After Effects AI Assistant (beta) FAQ

The AI Assistant is a beta feature in Adobe After Effects that helps you work on your project using natural language. You describe what you want, and the Assistant translates your request into actions in your project and composition.

The Assistant can help you organize your project, work with expressions, and generate images and videos. You can explain, restructure, rename, or color-code project items, write or debug expressions, and create footage or reference images with Adobe Firefly.

Learn more about other After Effects AI Assistant capabilities.

Yes. The Assistant can review the layers, compositions, and folders in your project and suggest a cleaner arrangement. It can also help you simplify legacy files or inherited projects with unclear layer organization.

Yes. You describe what you want, ask follow-up questions, or refine your request. The Assistant translates your request into actions within your project and composition.

We’re adding new abilities to After Effects AI Assistant all the time. If you ask the Assistant to take an action it’s not capable of completing, it will instruct you on how to accomplish your task manually.

Yes. The Assistant can create layers and keyframes, write and edit expressions, add effects, and more, but only based on your direct instructions added using the prompt box. You retain control over your project.

Yes. All changes made by the Assistant can be undone using the Undo menu.

Most Assistant output is manually editable and is created as layers and keyframes in your timeline. Note that images and videos generated within the Assistant using Firefly or partner models are not output as layers or keyframes and are treated the same as images and footage in your project – these are not manually editable in the same way as other Assistant output.

The Assistant will ask you to review and approve changes before applying them to your composition.

The Assistant can modify your project file if you request it (such as in cases of project reorganization prompts), but cannot look in folders outside of your project folder without express permission.

Yes. AI Assistant is a panel you choose to open and use. If you don't want it, leave it closed and it doesn't act on your project unless you direct it to. The feature is off if the panel is closed.

AI Assistant draws on a range of tools and AI models across our creative ecosystem, including our Firefly family of models and partner models, to deliver the best possible creative outcome. You can see which tools and AI models it used in its reasoning and tool calls.

Regardless of which generative AI models you choose to use within our creative apps, user content isn't and will not be used to train generative AI models.

The Assistant can access files saved within your project folder. The Assistant can access files on disk when you give it permission.

Adobe does not use your project data or content for training. The Assistant will not access files outside of your project folder without your express permission. If you opt to share prompt content with us, that information is only used for the purpose of product improvement.

You can opt out of data sharing without restricting your ability to use the Assistant.

For any generative outputs, the AI Assistant automatically selects across both Firefly and partner models, depending on your request, unless a model is explicitly specified. The AI Assistant respects which models are enabled via the admin console when generating outputs.

Outputs created using Firefly models are considered safe for commercial use. When using outputs generated from partner models, you are responsible for determining whether a partner model is appropriate for your project. 

Yes. The Assistant can create compositions, update the composition settings, and more.

Yes. The Assistant can explain, restructure, rename, or color-code project items. It can also review your layers, compositions, and folder structures.

Yes. The Assistant can explain project items, review your layers, compositions, and folder structures, and suggest a cleaner arrangement. This helps you make sense of legacy files or inherited projects.

Yes. You can ask the Assistant to read an expression back in plain language, write a new expression from a description, or explain why an expression is throwing an error. It can also diagnose the cause of an error and apply a fix.

Yes. Although there may be some limitations in certain workflows at this time, you can work with text, shape, and 3D layer types via the Assistant. The Assistant will tell you if it cannot assist at any point.

Yes. You can create footage, reference images, or design elements with Adobe Firefly directly in the Assistant panel. You can also generate videos from reference images or text descriptions.

The Assistant generates images and videos with Adobe Firefly and partner models.

Yes. The Assistant brings visuals straight into your project, so you don't need to switch apps.

Yes. You can render your work to the current project folder when an output path isn't specified.

Credit usage varies by action. To check how many credits an action used, hover over the credits   icon after an action is completed. Credit rates are introductory and may change as the product experience evolves.

Yes, you can access your chat history via the chat history icon at the top of the Assistant panel.

Yes. Select the icon next to the Add a new chat (plus) icon in the upper-left of the Assistant panel to view all active and past chats.

Yes, the Assistant can recall and reproduce previous prompts in the same conversation when asked.

You can always continue a prior conversation within that conversation, but the Assistant cannot reference prior conversations in unrelated conversations at this time.

Direct export is not yet available, but you can copy prompts and responses from the Assistant panel by hovering over the message.

The AI Assistant is a beta feature that's available for testing and feedback in After Effects (beta).

Open the Assistant by selecting the AI Assistant icon in the header bar or by selecting Window > Assistant. The Assistant behaves like any other panel, so you can move, dock, or group it with other panels.

Yes, the Assistant is available to enterprise customers. Your enterprise administrator has the ability to disable the feature for your organization via the Admin Console.

The AI Assistant is language-agnostic and will reply by default in the language in which you write your prompt.

After Effects AI Assistant is available only in regions where Creative AI services are supported and will not be displayed in the apps where these services are unavailable.

AI Assistant uses credits for most AI-powered creative actions, such as generating and editing content. Credit usage varies by action. To check how many credits an action used, hover over the credits icon after an action is completed. Credit rates are introductory and may change as the product experience evolves.

Skills are instructions you add to the Assistant to customize your experience. They describe how you prefer to work, such as how you organize, troubleshoot, or animate projects.

Write your skill as a Markdown (.md) file and then save it in the skills folder.

You can also download the starter files, manually add them to the Skills folder, and edit them.

You can add skills that outline your project organization standards, or how you prefer the Assistant to organize your projects. You can also add skills for how you prefer to troubleshoot projects, work on animation projects, and more.

You can download the starter files and it has two sample files: spellcheck and preflight.

• preflight checks a project for render, export, sharing, or handoff issues before you run into them.
• spellcheck proofreads text layers, catching spelling, grammar, typos and inconsistent capitalization.

Open the skills folder and use the template you find there. Write your skill and then save it as a .md file in the same folder.