How you configure After Effects and your computer determines how quickly After Effects renders projects. Complex compositions can require a large amount of memory to render, and the rendered movies can take a large amount of disk space to store. Search for “Improve Performance” in After Effects Help for tips that can help you configure your system, After Effects preferences, and your projects for better performance.
By default, After Effects enables GPU acceleration for effects, layer animations, and other features that can take advantage of the performance enhancements. Adobe recommends enabling GPU acceleration. However, if you receive an error or know that your system’s GPU is not compatible with After Effects, you can disable GPU acceleration for a project: Choose File > Project Settings, and then choose Mercury Software Only on the Video Rendering And Effects tab.
Tip
See the status of GPU acceleration quickly. The rocket icon at the bottom of the Project panel is dimmed when GPU acceleration is disabled.
Rendering and exporting your composition
When you’re finished with your masterpiece—as you are now—you can render and export it at the quality settings you choose, and create movies in the formats that you specify. You will learn about exporting compositions in subsequent lessons, especially in Lesson 15, “Rendering and Outputting.”
Customizing workspaces
In the course of this project, you may have resized or repositioned some panels or opened new ones. As you modify a workspace, After Effects saves those modifications, so the next time you open the project, the most recent version of a workspace is used. However, you can choose to restore the original workspace at any time by choosing Window > Workspace > Reset “Default” To Saved Layout.
Alternatively, if you find yourself frequently using panels that aren’t part of the Default workspace, or if you like to resize or group panels for different types of projects, you can save time by customizing the workspace to suit your needs. You can save any workspace configuration, or use any of the preset workspaces that come with After Effects. These predefined workspaces are suitable for different types of workflows, such as animation or effects work.
