Features summary | After Effects (February 2023)

OpenColorlO and ACES color management

ACES is the industry standard for managing color throughout the life cycle of a motion picture or television production. It simplifies the complexity arising from the use of multiple image capture and presentation devices by providing standards to maintain end-to-end image fidelity. 

After Effects integration with OpenColorlO (OCIO) simplifies the ACES workflow and enables you to work natively in ACES within After Effects. 

Learn more about OpenColorlO and ACES color management in After Effects.

Now in After Effects (Beta)

Properties Panel

Use the Properties Panel to quickly access important properties of selected layers in the Timeline panel without the need to twirl open multiple layer hierarchies or a different panel. It improves the accessibility of layer and object properties that speed up your workflows. 

This Beta (After Effects v23.2) adds the Properties Panel feature for the Text layers. A quick and easy way to edit all the properties from the Character and Paragraph panels for your selected layer. Update your font, change your fill and stroke, set your paragraph alignment, and even add Text Animators, all without needing to switch between panels.

Read more about the Properties Panel feature.

Effect Manager

After Effects now attempts to identify third-party plugins or effects potentially interfering with your project workflow and forcing the application to crash. You can use the Effect Manager notification on the next startup to keep it enabled and proceed as-is or disable the identified effects and plugins before proceeding with your work. This can save you a lot of time, as you won't have to continually deal with the issues caused by problematic plugins or effects.

You can also use the Effect Manager under the Effects menu to view a list of all your installed effects and disable any effects on the next startup.

Learn more about Effects Manager.

Startup and Repair Preferences

Use the Startup and Repair panel under Preferences to troubleshoot your set preferences in After Effects without changing or removing them or starting over from scratch. 

Launch After Effects once using only the default After Effects preferences and disabled third-party plugins. It helps you identify if any of your current set preferences are corrupt and need a reset.

Reset all preferences to defaults permanently. 

Navigate directly to the locally saved After Effects preferences file. 

Migrate all preferences from previous After Effects versions to the current one.

Learn more about the Startup and Repair feature in After Effects Preferences.