The current release of Adobe After Effects is September 2025 (25.5), which includes new features and workflow improvements.

Previous release details can be found in recent roundups. The September 2025 (25.5) release includes important fixes, known issues, and some added features like:

• 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.

The top features in beta, last updated on Oct 24 2025, still includes some things that we might have forgotten:

• Create parametric meshes (read twice!)
• Substance 3D Materials (SBSAR)
• Look out for the possibility of native depth of field
• Unmult effect for Keying transparency
• Lossless Compressed Playback
• 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
• Modify Default Camera Settings
• Tip of the Day
• Lossless Compressed Playback
• Windows on ARM Native
• Alt/Option-Drag to Duplicate Layers
• new Close Timeline Panels to the Right & Left commands are available in a new context sub-menu, along with the existing Close Other Panels in Group and Close Other Timeline Panels commands.

This list was enough to generate some superlatives. See BIGGEST After Effects Update EVER! by Jake In Motion, The Biggest After Effects Update Ever! New AE Features! by SonduckFilm, and The BIGGEST After Effects Update in Years | Mind-Blowing New Tools by SternFX.

There were a bunch of Creative Cloud features released last week for Adobe Max 2025, but not so splashy stuff for video. There will be more on the CC updates later, and for now you might check out articles on Max 2025 by Michelle DeLateur elsewhere on PVC. Gee, how did people produce video before Firefly and Generative Extend?

Flomotion also had opinions on some of the new features across the board in NEW FEATURES in After Effects, Premiere and Photoshop 2026. In his overview, Grayson wasn’t overly excited.

Of course, there was Max action in artificial intelligence. See Explore the new Adobe Firefly, your all-in-one creative AI studio by Mike Polner at Adobe.

There is now a Firefly video editor, with a waitlist for early access. Despite the lists of new AE features we see regularly, sometimes we might get the feeling that After Effects will be superseded by some AI app. Adobe’s Project Graph seems to be a candidate, similar to the node workflow of Comfy UI. The Capsules feature has people hoping it may be end up in AE; see tweets by Ryan Summers (thread) and Wes McDermott.

See below for the Curious Refuge AI news roundup for Adobe Max.

Matt Kloskowski talks Whats NEW in Photoshop 2026, and there’s also the rest of the popular Adobe MAX 2025 Sneak Peeks.

Ben Marriott is back with a bunch of tips in 4 Tips for Magic in After Effects and 15 After Effects Tricks You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner.

How to Build a Face from Digits in After Effects from SternFX uses text animators, Card Dance and other techniques. See also Eran’s NEW COURSE | After Effects Insider.

Boone Loves Video reminds you How to loopOut() in Adobe After Effects 2025.

Stephan Zammit shared The Viral AI Search Box Effect EVERYONE’S Using | After Effects Glass UI, which you can easily customize.

If you’re committed to Adobe, check out Premiere Pro: From Beginner to Pro in 78 Minutes by Cut to the Point.

Premiere Gal says Finally! You can Rotoscope in Premiere Pro with new tools.

Mentioned in last month’s roundup, check out A Deep Dive into Premiere Pro’s Latest Effects, Transitions, and Animations from Adobe Video. For more, see What’s New in Premiere Pro.

Premiere Gal drills down into one effect in Make Your Photos Move in Premiere Pro Instantly.

Todd Vaziri hosted ILM Visual Effects Artist Breaks Down Hidden VFX for Vanity Fair. Also, Bilawal Sidhu talks designing J.A.R.V.I.S in Marvel’s VFX Team Accidentally Created Your AI Assistant.

Here on PVC, Jeff Foster posted AI Tools: AI Fails… You can’t always get what you want! Here’s an example:

Jack Vs. AI shared How to Make Full CGI Ads with AI (MIND BLOWING). And although it is so 2 weeks ago, Jack also posted VEO 3.1 vs. SORA 2 (Which AI Video Model Wins?).

Is this the future? I Made the Same Animation in Every AI Video Generator – FULL Comparison from Dan Kieft.

Going wide, Matt Wolfe posted How To Be An Expert In Anything,  about how to automate e-mail newsletter integration to cut information overload.

Here’s something likely aided by AI. It’s not that funny or true, but that’s why it’s important: The Onion Investigates: Jeffrey Epstein. Become an Onion member while it’s still optional.

If you want to discover new things, check out ProRes ‘Almost’ RAW vs 12-Bit DCG RAW Video Shootout! (iPhone 17 Pro vs Pixel 10 Pro) from Epic Tutorials for Mobile Filmmaking + EPIC LUTs. The host asks questions like:

👉 Which device delivers the most cinematic RAW image?
👉 Which offers the best highlight recovery and color depth?
👉 Which phone overheats and drops frames the most?
👉 Which records RAW internally AND externally to SSD?
👉 Which has the most reliable autofocus?
👉 And which is actually usable handheld?