COMPLETE GUIDE
After Effects VFX Workflows: The Complete Practitioner Guide
Project setup for VFX work, RAW footage handling, rotoscoping workflows, compositing strategies, motion tracking, particle systems, green screen keying, render pipeline for Resolve roundtrip, and RAM cache management. Every number on this page comes from Adobe, Apple, Maxon, OpenEXR and YouTube documentation — each one is sourced in the fact card.
KKirillFounder & Creative DirectorAE
Compositing, roto, keying, tracking
RED / ARRI
RAW import in After Effects
EXR / ProRes
Roundtrip with DaVinci Resolve
After Effects is a working environment for compositing and motion graphics: VFX shots, rotoscoping, keying and motion tracking are built there. Nuke is used for high-budget compositing and Fusion ships inside DaVinci Resolve, but the AE plug-in ecosystem, the expressions engine and the integration with Premiere Pro and Illustrator make After Effects a practical tool for mid-scale production. This guide walks the full pipeline: project setup, RAW footage, rotoscoping, compositing, motion tracking, particles, keying, the Resolve roundtrip and memory management.
Project setup for VFX work
Composition settings and colour management
Open Composition > New Composition (Ctrl+N / Cmd+N) and set the parameters for your delivery format. Take resolution and frame rate from the source footage: Adobe's documentation has a separate item for it — a composition can preserve its own resolution and frame rate when nested and when queued for rendering, otherwise the result of rotoscoping shot at one frame rate looks different after a conversion. The frame rates vendors publish verified numbers for are 23.976 fps, 25 fps and 29.97 fps — Apple calculates ProRes target data rates for exactly those; YouTube names 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, 60 fps as typical for uploads. Never mix frame rates inside one composition.
Colour management: the working space is assigned in Project Settings > Color. For SDR work take Rec. 709 (HDTV); for HDR, a space with an extended range. The linear mode (Linearize working color space) is switched on in the same place, and Adobe warns directly that a linearized working space works best with 16 bpc and 32 bpc and is not recommended for 8 bpc. Over-range values are preserved when you work in 32 bpc — that is what light wraps, glows and any HDR operation need.
For an ACES pipeline After Effects has a dedicated mode: OpenColorIO does the colour processing, and Adobe recommends exactly the OCIO color managed mode when working with ACES. The plug-in ships with the OCIO Color Space Transform and OCIO Display Transform effects. Test your effect chain on your own shot: some AE effects do not follow the working space setting.
Bit depth: 8-bit vs 16-bit vs 32-bit
Bit depth is set in the compositing panel footer. Three modes are available: 8 bpc — the default. Adobe warns that most video and animation file formats and codecs support only 8 bpc, so the typical route to a higher bit depth is rendering an image sequence rather than a video file. 16 bpc — the working mode for compositing. Adobe advises raising the project colour depth to 16 bpc or 32 bpc when you render into several colour spaces. Formats After Effects can write at 16 bpc: .psd, .png, .tiff, .iff, .sgi. 32 bpc — the floating point mode. It is what preserves over-range values and a high dynamic range. Formats supporting 32 bpc: .psd, .exr, .hdr, .tiff. Adobe pairs a linearized working space with 16 bpc and 32 bpc. Recommendation for VFX: 32 bpc is the working depth of the composition, because that is where over-range values survive for light wraps, glows and keying. We do not publish a performance loss figure: we have no measurement of our own for this project.
Project organisation that scales
- Folder structure on the Project panel: create _FOOTAGE, _COMPS, _PRECOMPS, _AUDIO, _ASSETS and _RENDERS. Everything lives in folders, nothing sits at the root level.
- Naming convention: [Type]_[ShotNumber]_[Description]_[Version]. Examples: COMP_heroTeleport, PRECOMP_smokeElements, FOOTAGE_rawPlate.
- Colour label layers. Right click a layer > Label > pick a colour. Green for plates, blue for precomps, yellow for correction layers, red for solids with effects. It makes the timeline readable at a glance.
- Shy layers. Select the layers of a finished subsystem (say, a light wrap chain), press the shy switch, then enable Shy mode on the timeline. It hides finished layers and reduces visual clutter without deleting them.
- Lock finished layers. When a section is done, lock its layers: a locked layer cannot be moved or edited by accident. Combined with shy, that removes accidental timeline edits in complex projects.
Working with RED/ARRIRAW footage in AE
RED R3D files
After Effects imports RED (.r3d) natively — in the list of supported files the format is marked as Import only. On import the RED Source Settings dialog opens (later available via right click on the footage > Interpret Footage), where colour space, decode resolution and ISO are set.
The settings that matter for VFX:
Color Space: pick the option that matches your delivery — for SDR usually IPP2 > Rec.709, for HDR a space with an extended range. Do not leave the camera's log space in place unless you work in an ACES pipeline: log footage looks flat and washed out in the AE viewer.
Decode Resolution: Full Resolution for the final render, Half or Quarter while compositing. AE caches the decode resolution, so switching back to Full before the final render forces a re-decode of the frames.
ISO: set the ISO value the camera recorded. Do not change it in post — correct exposure with AE's own tools (the Exposure effect or Lumetri). Changing ISO in the source settings moves the noise floor and the clipping point, which can interact unpredictably with your composite.
White balance: like ISO, keep the camera value and correct it in the composition with Lumetri or Curves.
Honest limitation: Adobe publishes no official data on R3D decode speed in After Effects, so we quote no numbers. For projects with heavy R3D use, transcode to ProRes 4444 in Resolve and import ProRes into AE: you lose the ability to adjust RAW parameters in AE, but you gain stable playback while compositing.
ARRIRAW files
After Effects imports ARRIRAW natively as well: in the list of supported files it appears as MXF/ARRIRAW (ARRIRAW codec in an MXF container file), marked Import only. The import settings mirror the RED workflow: colour space, debayer resolution, exposure and white balance follow the camera.
Key settings:
Color Space: ARRI LogC4 / ARRI Wide Gamut 4 for log-native compositing, or Rec.709 for direct compositing. If your pipeline includes Resolve, stay in LogC4 and apply the CST in Resolve after the AE roundtrip.
Exposure Index: match the camera setting — do not correct it in post.
White balance: match the camera.
Debayer Resolution: Full for the final render, Half while compositing.
Adobe documents no decode speed for ARRIRAW in After Effects either, so we make no numeric promise here.
For the return trip to Resolve, export from AE as ProRes 4444 with an alpha channel (Apple's data: 4444 carries alpha, with a target data rate of about 330 Mbps at 1920×1080 and 29.97 fps) or as an EXR sequence — type half (16-bit) or float (32-bit). The EXR route preserves the full dynamic range, the ProRes route is faster: one file instead of a sequence.
Handling RAW codecs in After Effects
| Parameter | RED R3D | ARRIRAW | BRAW (Blackmagic) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native import | Yes — RED (.r3d), Import only | Yes — MXF/ARRIRAW, Import only | BRAW is not listed among the file formats After Effects supports |
| Documented decode speed | Not stated in Adobe's documentation | Not stated in Adobe's documentation | Not applicable — there is no native import |
| Colour space control | Through the RED source settings (RED Source Settings) | Through the ARRIRAW importer settings | Not available |
| Best exchange format with Resolve | EXR sequence (half, 16-bit) or ProRes 4444 | EXR sequence (half, 16-bit) or ProRes 4444 | ProRes 4444 |
| Honest limitation | No documented decode speed | No documented decode speed | A transcode is required — it adds a preprocessing step |
The rotoscoping workflow
Roto Brush: where it works and where it does not
Roto Brush separates foreground from background based on the strokes you paint: After Effects builds a segmentation boundary from them and tracks the object across frames by itself. Two versions ship: Roto Brush 2 (version 2.0) uses artificial intelligence to track the movement of the subject, while Next-Gen Roto Brush (version 3.0) is newer and handles overlapping limbs, hair and transparencies more precisely. Next-Gen Roto Brush is the default, and the version is chosen in the Version list of the Roto Brush & Refine Edge effect.
How to use it: double click the footage layer to open it in the Layer panel, take the Roto Brush tool (Alt+W / Option+W) and paint strokes over the foreground object. Background strokes are painted with Alt or Option held down — the pointer turns into a red circle with a minus sign.
Edge refinement: after the first stroke, work with Refine Edge in the Roto Brush & Refine Edge effect settings. The classic controls, Motion Threshold and Motion Damping, are disabled by default — they are enabled with the Enable Classic Controls option. A higher Motion Threshold allows bigger frame-to-frame movement but can lose track of the object.
Where Roto Brush works well: a single subject, a clean background, stable edge contrast, little motion blur. Where it does not: overlapping subjects, transparent or semi-transparent objects (glass, smoke), heavy motion blur, low-contrast edges.
After the matte has propagated, freeze the result with the Freeze button in the Layer panel — it turns the matte into a regular alpha channel and restores playback speed. The result is then refined by hand: a rough segmentation first, then manual corrections on the problem frames.
Manual mask rotoscoping: the reliable fallback
When Roto Brush falls short, rotoscope by hand with masks. Take the Pen tool (G), draw a mask around the foreground object and set Mask Path keyframes as needed: the faster the object moves, the more keyframes you need. AE interpolates the mask path between keyframes.
Mask settings for clean rotoscoping:
Mask Feather: feathering creates a gradient alpha transition at the edge of the mask and blends foreground into background more naturally than a hard edge. For solid objects take the minimum feathering, for hair, fur and semi-transparent fabric take noticeably more.
Mask Expansion: shrinks or grows the mask boundary. A small negative value removes the outermost row of pixels, where background spill often sits.
Mask Opacity: keep full opacity for opaque objects, lower it for semi-transparent elements so that some background shows through.
Keyframe interpolation: select the mask keyframes on the timeline and open Keyframe Interpolation. Linear interpolation gives predictable mask movement between keys; Auto Bezier adds acceleration curves, which make the mask overshoot its control points.
For complex objects (rotation, perspective change) split the rotoscoping into several overlapping masks: hand, torso and head each get their own mask. Every mask is simpler in shape and easier to animate, and the overlap produces a single continuous silhouette.
Layer compositing
Blending modes for VFX compositing
The blending mode menu in After Effects is divided into eight categories; for VFX compositing you will mostly use Add, Screen, Multiply, Overlay and Soft Light.
Add (Linear Dodge): adds the RGB values of a layer to the layer below. The mode mimics additive light — two light sources layered on top of each other give a brighter result. The limitation shows up in numbers: in 32-bpc projects the blending result can be greater than 1.0, while on 8-bpc footage Add clips the highlights hard.
Screen: similar to Add but with a softer falloff, and it never produces values darker than the base layer — safe for fog, haze, light leaks and glows where Add is too harsh.
Multiply: multiplies the RGB values and gives a darker result — for shadows and darkening overlays. Multiply on black gives black, on white it changes nothing.
Overlay: combines Multiply for values below 50 % and Screen for values above 50 %, increasing contrast — for texture overlays (scratches, film grain, noise).
Soft Light: like Overlay but gentler — for subtle colour corrections and tints where Overlay is too aggressive.
Track mattes and precompositing strategy
Track mattes use the alpha channel or the luminance of one layer to control the visibility of another. In VFX they are needed to apply an effect only to a defined area of the frame.
Alpha Matte: masks the target layer with the alpha channel of the matte layer. Use it when the alpha already exists — from a keyer, Roto Brush or a rendered 3D element.
Alpha Inverted Matte: the same thing, inverted. Apply it to everything outside the matted area — for example a background blur under a sharp foreground.
Luma Matte: takes the luminance values of the matte layer as the alpha. Use it for gradient masks and light wraps.
Precompositing: Pre-compose (Ctrl+Shift+C / Cmd+Shift+C) merges layers into one composition that behaves like a single layer in the parent. Pre-compose when you need one effect across a group of layers, when a composited group has to become a track matte source, or when the timeline has become unmanageable.
Do not pre-compose when the individual timing of the layers matters: after precompositing the layers leave the parent timeline and their timing can only be fixed inside the precomp. Excessive nesting (a comp inside a comp inside a comp) makes the project unreadable — keep it minimal.
Motion tracking
3D Camera Tracker
3D Camera Tracker in AE (Animation > Track Camera) analyses the footage and extracts camera motion and scene data, so that 3D elements can be composited correctly into 2D footage. Analysis and solving run in the background — you can keep working while the track is computed.
The workflow:
— Select the footage layer on the timeline.
— Animation > Track Camera (or right click > Track Camera).
— After the analysis, tracking points appear on the footage; each point is a position in the reconstructed scene.
— Select the points in the area where the VFX element has to sit: a target appears showing the orientation of the solved plane.
— Right click the target > Create options: Solid, Text or Null — the object is created at that position and matches the camera perspective.
Controls: Solve Method gives the scene hints on how to solve the camera; Detailed Analysis makes the analysis phase look for more elements to track, which makes the stored data noticeably larger and the solve slower. Average Error shows the mean distance in pixels between the original points and their reprojection; if the track is inaccurate, delete the bad points — moving objects close to the camera are read as movement caused by parallax.
When it works: camera movement (pan, tilt, dolly, handheld), good parallax between foreground and background, enough texture and contrast for tracking points.
When it does not: footage without camera movement (a locked-off tripod shot has no parallax to reconstruct), heavily blurred footage, very dark scenes, reflective surfaces (glass, water). For static shots use 2D tracking.
Warp Stabilizer
Warp Stabilizer (Layer > Warp Stabilizer) removes camera shake from handheld footage: it compares neighbouring frames, builds a stabilisation transform and then warps each frame to compensate for the shake.
Result: Smooth Motion (the default) keeps some of the intentional camera movement, No Motion tries to remove all movement — for compositing, a locked frame is easier to work with.
Smoothness: controls how evenly the movement is smoothed. Values above 100 require heavier cropping of the frame.
Method: Subspace Warp (the default) warps different areas of the frame differently — the smoothest result, with a risk of deformation artefacts; Perspective applies a global perspective transform, gives fewer artefacts but a less even result; Position, Scale, Rotation is the simplest method, without deformation.
Borders: Stabilize Only shows the whole frame including the moving edges (you crop the edges yourself); Stabilize, Crop crops without scaling; Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale (the default) crops and scales the image to refill the frame; Stabilize, Synthesize Edges fills the empty space with content from neighbouring frames.
Limitation: stabilisation costs the frame resolution in the amount of the crop — for pixel-exact placement of elements, plan the composition around that.
Mocha AE: planar tracking
After Effects includes the Mocha AE plug-in from Boris FX: it is GPU-accelerated, supports Multi-Frame Rendering and is meant for complex tracking shots — motion blur and objects moving off screen. It is launched via Effect > Boris FX Mocha > Mocha AE.
The workflow:
— Select a footage layer in the composition.
— Effect > Boris FX Mocha > Mocha AE.
— Draw a spline over the surface you need to track (wall, floor, screen, signage) — the spline should cover the whole visible surface.
— Track Forward or Track Backward: Mocha analyses the movement of the surface.
— Check the result by scrubbing the timeline: if the spline drifts, add tracking layers or correct the search area.
— Export the tracking data (File > Export Tracking Data) in the After Effects Corner Pin format and apply it to the VFX element layer: Corner Pin matches the perspective of the element to the tracked surface.
Mocha handles planar problems: rotation, scale, perspective, occlusion — replacing screens, signage, texturing surfaces. AE's point tracker is enough for simple positional movement of a 2D element along a path.
Comparing motion tracking tools
| Tool | Best for | Type of tracking | What it gives | Characteristic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3D Camera Tracker | Placing 3D elements in a scene | Camera reconstruction | Scene data and a target to anchor to | Analysis and solving run in the background |
| 3D Camera Tracker, Detailed Analysis | Complex camera movement and partial occlusion | Camera reconstruction with deeper analysis | More point data | Larger data, slower solve |
| Warp Stabilizer | Removing camera shake | 2D motion and warping | An even frame at the cost of a crop | Result: Smooth Motion or No Motion |
| Mocha AE | Replacing screens and surfaces | Planar, perspective aware | Corner Pin from a spline | Boris FX plug-in, GPU-accelerated |
| Point Tracker (built in) | Simple positional tracking | 2D point | Layer position from points | No perspective and no scale |
Particle systems
Trapcode Particular and CC Particle World
Trapcode Particular (Maxon) is a paid particle system for After Effects; CC Particle World is a built-in simulation effect in After Effects itself. Both build particles from an emitter, apply physics (gravity, wind, turbulence) and render particles with a customisable look.
What Particular gives you:
— Particles live in 3D space and react to the AE camera, so perspective and depth of field come out right.
— Emitter types: Point, Box, Sphere, Light(s), Layer, 3D Model, Text/Mask, Emit from Parent, Stroke from Parent.
— Extended physics: turbulence, wind, air resistance, bounce, flocking.
— Auxiliary particles emitted from primary ones, for branching and trail effects.
— Sprite rendering: any layer can be used as the appearance of the particles.
— Support for 32-bit rendering.
Limits of CC Particle World: a smaller set of emitters and more modest physics, and no 3D camera integration. For quick effects (rain, snow, sparks) the built-in effect is enough; for fire, smoke and atmospheric effects you need the third-party plug-in.
A realistic fire preset in Trapcode Particular
Fire is one of the most requested particle effects. The working sequence of settings is: Emitter: type Box, place the emitter on the fire source; set the velocity and its random spread separately, plus the rate at which particles are born. Particle: set the particle life and the size over life curve — from the size at birth down to zero. Drive the colour over life from white through yellow and orange to red and transparent. Physics: negative gravity lifts particles upward; set air resistance, turbulence and turbulence frequency; wind on X and Y gives the flicker. Rendering: Transfer Mode — Add; enable Motion Blur, and Depth of Field if the camera has DOF. That produces a column of fire. Adjust the particle birth rate and the velocity to the scale. For smoke above the fire, add a second Particular instance: lower velocity, higher turbulence, orange colour only. For sparks, a third instance with a very short particle life, a small size and a bright yellow colour. We do not publish numeric values for these parameters: this is our studio preset, not a documented vendor setting.
Green screen keying in AE
Keylight settings for difficult footage
Keylight (Effect > Keying > Keylight) is built into After Effects for green and blue screen work; Adobe recommends trying Keylight before the built-in keyers. There is a Keylight + Key Cleaner + Advanced Spill Suppressor animation preset in the box: Advanced Spill Suppressor is off by default so that you can sample the key colour first and switch the spill cleanup on afterwards.
The order of work:
— Pick the key colour with the Screen Colour eyedropper right in the Composition panel.
— Adjust the other Keylight settings until the matte is right.
— Switch on Advanced Spill Suppressor if the frame has colour spill from the screen, and correct it if the desaturation hits skin or clothing.
Adobe's documentation publishes no numeric ranges for the Keylight parameters — it refers to the plug-in's own documentation. So we do not quote values for Screen Gain, Clip Black, Clip White and Screen Pre-blur: those would be our numbers, not confirmed ones.
Keying tools in After Effects
| Tool | Type | Best for | What is documented |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keylight | Chroma keyer | Green and blue screen | Built into After Effects; Adobe recommends it for professional keying |
| Key Cleaner | Matte cleanup | Finishing the matte of a keyer | Part of the Keylight + Key Cleaner + Advanced Spill Suppressor preset |
| Advanced Spill Suppressor | Spill removal | Cleaning colour spill from the screen | Off by default in the preset — the key colour is sampled first |
| Color Difference Key | Chroma keyer (built in) | Quick rough keys | A built-in After Effects effect |
| Linear Color Key | Colour keyer (built in) | Removing non-screen colours | A built-in After Effects effect |
Render pipeline: the AE–Resolve roundtrip
Export formats for the Resolve roundtrip
The AE–Resolve roundtrip has to preserve quality through the VFX pipeline. Pick the format by the task and take the numbers from the vendor.
EXR sequence. After Effects supports output to OpenEXR (.exr); in OpenEXR the type half is 16-bit floating point numbers and the type float is 32-bit IEEE-754. Half is enough for a working roundtrip with alpha, float is what you need for the full HDR range. Rendering: Composition > Add to Render Queue (Ctrl+M / Cmd+M); the output format is set in the output module.
ProRes 4444. According to Apple this is full-resolution 4:4:4:4 RGBA with a mathematically lossless alpha channel of up to 16-bit; the target data rate is about 330 Mbps at 1920×1080 and 29.97 fps, and 1061 Mbps at 3840×2160 and 24 fps. ProRes 4444 and 4444 XQ are the only codecs in the family with an alpha channel, and the presence of alpha typically reduces decoding and encoding speed by about 10 % or less.
ProRes 4444 XQ. Up to 12-bit image channels and up to 16-bit alpha; the target data rate is about 500 Mbps at 1920×1080 and 29.97 fps, and 1591 Mbps at 3840×2160 and 24 fps.
ProRes 422 HQ. A 4:2:2 format with a bit depth of 10 bits and no alpha channel; the target data rate is about 220 Mbps at 1920×1080 and 29.97 fps, and 707 Mbps at 3840×2160 and 24 fps.
Apple calculates ProRes data rates for 23.976 fps, 25 fps and 29.97 fps and states plainly that the data rate depends on the codec, the encoded frame size and the frame rate, so an "approximate Mbps" from the internet has to be recalculated for your geometry.
H.264 and H.265 are delivery codecs, not intermediate codecs: the compression artefacts accumulate when colour grading runs on top of the render. They are acceptable for client review copies and not for a production pipeline.
The Resolve–AE–Resolve workflow
01
In Resolve: render the plates as separate shots. Deliver page > Add to Render Queue. Format: EXR or ProRes 4444. Set the In/Out points and remember them — the VFX render has to come out with exactly the same boundaries.
02
Import the plates into AE. Create a composition with the same resolution and the same frame rate as the plate, and do the VFX work: keying, tracking, compositing, rotoscoping, particles.
03
Export the VFX shot with the same frame boundaries and the same resolution: an EXR sequence with alpha or ProRes 4444 with alpha.
04
In Resolve: import the VFX render and place it on the timeline above the original plate — the alpha composites the VFX over the footage. For EXR, set the clip colour space according to the Resolve project settings.
05
Check the composite on the Color Page: edges, colour match between VFX and plate, alpha integration. If corrections are needed, go back to AE, fix them and re-export.
06
For several iterations, version the AE exports and update the clip in Resolve without placing it on the timeline again.
RAM cache and performance
Setting up the RAM cache
AE caches rendered frames in RAM so that playback does not re-render. The memory settings live in Edit > Preferences > Memory (Windows) or After Effects > Settings > Memory & CPU (macOS).
What Adobe states directly in the documentation:
— RAM reserved for other applications leaves memory to the operating system and to other applications; the value cannot be set below a baseline minimum.
— Memory requirements grow with a higher project bit depth, a higher composition resolution, a larger source image, with colour management enabled, when a mask is added, when precomposing without collapsing transformations, and with certain blending modes, effects and output options.
— AE renders a frame one layer at a time: the memory requirement of a composition equals the requirement of its most memory-intensive single layer, not the sum of all layers.
— AE needs a contiguous block of memory to store a frame; fragmented memory does not work.
— At least 2 GB of RAM per processor core is recommended.
Disk cache: switch it on with After Effects > Settings > Disk > Enable Disk Cache, set the size with Maximum Disk Cache Size, and Adobe recommends putting it on a separate fast drive — SSDs suit best. The disk cache survives a session restart and holds the frames that do not fit in the RAM cache.
Practice: work in sections and cache the current part (Composition > Preview > Range: Work Area), not the whole timeline; moving to another part of the timeline pushes the previous section out of the cache.
Performance optimisation checklist
— Set the composition to 32 bpc — that is the mode where over-range values survive for light wraps and glows. — Enable Adaptive Resolution (Preferences > Display): Down Sample Factor renders at reduced resolution while you scrub and returns to full resolution once you stop. — Pre-render heavy sections (Composition > Pre-render): the comp is replaced by a rendered file during preview, which pays off for complex particle systems and multi-layer composites. — Draw a Region of Interest (Composition > Region of Interest): AE only computes inside the rectangle, which speeds up preview noticeably. — Close panels and timeline views you do not need — every open panel costs memory and render resources. — Purge memory regularly: Edit > Purge > All Memory & Disk Cache, or the Ctrl+Alt+/ (Windows) or Cmd+Option+/ (macOS) shortcut on the numeric keypad. — Switch off unused effects in the Effect Controls panel — a disabled effect is not rendered. — Use Collapse Transformations on precomps: the transforms pass to the parent comp, and the precomp is no longer recomputed at its own resolution.
Render settings for different delivery types
Render settings by delivery type
| Delivery | Format | Codec | Bit depth | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolve roundtrip (with alpha) | EXR sequence | OpenEXR half | 16-bit | Half is 16-bit floating point numbers |
| Resolve roundtrip (full range) | EXR sequence | OpenEXR float | 32-bit | Float is 32-bit IEEE-754 |
| Resolve roundtrip (no alpha) | QuickTime | ProRes 422 HQ | 10-bit | 4:2:2, no alpha channel |
| Client review | MP4 | H.264 | 8 bpc | A delivery codec, not an intermediate one |
| Web delivery (YouTube) | MP4 | H.264 | 8 bpc | 2160p: 35–45 Mbps at 24, 25, 30 fps and 53–68 Mbps at 48, 50, 60 fps; 1080p: 8 Mbps and 12 Mbps |
| Social networks | MP4 | H.264 | 8 bpc | Resolution and bitrate follow the platform's requirements |
| Archive master | QuickTime | ProRes 4444 XQ | 12-bit | With alpha up to 16-bit |
| Handoff to Nuke | EXR sequence | OpenEXR float | 32-bit | Keeps the full HDR range |
Honest limitations of After Effects for VFX
What AE does badly (and where to look instead)
- True 3D compositing. After Effects layers are flat cards in three-dimensional space: they do not intersect in geometry and do not give real 3D lighting with shadows between layers. For true 3D compositing use Nuke or Blender.
- Procedural texture generation. AE has Fractal Noise, Turbulent Displace and several other procedural effects, but they are limited compared with node-based alternatives. For procedural textures (smoke, fire, water) use EmberGen or Houdini.
- Multi-pass compositing. AE can import multi-layer EXR, but every pass (diffuse, specular, reflection, shadow) has to be pulled apart by hand — in Nuke that is done with Shuffle and Merge nodes.
- Large VFX pipelines. The project architecture of AE scales poorly to projects with many shots; large pipelines use Nuke with shot managers such as Ftrack or Shotgun.
- Real-time preview. AE does not deliver real-time playback of complex comps — for that kind of VFX preview people use Fusion inside DaVinci Resolve.
- Collaboration. AE project files (.aep) are not built for multi-user editing: only one person can work on an .aep file at a time. For team work use After Effects with Team Projects (Adobe's cloud-based version management) or move to Nuke with a full asset management system.
Quick reference: shortcuts for VFX work
Main VFX shortcuts (Mac / Windows)
| Action | Mac | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| New composition | Cmd+N | Ctrl+N |
| Composition settings | Cmd+K | Ctrl+K |
| Pre-compose selected layers | Cmd+Shift+C | Ctrl+Shift+C |
| Add to Render Queue | Cmd+M | Ctrl+M |
| Roto Brush tool | Option+W | Alt+W |
| Purge memory (numeric keypad) | Cmd+Option+/ | Ctrl+Alt+/ |
| Pen tool (masks) | G | G |
| Toggle shy layers | Toggle Shy button on the timeline | Toggle Shy button on the timeline |
| Track Camera | Animation > Track Camera menu | Animation > Track Camera menu |
| Mocha AE | Effect > Boris FX Mocha > Mocha AE | Effect > Boris FX Mocha > Mocha AE |
| Roto Brush version | Version list in Roto Brush & Refine Edge | Version list in Roto Brush & Refine Edge |
FAQ: After Effects VFX workflows
Should I work in 8-bit, 16-bit, or 32-bit for VFX compositing?
For VFX compositing, 32 bpc: that is the mode where over-range values survive for light wraps, glows and HDR. 16 bpc is the workable option when full HDR is not required. 8 bpc is the default, and Adobe warns that most video codecs support only it, so the route to a higher bit depth is rendering an image sequence.
How do I send VFX shots from After Effects to DaVinci Resolve?
Export as an EXR sequence with alpha (half — 16-bit; float, 32-bit, for the full range) or as ProRes 4444 with alpha: according to Apple, 4444 carries an alpha channel of up to 16-bit, with a target data rate of about 330 Mbps at 1920×1080 and 29.97 fps. In Resolve, import the rendered files and place them above the original plate: the alpha composites the VFX over the footage. The In/Out points of the VFX render must match the plate.
Is Roto Brush 2 reliable enough for professional work?
Roto Brush 2 tracks the movement of the subject across frames using artificial intelligence, but that does not remove the need for manual refinement: difficult shots with overlaps, transparent objects and heavy motion blur still need hand work. In the current version of After Effects, Next-Gen Roto Brush is the default and Roto Brush 2 is available through the Version list. Freeze the result with the Freeze button after propagation — that restores playback speed.
When should I use Mocha AE instead of the built-in 3D Camera Tracker?
Mocha AE solves planar problems: replacing screens, signage, texturing surfaces, occlusion, rotation and perspective. The 3D Camera Tracker is what you need to place a 3D element in a scene: it reconstructs camera motion and gives you a target to anchor to. Mocha AE is launched via Effect > Boris FX Mocha > Mocha AE.
Can After Effects work natively with RED and ARRI RAW footage?
Yes for RED (.r3d) and MXF/ARRIRAW — in the list of supported files both are marked Import only, so they are imported natively. Adobe publishes no documented decode speed for RAW in After Effects, so we quote no numbers. BRAW is not listed among the file formats After Effects supports.
How much RAM do I need for VFX work in After Effects?
Adobe's documented minimum is 16 GB of RAM; for HD footage the same amount is recommended, and for 4K and above 32 GB or more. For video memory the recommendation is 8 GB, and with an NVIDIA GPU at least 4 GB of VRAM. Adobe's general memory recommendation is at least 2 GB of RAM per processor core. How many frames actually fit in the RAM cache depends on the composition, and the vendor publishes no figure for that.
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