This may be one of the most common mistakes beginning animators make in AE, but luckily it’s pretty easy to fix. Okay, seriously now-why is that keyframe doing a little dance in the middle of the screen? All you want is for it to move smoothly from one side of the screen to the other, with a little pause in the middle, right? What’s up with with the wibble-wobble thing?

(We know, that was a lot of “comps.”) Mistake #2: Wibbly-Wobbly Keyframes So while the pre-comp may be set to the proper length, if the layer turns off in the pre-comp, it will turn off in the main comp as well. Sometimes, new users don’t realize that they need to set the layer to the full length of the comp, which can make the layer “disappear.” This is especially common when using pre-comps, because the behavior of a pre-comp inside of a comp will effect the main comp. You see, your AE timeline reads from left to right, and as you know each layer can be set to turn on or off anywhere in the timeline. Usually it’s just a rogue keyframe to blame-you may have accidentally set the size or opacity to zero, or-more likely-the layer endpoint is coming up before the end of the comp. If your layers keep disappearing, a few things could be at play. Mistake #1: The Case of the Disappearing Layers To help you avoid these pesky problems, we’ve compiled a list of the ten biggest and most common AE mistakes out there-and how to avoid them. You’re happily animating away, minding your own business, when suddenly-bam! You get hit with a weird error message, or your layer disappears…and why isn’t the mask tool working anyway? After Effects can be a complicated program, and while customizable After Effects templates and internet tutorials can help anyone get the ball rolling, there are still a few ins and outs that can elude even advanced animators and FX artists.

After effects stroke not showing up