Previous release details can be found in recent roundups. The November 2025 (25.6) release includes important fixes, known issues, and some added features like:
- Modify Default Camera Settings
- Extensive fixes and improvements
- Single 3D Gizmo for multiple 3D layers
- Tip of the Day
- …and the rest from the previous release…
- Quickly offset your layers and keyframes
- Copy and paste only the text formatting
- Support for CICP metadata
- Learn about Effects before applying them (info icon)
- Automatically relaunch when required by preferences or features
- New Product Community and Creator resources with feedback, stock items, and tutorials.
- Adobe video and audio products no longer support Rosetta
The top features in beta, (version 26.1.1) was last updated on December 17 2025, includes:
- Support for Variable Font Axes (more from Sean Jenkins)
- Create parametric meshes
- Substance 3D Materials (SBSAR)
- Lossless Compressed Playback
- Unmult effect for Keying transparency
- New built-in audio effects
- Crop Composition to Selected Layer(s) Bounds
- Import SVG files as vectors
- Improved Illustrator layer conversion
- Improved UI language support
- Change anchor point in a more efficient way
- Duplicate layers using Alt/Option-drag
- Enable lights to cast shadows
- After Effects Preferences Refresh
A recent beta version snapshot was dubbed the BIGGEST After Effects Update EVER! by Jake In Motion and other leading commentators.
Meanwhile, School of Motion posted an 11-hour “Year in Review” roundup, The MEGA 2025 Motion Design Roundup Episode. It may take a few days to get through it all. You can find documentation for the ambitious roundup in the show notes.
It’s been almost a year: Artlist discontinued the FXhome apps: HitFilm and Imerge dead.
Jake In Motion posted a short video every day for 12 days of Christmas or another holiday. It seems you get a free script with each. Here’s an example: INSTANT Wiggle Rig | Free After Effects Script.
As usual, SternFX has some useful tutorials. See How to Match Colours Across Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects and A Surprising Free Alternative for Surface Tracking.
Looks fun… ProductionCrate Black Hole, a free After Effects plug-in.
Eric Demeusy animated the original Stranger Things title sequence back in 2015, and now is showing us his flow in How I Animated the Original Stranger Things Title Sequence – Full After Effects Tutorial. You’ll have to substitute some effects but that’s fine.
After Effects Tricks! shows the Sunburst preset in AE. If you want to find out how to make them yourself, check out Sunbursts or radial rays in After Effects here on AEP. It seemed more interesting 15 years ago! It’s not so strange, but Google search AI provides an overview of all the different ways to construct these by hand, so the accumulated wisdom of the community can sometimes be accessed quickly.
If you ever wondered what a cinematic gradient was, grok this by SonduckFilm: Create Cinematic Motion Graphics with Gradients After Effects.
At VideoRevealed, Colin shows off object masking in Unlock the Future of Masking in Premiere Beta. Look ma, no Rotobrush.
Using just Photoshop and After Effects, Justin Serran turns static AI images into “;cinematic” 3D animations without using complex (or faux) 3D in My Full AI-to-Animation Workflow (Free Project Files).
Here on PVC, Jeff Foster considers AI Tools: 2025 A Year in Review. Jeff ads this to his handbasket:,
