects on it. I've tried png, eps, psd, and ai files. Same issue.
1. This is what the original AI vector file looks like:
2. This is what it looks like in AE with Continuously Rasterize turned on, zoomed in at 400%. It's crappy.
3. And this is what it looks like in AE zoomed in at 100%, but I've scaled the image up to about 200%.
But I can't use the huge scale vector for my project because it is too big for my comp. Can somebody help? My brain hurts.
I do realize that it looks crappy within the AE viewer, but even after I export it in HD, it still looks crappy.
Basically, I just want a nice clean final picture to look good in my comp.
Hey thanks for anybody who can help. Huge karma waves coming your way.

When posting questions like this just a screenshot of the result is almost useless in diagnosing the problem. A better screenshot would include the Comp Window and timeline with the layer in question selected and all the changed properties revealed by pressing the U key twice. Also, since this was an imported file that is in question, if the footage item is selected in the Project panel then we can get an idea of the format, size, and other properties of the original file that may be causing problems.
You should not have to buy anything to get properly created vector files ti work perfectly in your composition. When you said zoomed in at 400%, if you meant scale factor and not scale of the layer then the behavior is normal, expected, and exactly what should be happening. Zoom Factor set to 400% means the comp window is using 16 screen pixels for every comp pixel. Zoom Factor set to 1600% means a single image pixel is displayed as a 16 X 16 block of screen pixels - so things are going to look pixelated when they are not. The only way to judge quality is to look at the composition window with the Zoom factor set to 100%. This is exactly the way Photoshop works.
Here's what I mean. A single Illustrator layer selected, scaled to 5174% and perfectly rasterized in a comp with the Zoom Factor at 100% scale. Note the layer size in the project panel. Everything we need to know to diagnose a problem.

Mercury Engine in After Effects CS5.5? Or, why is After Effects so much slower the Premiere Pro?

Take this quote :
"by Todd Kopriva on Apr 25, 2010 at 8:08:14 am
'Mercury' is a marketing name for these performance improvements in Premiere Pro: - multiprocessing
- multithreading
- 64-bit application
- use of CUDA to to some processing on supported hardware
The first three of these are in After Effects CS5. (The first two have been in After Effects for much longer.)"
However, if I drop my Canon 5D Mark II footage (h264) into Premiere Pro it plays back SO MUCH better then the exact same footage in After Effects. Why is that? I DO NOT have an NVideo card and I have NOT applied any effects or scaling to the clip, just raw footage dropped into each program.
I do notice that After Effects has to render to play back (green bar being generated above footage). But it does slow very slowly, like 9fps. Premier Pro seems to cruise right along at near realtime. This is 24fps 1080p footage. One other point of interest, I have encoded the clip into Cineform codec as well. On Premier Pro I can tell a difference, the cineform scrubs a lot smoother then the original H264 clip. But, again, in After effects both the h264 and Cineform clips are very slow to render and scrub.
Any improvements along these lines for CS5.5?
Am I just missing something obvious?
Thanks for any info,
--greg.

Gregory Seattle wrote:
I think the problem is that hitting the space bar and hitting '0' (ram preview) both draw that green bar, and both seem to use it if it is already there. I guess the real difference is how that green bar gets generated. It does seem to get generated faster when I ram preview as opposed to hitting the space bar. Using both cores I have I guess (early 2009 24" iMac).
When you hit the space bar, AE TRIES to play back as it renders each frame. Imagine what happens if it's a comp with 120 3D layers that all accept lights and cast shadows. That's why you don't use the space bar.
In a RAM Preview, AE fills up the memory available to it with rendered frames, then plays them back from RAM. Depending on processor speed, dimensions of comp & frame rate, this may or may not be real time, but there are ways to get real time. With the space bar, you don't stand a chance at real time.
Gregory Seattle wrote:
From what I hear new iMacs are due out soon with the new Thunderbolt (!) and Sandy Bridge processors/chipsets. Should be a LOT faster then what I have now.
For AE work I'd say maybe yes, maybe no. To make AE REALLY speedy, you need a lot of processor cores and a boatload of RAM. iMacs aren't known for either of those things.

After effects import failing and crashing

After effects CC 2014.1.1 on imac i7 running OSX 10.10.1
Any actions within after effects evokes an error "warning undo group mismatch, will attempt to fix"
This often either crashes software or deletes without trace all imported recent files.
A connecting issue to this is tat the import function via the menu or the short cut only works once. a second import and the import window does not show up. The only way is to drag and drop.
This then seems to be one of the trigger for the mismatch issue thus AE deleting all imported files even after working on them.
I have tried both AE CC and AE CC2014 with the same problems on both software versions
I have tried deleting the preferences from both software versions
I have also tried a complete uninstall and re install, this meant I lost CC and now only have CC2014 but it STILL has the same problem.
Im reallly stuck here and I have a deadline luming and a workflow that has more or less come to a standstill.
The only other thing I can say that isnt my day to day work flow is that Im using a C4D .aec file for camera data and image sequence but not sure if that would cause a n issue.
PLEASE HELP

-importing into a new project seemed to work but then import stopped after 5-6 imports.
-starting a brand new project has the same problem.
-I have lots of plugins but none are in use. Ive only got as far as c4d data - text layers and som text presets.
rsmb
video copilot 3d element
trapcode
universe
pysnami
knoll
rowbyte
- I have a few 3rd party codec packs,
AVID
Pro Res
scripts
ease and whizz
duik
connect layers
stereo tool kit
sweets
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) - Technical Specifications
Display
27-inch (viewable) LED-backlit glossy widescreen TFT display with support for millions of colors
Resolution: 2560 by 1440 pixels
Processor
2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache
3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache
Configurable to 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, only at the Apple Online Store.
Memory16GB (four 4GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 memory
2.7 GHz
1TB (7200 rpm) hard drive
Configurable to 2TB hard drive or 256GB solid-state second drive, only at the Apple Online Store.
3.1 GHz
1TB (7200 rpm) hard drive
Configurable to 2TB hard drive or 256GB solid-state second drive, only at the Apple Online Store.
Graphics
2.7 GHz
AMD Radeon HD 6770M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
3.1 GHz
AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
Configurable to AMD Radeon HD 6970M with 2GB GDDR5, only at the Apple Online Store.
All of these add ons were there before it started playing up.
Some are demos and most are paid for. I aslo have a few scripts running
I have another imac im going to revert to but will not update the OS or the Adobe softwares.

AVID MFX in AFTER EFFECTS IMPORT

Hello,
I have the following problem:
How can I import sequences with cut marks from Avid Media Composer with the codec DNX HD 185 in After Effects CS6? I've been using Pro Import. Here it comes again and again damaged in an error message that is MXF format. I appreciate any help!
Hallo,
ich habe folgendes Problem:
Wie kann ich Sequenzen mit Schnittmarken von Avid Media Composer mit dem Codec DNX HD 185 in After Effects CS6 importieren? Ich habe bisher den Pro Import verwendet. Hier kommt es immer wieder zu einer Fehlermeldung das MXF Format beschädigt sei. Ich freue mich über jede Hilfe!

Same problem here. Worked fine last night. Boot up the app this morning & all of a sudden the media no longer "is supported or is corrupt" & won't link to the Automatic Duck Avid Export it was happy to link too yesterday? I have re-exported & re-rendered Avid media to no avail.
Pain in the A!
Any thoughts on this?

Why will After Effects not export to Media Encoder?

After Effects cannot export to Media Encoder. I've tried to queue it within After Effects (nothing happens,) I've tried to import it from within Media Encoder (it hangs on a loading dialogue forever,) and I've tried restarting my computer. All to no avail. I've also tried multiple AE projects. And yes, I've made sure I am viewing the queue in Media Encoder. Any clues?

Ok.
Running Adobe Creative Cloud, latest versions on both After Effects and Media Encoder. As for render settings, I never get to that part. When I export to render in Media Encoder, nothing happens. Here are the settings for one of the compositions and projects I was trying to export:

Importing .AI file (multiple artboards) into After Effects imports all layers?

Okay, so I've been trying to figure out this issue that I am having but the problem is a bit wordy to explain.
What I want to do: Import an Illustrator file, that is a single artboard from a multiple artboard file into After Effects and ONLY import the layers from that artboard.
What is happening: Artboard 1 with shape 1, artboard 2 with shape 2, and artboard 3 with shape 3. When I export them (Save as --> .ai --> Save each artboard as a separate file), in .ai the layers are correct (ie only shape 1 on artboard 1), but when I import the .ai into AE, artboard 1 has shape 1, shape 2 and shape 3 (they are all separate layers).
How does Illustrator determine what is or isn't in an artboard? I am seeing the other layers but they are only 1x1 in AE.
I am using Illustrator CS6 and AE CS6 and I've tried it both on Mac and PC, and haven't gotten it to work. The weird thing is that it WAS working correctly before.

I have (hypothetically), a three layer file each with a rectangle. Each rectangle is on a separate artboard. When I save each artboard as a separate .ai file (ie "Save as --> save each artboard as separate file"), in each .ai file, only the layers in each artboard are in the separate ai files:
artboard_01.ai only has layer with rect 1,
artboard_02.ai only has layer with rect 2,
artboard_03.ai only has layer with rect 3,
This is good, BUT when I import into After Effects, all three layers appear in each comp generated from the imported .ai files
comp of artboard_01.ai has layer with rect 1, layer for rect 2 (no content), and layer for rect 3 (no content).
comp of artboard_02.ai has layer with rect 1(no content), layer for rect 2, and layer for rect 3 (no content).
comp of artboard_03.ai has layer with rect 1(no content), layer for rect 2 (no content), and layer for rect 3.

After Effects importing wrong Illustrator file

I'm making a 2D simply animated film for my final year university project, where I'm designing in Illustrator and animating in After Effects.
This has worked fine until recently, but I've stumbled upon a problem. I'm creating my assets in groups based on my storyboards, and importing them one by one as I progress through the animation. They are all in the same folder and named 'Assets 1.ai' and so on. I have reached the 4th one of these files, but when I try to import it with the settings 'Composition - Retain Layer Sizes', AE brings in 'Assets 1' rather than 'Assets 4'. I've even tried this with the 'Footage' setting, which is useless to me anyway, and it still brings in the wrong file.
I can get around this by dragging the file from Finder straight into AE, but this makes all the layer sizes the entire size of the comp which means that I can't transfer any previous keyframes onto my new layers (I'm using several similar animations and layers) as they are a completely different size.
For example, a subtle rotation on the old layers of the correct size is a much more noticeable one on the new layers.
Does anyone know of a way to fix this?

It might help if we know some more information. Exact version number of AE (down to the last decimal), for example. FAQ: What information should I provide when asking questions?
What happens if you try to import it into a brand new project? If it works, until an answer is found, just import it into a new project and then import that project into your existing project.
Also, on a big project like this, please tell me you're using the Increment and Save feature with some frequency.

After Effects import not working

Hi there!
New Premiere user here, just switched from FCP working with Production Premium 5.5.
I created an AEP. I created a Premiere Pro edit. When I import the AEP with either Dynamic Link or direct import it goes fine, except that it's black in the timeline or preview monitor; simply nothing appears. What I see as a great benefit of working with After Effects and Premiere is being able to put AEP's in the timeline, which is exactly which doesn't seem to be working.
What am I missing or doing wrong?

Very hard to say, but just for fun, drag and drop the AE comp link in the project window onto the New Item icon. This will create a new sequence just for that comp (which you can delete later if it doesn't work). I'm just interested to see if creating a new sequence that's based exactly on the AE comp settings solves this problem for you. It's a long shot, but worth a try.

Why does after effects cs5 not open in yosemite?

i haven't used after effects in a year...but in that time i have installed Yosemite
is this the cause of the app to not open?

davenokku wrote:
it seems this information should not be that difficult to find out!
It's not difficult to find; it's on the system requirements page.
Now, I have heard of some folks getting CS5.5 (and maybe CS5) to run on Yosemite, but without further explanation from you on what sort of behavior you're experiencing, nobody could really help. For example, some folks launched AE with no difficulty, but with any effect that used an eyedropper to pick colors, it would crash. This was fixed by changing the preferences to use the system color picker. Some folks couldn't get it to run at all.
If you can't get CS5 to run and you can't go back to an earlier OS, you could always upgrade. You can still purchase CS6 from Adobe.
However, since you haven't used AE in over a year, perhaps it's more of a hobby? In which case, the upgrade pricing for the Creative Cloud might be a pretty attractive option. I like the Creative Cloud because you can get the latest version (and old versions all the way down to CS6) for a pretty low monthly fee. If you paid to upgrade every new version, the subscription model actually saves a bit of money. It's also less hassle and much easier to deal with than a huge lump-sum payment to upgrade. Plus you get all the cool cloud features too, like being able to save a project to your cloud folder and opening it on a different machine somewhere else.

Why doesnt After Effects Show Up On Creative Cloud?

I wanna get after effects.. it doesnt appear on the list? any suggestions on what i should do?

Tell us about your computer & OS. Details are good. It may not be able to run AE Creative Cloud, in which case you won't see it.
You might be able to run AE CS6... but again, we can't say because we lack information.

Why is After Effects importing my PSD's as a folder of layers and a flat composition?

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