6 of the Most Common Mistakes Made in After Effects (& How to Fix Them)

If you're finding that you're running into the same issues, or if you just want to avoid them altogether, this video from Surfaced Studio highlights the most common mistakes and problems editors encounter when working with After Effects.

Tobias from Surfaced Studio provides solutions for several issues you might be experiencing:

• Finding blend mode/switches
• Creating shapes instead of masks
• Double clicking layers
• Order of operations on masking and effects
• Case-sensitive expressions
• Exporting using a sensible video format/codec

I know this doesn't only happen to me: I'm working in After Effects, doing pretty nice, feeling good about myself and then all of a sudden something happens. A tool doesn't work or there's an unexpected effect appears on my screen. I say, "What the f*** did I just do?" Then I get angry and start blaming the program, blaming the masking tool, blaming Adobe for designing a program that has a defective masking tool (that was working just a second ago and now all of a sudden doesn't). It's their fault, obviously.

It's not, actually. I just don't know AE that well -- and I don't want to admit it to myself.

Even though I can navigate it well enough to create whatever it is I'm trying to make, I'm certainly not an expert on how it works. This video hit home for me particularly because I don't know the ins and outs of AE well enough to run a good diagnostic to find out what the problem (and solution) is. So, having a list (or at least, the beginning of a list) of common mistakes is really helpful for not only dealing with those particular issues, but for learning the program better as well.

If you want to learn more about After Effects (and not be completely helpless the next time a problem arises), Surfaced Studio has a ton of great tutorials that you should check out.

What are more common mistakes that you can add to the list? Share them down in the comments!

Source: Surfaced Studio