April 2025 (25.2.2) is the current version.

For an overview, see AEP’s After Effects and Premiere Pro 25.2 released at NAB 2025. Check out too the important fixes and remaining Known issues in After Effects.

And yes, After Effects is 32 years old, so CoSA lives. New features include (and maybe more):

• Better Caching for Better Playback
• HDR Preview
• 3D model animation controls in the Properties panel 
• Animated Environmental Lights
• Helper commands for common 3D workflows
• Customizable Transparency Grids
• Customize panel background colors
• maintain workspace
• Null Controls for Positional Points

Here’s Adobe overview:

After Effects v 25.4 is in Beta and does include important new features:

• Smooth Zoom (video)
• Reveal projects in the File System
• Change anchor point in a more efficient way 
• CICP metadata
• FBX model import
• Paste Text and Match Formatting
• Improved UI language support
• Enable lights to cast shadows (“Yo.” Spot, Parallel, and Environment lights)
• Click Toggle Modes/Switches or set the animation in the Properties panel to preview model animations.

Apparently we have to change our ways, and avoid purging the disk cache — thanks to Improved Caching for Longer Playback in the recent release. The “disk cache should be self-managing now” and free space on your SSD should be a priority. The cache markings help you understand where your frames are stored.

On June 17, 2025, the Creative Cloud All Apps plan name will change to Creative Cloud Pro. Pricing changes will take effect at your next monthly or annual renewal date. You’ll continue to have full access to try out all of the new benefits with no price increase until your renewal, even if it’s an annual plan. It seems like you should go yearly before June 17 — but read carefully. If you’re really outraged, you can explore the cool-but-needs-work Google Ultra AI video plan for only $250/month (perhaps 3-6 generations a day). Google Veo-3 may be king, at least until another release by a major competitor.

photoshopCAFE explains the Adobe plans in Adobe Creative Cloud – MASSIVE CHANGES. If you’re slow to ingest changes to CC, see Matt Kloskowski on New Features in Photoshop (April 2025 Update).

Brian Maffitt, a surprise Adobe employee, posted What We Do in the Shadows and welcomes After Effects beta users to the dark side by adding realism or a bit of film noir feel to a scene with realistic shadows in the Advanced 3D render engine.

SternFX posted Create Stunning Shadows in After Effects several weeks ago, as well as The Future of VFX Is Here – And It’s Lazy on some machine learning plug-ins from AEScripts.com.

Jake In Motion shared Professional 3D Renders in After Effects (No plugins!). In this tutorial, he shows you how to use After Effects’ Advanced 3D Renderer (no third-party tools required). He shows setting up 3D models and cameras, lighting the product for a realistic look, animating the models and camera in 3D space, and adding finishing effects to make the renders POP. This video is a companion to Make your content POP with MOGRTs in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Mikey Borup continued his experiments and tutorials, some of which become little plug-ins along with WorkbenchTV’s work at Element Supply Co. And of course there’s the return of Workbench, seen in Why We Disappeared (And What’s Next for Workbench), which makes sense.

Stephan Zammit spent a half-hour on How to Animate Text in After Effects – Start Here!. He also posted After Effects 2025: Create a Stunning 3D Carousel with Interactive Hover Effects, which almost seems like an excuse to learn Rive, although it builds on several other of his tutorial projects.

School of Motion’s recent Monday overview covered a trendsetting new robot vision plug-in for After Effects, Adobe inviting paid apprentices, and real-time digital puppetry.

Here on PVC, Chris Zwar posted After Effects: Simple noise workflow for VFX, with video and links.

Also, Iain Anderson shared his mnemonic for Properties in After Effects in After Effects: Master the STARPLUME. I had a different one I picked up from an old movie: PARTS is parts (mule)!

Adobe Video & Motion has a gaggle of new tutorials, including Lens Flares 101 | Add This Cinematic Effect to Your Editing Toolkit | Adobe Video x @filmriot.

VFX and Chill is going to the end of the line and their separate ways. The last show is coming soon, scheduled for Friday May 30, 2025: VFX and Chill | The End.

Premiere Gal has 11 Tips to Create GREAT Motion Graphics in a Time Crunch (using Premiere and AE). Meanwhile, Ben Marriott urges you to take extra time to separate yourself from the pack in 10 Underrated Motion Design Techniques I LOVE.

VideoRevealed explains the New Color Management in Adobe Premiere Pro. There’s more in Premiere Pro 2025 Color Management by Oliver Peters and Color management and new version compatibility FAQ at Adobe.

For an even more in-depth video, see 2025 Premiere Color Management V25 2 by Karl Soule.

Premiere Gal says that Premiere Pro v25.2 Update is a GAMECHANGER for Video Editing, while Tyler Stalman shares his opinions in The Best Video Editor in 2025: Premiere vs Final Cut vs Resolve, though FCP now doesn’t seem in the same league.

In addition, Matt WhoisMatt Johnson considered  Premiere Pro In 2025: The Good, Bad, & Confusing 😵‍💫.

AI news was even bigger than ever last week, which is not surprising given the money being invested. Matt Wolfe has an overview with Why everyone is freaking out about Veo 3, Claude 4 & OpenAI’s iPhone moment.

In addition, Curious Refuge says that AI Filmmaking Just Changed Forever, although Veo-3 doesn’t seem quite ready, especially for $250/month. For more on that see, I Paid For Veo-3. Is It Worth It? by Theoretically Media.

Also, Futurepedia showcases and looks for problems in Google Veo 3 Changes Everything – Video, SFX, and Speech all at Once. He got 83 videos from his account allotment.