New Project Templates

You can now set After Effects to load a template project when you choose the New Project command.

To enable this, choose Preferences > New Project and enable the New Project Loads Template option, then choose a template project. Click the Choose Project Template button to change the template project.

The template project can be an After Effects template project file (.aet), After Effects project file (.aep), or an After Effects XML project file (.aepx). Select the file type at the bottom of the Select Template dialog; note that on macOS you may need to first press the Options button to expose the Enable menu.

When New Project Loads Template is enabled and you choose New Project from the File menu or Start screen, your template project will open as an unsaved, untitled project. The template project will also open when you choose File > Close Project.

After-Effects-Tutorial-2017
After Effects Tutorial 2017 – Tutorial After Effects Smoke Screen

Freeze On Last Frame

The new Freeze On Last Frame command, in the Layer > Time menu, holds a layer on its last frame until the end of the composition. This command automates several steps needed for one of the most common uses of time remapping.

When you choose the Freeze On Last Frame command, several things happen to the selected layers:

  • Time remapping is enabled.
  • A time remapping linear keyframe is set at the layer in point.
  • A time remapping hold keyframe is set at the layer’s current out point frame.
  • The out point of the layer is moved to the end of the composition.

After Effects Tutorial 2017 – Tutorial After Effects Smoke Screen