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After Effects for Apple Silicon

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  1. After Effects User Guide
  2. Beta releases
    1. Beta Program Overview
    2. After Effects Beta Home
    3. Features in Beta
      1. Light and Camera Extraction from 3D Models (Beta)
      2. 3D Model Import (Beta)
  3. Getting started
    1. Get started with After Effects
    2. What's new in After Effects 
    3. Release Notes | After Effects
    4. After Effects system requirements
    5. Keyboard shortcuts in After Effects
    6. Supported File formats | After Effects
    7. Hardware recommendations
    8. After Effects for Apple silicon
    9. Planning and setup
  4. Workspaces
    1. General user interface items
    2. Get to know After Effects interface
    3. Workflows
    4. Workspaces, panels, and viewers
  5. Projects and compositions
    1. Projects
    2. Composition basics
    3. Precomposing, nesting, and pre-rendering
    4. View detailed performance information with the Composition Profiler
    5. CINEMA 4D Composition Renderer
  6. Importing footage
    1. Preparing and importing still images
    2. Importing from After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro
    3. Importing and interpreting video and audio
    4. Preparing and importing 3D image files
    5. Importing and interpreting footage items
    6. Working with footage items
    7. Detect edit points using Scene Edit Detection
    8. XMP metadata
  7. Text and Graphics
    1. Text
      1. Formatting characters and the Character panel
      2. Text effects
      3. Creating and editing text layers
      4. Formatting paragraphs and the Paragraph panel
      5. Extruding text and shape layers
      6. Animating text
      7. Examples and resources for text animation
      8. Live Text Templates
    2. Motion Graphics
      1. Work with Motion Graphics templates in After Effects
      2. Use expressions to create drop-down lists in Motion Graphics templates
      3. Work with Essential Properties to create Motion Graphics templates
      4. Replace images and videos in Motion Graphics templates and Essential Properties
      5. Animate faster and easier using the Properties panel
  8. Drawing, Painting, and Paths
    1. Overview of shape layers, paths, and vector graphics
    2. Paint tools: Brush, Clone Stamp, and Eraser
    3. Taper shape strokes
    4. Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers
    5. Use Offset Paths shape effect to alter shapes
    6. Creating shapes
    7. Create masks
    8. Remove objects from your videos with the Content-Aware Fill panel
    9. Roto Brush and Refine Matte
  9. Layers, Markers, and Camera
    1. Selecting and arranging layers
    2. Blending modes and layer styles
    3. 3D layers
    4. Layer properties
    5. Creating layers
    6. Managing layers
    7. Layer markers and composition markers
    8. Cameras, lights, and points of interest
  10. Animation, Keyframes, Motion Tracking, and Keying
    1. Animation
      1. Animation basics
      2. Animating with Puppet tools
      3. Managing and animating shape paths and masks
      4. Animating Sketch and Capture shapes using After Effects
      5. Assorted animation tools
      6. Work with Data-driven animation
    2. Keyframe
      1. Keyframe interpolation
      2. Setting, selecting, and deleting keyframes
      3. Editing, moving, and copying keyframes
    3. Motion tracking
      1. Tracking and stabilizing motion
      2. Face Tracking
      3. Mask Tracking
      4. Mask Reference
      5. Speed
      6. Time-stretching and time-remapping
      7. Timecode and time display units
    4. Keying
      1. Keying
      2. Keying effects
  11. Transparency and Compositing
    1. Compositing and transparency overview and resources
    2. Alpha channels and masks
    3. Track Mattes and Traveling Mattes
  12. Adjusting color
    1. Color basics
    2. Color management
    3. Color Correction effects
    4. OpenColorIO and ACES color management
  13. Effects and Animation Presets
    1. Effects and animation presets overview
    2. Effect list
    3.  Effect Manager
    4. Simulation effects
    5. Stylize effects
    6. Audio effects
    7. Distort effects
    8. Perspective effects
    9. Channel effects
    10. Generate effects
    11. Transition effects
    12. The Rolling Shutter Repair effect
    13. Blur and Sharpen effects
    14. 3D Channel effects
    15. Utility effects
    16. Matte effects
    17. Noise and Grain effects
    18. Detail-preserving Upscale effect
    19. Obsolete effects
  14. Expressions and Automation
    1. Expressions
      1. Expression basics
      2. Understanding the expression language
      3. Using expression controls
      4. Syntax differences between the JavaScript and Legacy ExtendScript expression engines
      5. Editing expressions
      6. Expression errors
      7. Using the Expressions editor
      8. Use expressions to edit and access text properties
      9. Expression language reference
      10. Expression examples
    2. Automation
      1. Automation
      2. Scripts
  15. Immersive video, VR, and 3D
    1. Construct VR environments in After Effects
    2. Apply immersive video effects
    3. Compositing tools for VR/360 videos
    4. Tracking 3D camera movement
    5. Work in 3D Design Space
    6. 3D Transform Gizmos
    7. Do more with 3D animation
    8. Preview changes to 3D designs real time with the Mercury 3D engine
    9. Add responsive design to your graphics 
  16. Views and Previews
    1. Previewing
    2. Video preview with Mercury Transmit
    3. Modifying and using views
  17. Rendering and Exporting
    1. Basics of rendering and exporting
    2. H.264 Encoding in After Effects
    3. Export an After Effects project as an Adobe Premiere Pro project
    4. Converting movies
    5. Multi-frame rendering
    6. Automated rendering and network rendering
    7. Rendering and exporting still images and still-image sequences
    8. Using the GoPro CineForm codec in After Effects
  18. Working with other applications
    1. Dynamic Link and After Effects
    2. Working with After Effects and other applications
    3. Sync Settings in After Effects
    4. Creative Cloud Libraries in After Effects
    5. Plug-ins
    6. Cinema 4D and Cineware
  19. Collaboration: Frame.io, and Team Projects
    1. Collaboration in Premiere Pro and After Effects
    2. Frame.io
      1. Install and activate Frame.io
      2. Use Frame.io with Premiere Pro and After Effects
      3. Frequently asked questions
    3. Team Projects
      1. Get Started with Team Projects
      2. Create a Team Project
      3. Collaborate with Team Projects
  20. Memory, storage, performance
    1. Memory and storage
    2. How After Effects handles low memory issues while previewing    
    3. Improve performance
    4. Preferences
    5. GPU and GPU driver requirements for After Effects
  21. Knowledge Base
    1. Known issues
    2. Fixed issues
    3. After Effects and macOS Ventura
    4. How After Effects handles low memory issues while previewing

Run After Effects faster with native support for Apple silicon devices. 

After Effects 22.3 allows you to take advantage of the latest technologies, including new Apple silicon machines. Experience faster launches, rendering, and Adobe Sensei features optimized for M1-based hardware.

Download After Effects

Known differences and limitations

There are some differences in functionality and some features are not available with After Effects on Apple silicon:

  • If there are third-party plug-ins installed that are not ported for Apple silicon, those plug-ins are unavailable when After Effects runs natively. 
  • A warning dialog displays at launch listing any installed third-party plug-ins that aren't compatible with Apple silicon.
  • Import and export of the GoPro Cineform codec is not supported.

For a list of unsupported file formats, see Premiere Pro for Apple silicon. 

Are legacy versions compatible?

Previous versions of After Effects are compatible with Apple silicon when run under Rosetta 2 emulation. We recommend updating to the latest version of After Effects for the best experience.

Running under Rosetta emulation

After Effects 22.3 for macOS is Universal and able to run natively on Apple Silicon devices. You can also run After Effects under Intel emulation (Rosetta) to continue using third-party plug-ins or formats that are not compatible with Apple silicon.

Use the Open (Intel) option in the Creative Cloud app to run After Effects under Rosetta one time. Or, enable Open using Rosetta in the macOS Finder's Get Info dialog for Adobe After Effects 2022.app.

Running After Effects 22.3 or later under Rosetta is fully supported when the following applications are also updated to version 22.3 or later:

  • Premiere Pro
  • Adobe Media Encoder
  • Character Animator
  • Audition

Updating these applications ensures that when you launch After Effects, or any background After Effects rendering process, via Dynamic Link, the preference for running After Effects under Rosetta is honored. 

Run After Effects under Rosetta to continue using non-ported third-party plug-ins and formats like Cineform, but it impacts After Effects performance.

Errors and warning messages

This message displays when After Effects is run under Rosetta. Select Never Again before dismissing to prevent the dialog from being shown again.

Warning message when running under Rosetta
Warning message when running under Rosetta

This warning message displays by an After Effects background process that is launched under an incorrect architecture.

Warning message when running under Rosetta and a background process is launched
Warning message when running under Rosetta and a background process is launched

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Do I also need to set Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder to run under Rosetta in order to render After Effects comps under Rosetta?

Answer: No, running Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder under Rosetta has no effect on whether headless After Effects processes are run under Rosetta. Dynamic Link determines the correct launch architecture regardless of the host application's currently running architecture.

Best practices

  • When you switch After Effects between Apple and Intel architectures, close and relaunch any open Adobe apps to ensure that the change to After Effects' architecture is honored by any instances of Dynamic Link. This ensures that all Adobe apps use the correct architecture when launching After Effects or After Effects' render processes.
  • If you are running Adobe applications with a version of 22.2 or earlier along with After Effects 22.3, those apps only launch After Effects 22.3 and it's background processes in the native Apple architecture. This prevents the loading of any incompatible After Effects third-party plug-ins and formats, causing unexpected rendering results or failures. To avoid this issue, update all Adobe apps to version 22.3 or later when you run After Effects 22.3 on Apple silicon.

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Do Adobe apps work on Apple computers that use the M1 chip?

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