My TOP After Effects updates for 2025

Adobe gave us lots of updates for After Effects in 2024, and in this video, I'm going to share the features that are worth knowing about. The UI has been updated, we can copy and paste keyframes across multiple layers, and the Advanced 3D Render Engine got a ton of new features. I'll talk about all of that and more in this 2024 feature recap.

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🏷️ Tag @jakeinmotion if you learned something!

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:18 UI Refresh
0:49 UI Responsiveness
1:21 Multi-Layer Keyframe Copy - Paste
1:48 Paste Reversed Keyframes
2:21 Advanced 3D Renderer
2:51 Andrew Kramer Did It Better
3:53 Embedded Animation
5:12 Other New Features
5:30 My Wishlist
7:41 Misc Updates

[MrPondo]

Now, for the sake of universe balance - you should make a top 5 list of things you hate in after effects and want them fixed/added.
I'll write one of them:
I hate that when duplicating or copying a layer, effects with layer control type refer to the wrong layers, or the link disappears altogether.

[LuisHumanoide]

what I like about native 3d is being able to import some models from sketchfab to make some simple animations, I also like element3D but I have to deal more with the textures.

[stephanzammit]

Thank you so much for the shout out Jake! You’re a creator that really inspires me… I am very humbled. Really appreciate! 😊

[nedschi]

I would like to see more motion design features, like in Cavalry. And also more audio features. If I want to do 3D, I use a 3D program.

[aleksaharovsky]

It's not about whether Kramer did it better or not. Everyone who said that (myself included) isn't attacking the programmers. The issue is with Adobe taking more than a decade to implement features we were all requesting when we started our careers. Then, they suddenly release it as a 'groundbreaking update'—something Kramer was doing 15 years ago. The same applies to tapered strokes 😂 And even now, there’s still no onion-skinning features in a software that's supposed to be used for… well, animation.

[StarQualityVideo]

Adobe has a BIG problem with gui font size. Someone really dropped the ball on font size for all their programs. Thanks for the awesome vid!

[Johnny]

Great breakdown of the new stuff Jake! I would love to see Timewarp get a new maximum speed other than 5000 - maybe 10, 000! I work with a lot of slow motion footage and I need the extra speed to cut through the slow footage.

[AndrewS-rtwe]

Hahaha they don’t want you to know but this is Big After Effects Tutorial lobby ensuring Element3D gets surpassed to force Andrew Kramer back into the game. It’s all a ploy! But it’ll be nice to get a tutorial from him in the mid-2020s 😂

[sandman]

Great video, Jake. I love your stuff. But what I think is missing from AE is the ability to make shapes longer or taller in one direction only. I use sliders and expressions to accomplish this, but just make it a feature already.
Also, when I have two comp viewports open (one locked), I want to be able to see my changes in both as I scrub, not just when I let go.

[gdevfx]

nice one Jake, thank you for the video!
It'd be great to have a script that allows you to select all visible keyframes from all layers at the Current Time Indicator. It seems to me quite a neat thing to have that's never been made.
I've been trying to develop a script, but I struggle to find the time and get the knowledge to achieve that

[broadcastbytes]

I would like a new text animator property called trim paths. trim paths on shapes is bog standard and I don't see why it's not for live type. Add an expression controller onto that and bammo very powerful.

[jerryodom]

Had NO IDEA about the new pasting keyframes thing! WOOT

[SJ]

Great video Jake! I 100% agree that animated comps applied as textures would truly make 3d in AE a viable tool. I would be completely fine keeping the 3d lighting, tools, and integration simplified (as it currently is) if you could integrate UI animations (or other animated textures) and apply them through a texture pre-comp. This would be extremely useful for various workflows beyond just UI animations...and I would definitely start using AE's 3d workflow in production projects. Another extremely useful update would be point level animation support for the GLB file import. Right now, or as of my last testing, GLB imports only include skeletal / armature (bone-based) animations. This means that deformer based animations don't transfer, and baked animations (such as dynamics influenced animations) don't transfer. These two features would open up a world of possibilities for my use cases.

[SternFX]

Awesome summary! Thanks a bunch for the shoutout, Highly appreciated 😀You’re the best!

[joostdehaas]

It kind of annoys me that Adobe is focusing so much on 3D in AE, while there are so many essential things missing from the basic 2D toolset...

I mean, timeline folders? Seems like a no brainer, and people have only asked for it for about 20 years. Native looping options without having to know case-sensitive javascript like we're in 1998? Native ways to copy an easing curve? Heck I even have to pay for a plugin to change the position of an anchor point of a layer... I would love to have easy access to common expressions in the form of behaviors like Wiggle / Noise / Ramp / etc. that we can place on any and all properties.

And I'm not even yet talking about actual inventive stuff like parenting groups of keyframes to markers, or cool stuff like 2d physics simulation, because I gave up on the idea that that is ever going to happen.

All while AE is also still so slow it sometimes can't even play a video at the full framerate (even without any effects applied to it). Very nice that we have a fresh new UI update, but really: I don't care. This is the industry standard of animation apps and it seems like the developers have never tried to actually use the app to create something. Please Jake, tell em!

For now I'm looking at faster and more capable alternatives like Cavalry or even Apple Motion.

[maclad]

Other things I appreciate Ae being pushing a lot. But UI refresh, specifically windows version, Imo took a lot time and has still way too many places left untouched. Major is the the Menu bars and context menus (right click menu) are still jarringly white. RIP for OLED monitors (including mine :( ).
Animation stretch was a hidden trick for me. Thank you for sharing!!!!

[kikon]

I apreciate you Jake, together with Ben Marriot you two became the first people to inspire me the most in my animation/motion design joruney!

[mohammedsalman]

btw when exporting from blender, to maybe obj or glb, my textures dont appear for some reason, can u make a video, on how to make that possible?

[pragmaticcreator]

Hopefully, After Effects improves more ths 3D layers and primitive shapes. These are nitty-gritty features that After Effects should possess, ket alone Premiere Pro that is fast/lagging behind in modern features, transitions and basic shapes.

Thanks Jake, more of this going forward, please. You are a pace setter.

[moht]

Hi Jake, really dig your videos, do you think AE devs will ever implement a "sequence keyframes" feature similar to sequence layers? ie stagger/offset a group of keyframes on multiple layers without moving the layer itself?