The After Effects preview is a temperamental thing. The preview not working is one of the most frustrating problems you will come across when in the middle of a project. You’ll also probably recognize the error message “After Effects error: Cached preview needs two or more frames to playback.”
There’s nothing worse than having your workflow interrupted by your After Effects preview not working, particularly when you’re on a tight deadline. But don’t worry, there are a few ways you can troubleshoot your preview errors to get your project back up again. Let’s run through them.
Part 1: Preview Won’t Play Error in After Effects
If you’re having trouble with playing back audio in After Effects, check out our troubleshooting tutorial here. If you run into problems rendering, we also have this handy rendering troubleshooting tutorial.
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The most basic way of previewing frames is manually previewing by moving or dragging the current-time indicator (CTI).
The time ruler visually represents the time dimension of a composition, a layer, or a footage item. In a Layer or Footage panel, the time ruler appears near the bottom of the panel. For a Composition panel, the time ruler appears in the corresponding Timeline panel. The time rulers in different panels represent different durations. The time ruler in a Layer or Footage panel represents the duration of the contents of that panel; the time ruler in the Timeline panel represents the duration of the entire composition.
On a time ruler, the current-time indicator indicates the frame you are viewing or modifying.
CTI in Timeline panel
- To go forward or backward one frame, select the Next Frame or Previous Framebutton in the Preview panel or press Page Down or Page Up.
- To go forward or backward ten frames, Shift-click the Next Frame or Previous Frame button or press Shift + Page Down or Shift + Page Up.
- To go forward a specific period of time or number of frames, select the current-time display and then enter the plus sign (+) followed by the timecode or number of frames to advance. For example, enter +20 to go forward 20 frames or 1:00 to go forward one second. Precede the value by the minus sign (-) to go backward. For example, enter +-20 to go backward 20 frames or +-1:00 to go backward one second.
- To go to the first or last frame, select the First Frame or Last Framebutton in the Preview panel or press Home or End.
- To go to the first or last frame of the work area, press Shift + Home or Shift + End.
- To go to a specific frame, select the time ruler; select the current-time display in the Footage, Layer, Composition, or Timeline panel; or press Alt + Shift + J (Windows) or Option + Shift + J (macOS). You can also drag the current-time display in the Timeline panel to modify the value.
- Shift-drag the current-time indicator to snap to keyframes, markers, In and Out points, the beginning or end of the composition, or the beginning or end of the work area.
- Add Shift to the J and K hotkeys to quickly jump between keyframes and markers of selected layers and properties.
If you scrub the CTI while a preview is playing, preview stops. To scrub the CTI without stopping a preview, hold Option/Alt while scrubbing.
Zoom in or out in time for a composition
When you click the Time Navigator in the Timeline panel, the Info panel shows the times of the beginning and end of the Time Navigator duration.
- To zoom out to show the entire composition duration, press Shift + ; (semicolon) with the Composition panel or Timeline panel active. Press Shift + ; again to zoom back into the duration specified by the Time Navigator.
- To zoom out to show the entire composition duration, Shift-double-click the Time Navigator. Shift-double-click it again to zoom back into the duration specified by the Time Navigator.
- To zoom in to show individual frames in the time ruler, double-click the Time Navigator. Double-click the Time Navigator again to zoom out to show the entire composition duration.
- To zoom in the Composition, Layer, Footage, and Timeline panels using multi-touch gestures using two fingers, pinch your fingers closer together to zoom out, or move your fingers farther apart to zoom in.
For additional ways to zoom and scroll in time using the mouse scroll wheel, see .
When zoomed in time, press D to center the time graph on the current time.
Choose a viewer to always preview
Designating a viewer as the default panel to preview is especially useful when you have a Composition viewer that represents your final output and you always want to preview that viewer, even when you’re changing settings in other panels.
The panel that’s set to always preview appears frontmost for the duration of the preview.
- Select the Always Preview This View button in the lower-left corner of the panel. OR
- Select the Primary Viewer button in the lower-left corner of the panel.
Primary Viewer Button
The Primary Viewer button is next to the Always Preview This View button in the lower left of the Composition, Layer, and Footage viewer panels.
Primary Viewer functions similarly to Always Preview This View, except that Primary Viewer only defines which viewer or view is used for audio and external video preview.
- Only one view can be set as Primary Viewer; enabling it for a viewer or view disables it in any other viewer or view where it had previously been enabled.
- When Primary Viewer is disabled, the most recently active viewer or view is used for audio and external video preview.
- When you switch to a different viewer or view, that viewer or view takes control of audio and external video preview.
When multiple views are open, previews use the frontmost composition view for 2D compositions and the Active Camera view for 3D compositions. To turn off the Active Camera, deselect Previews Favor Active Camera in the Preview panel menu.
Preview modes and Viewer Quality preferences
After Effects provides several options for previewing that make various tradeoffs between speed and fidelity.
Preview modes and Fast Previews preferences
Each preview mode provides a different balance between quality and speed for playback and for updating of images during interactions, such as when you drag a layer in the Composition panel or modify a property value in the Timeline panel.
Draft 3D and Live Update modes apply to all views of a composition.
Draft 3D
Disables lights, shadows, and depth-of-field blur for cameras. To turn Draft 3D mode on or off, select the Draft 3D button
Live Update
Updates images in the Composition or Layer panel during interactions. When Live Update is deselected, After Effects displays wireframe representations during interactions.
- To temporarily toggle Live Update mode, hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) while dragging to move a layer, modify a property value, or move the current-time indicator (CTI).
- To prevent After Effects from updating images in the Footage, Layer, and Composition panels, press Caps Lock. When you make a change that would otherwise appear in a panel, After Effects adds a red bar at the bottom with a text reminder that image refresh is disabled. After Effects continues to update panel controls such as motion paths, anchor points, and mask outlines as you move them. To resume panel updates and display all changes, press Caps Lock again. Pressing Caps Lock is a good way to prevent views from being refreshed for each frame during rendering for the final output.
- When you are using OpenGL to render previews and are previewing on a video monitor, the preview shown on the video monitor doesn’t update as you interact with elements of your composition until you have released the mouse at the end of an interaction. (See .)
Fast Previews
The Fast Previews options range from higher quality but slower performance (Off) to lower quality but higher performance (Wireframe).
Off (Final Quality)
Fast Previews is off. Use this mode when previewing the final quality of your composition.
Adaptive Resolution
Attempts to downsample footage while dragging a layer or scrubbing a property value. For the ray-traced 3D compositions, Adaptive Resolution reduces the ray-tracing quality based on the current adaptive resolution:
- At 1/2, the ray-tracing quality value is cut in half.
- At 1/4, it is reduced to at most 4.
- At 1/8 or 1/16, it is reduced to at most 2.
You can change the adaptive resolution limit in Edit \> Preferences \> Previews (Windows) or Premiere Pro \> Preferences \> Previews (macOS).
Draft
Available in ray-traced 3D compositions only. This option reduces the ray-tracing quality (number of rays fired by the ray tracer) to 1.
Fast Draft
When laying out a complex scene, or if you are working in a ray-traced 3D composition, you can use Fast Draft mode for previewing. In ray-traced 3D compositions, the Fast Draft mode renders beveled, extruded, and curved 3D layers. When previewing, the scene is downsampled to speed up the loading of textures to the GPU. In Fast Draft mode, each frame of video is still read into the renderer as needed. The downsample factor is set at 1/4 resolution, and effects and track mattes are on.
Wireframe
Useful for setting up and previewing complex compositions.
- In the Draft, Fast Draft, and Wireframe modes, the Current Renderer menu button's lightning bolt appears orange. In Adaptive Resolution, it appears orange when the composition is downsampled. In these modes, the name of the mode appears in the upper-right corner of the Composition view.
- If adjusting a property or scrubbing through the Timeline takes a long time in Final Quality mode, Adaptive Resolution, or Draft modes, the scene temporarily switches to show wireframes. The frame finishes rendering when you stop moving the mouse.
- If you are in a ray-traced 3D composition in Draft mode and switch it to a Classic 3D composition, the fast preview mode automatically switches to Adaptive Resolution.
- If you want to update more than one active view when scrubbing while holding down the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) key, enable the Share View Options option in the Select View Layout pop-up menu.
- Select the Current Renderer menu button in the upper-right corner of the Composition panel to quickly open the current renderer settings in the Composition Settings dialog box. This method applies to 3D layer, camera, or light in the composition.
Changing the Fast Previews mode to match your workflow is important, especially when working with ray-traced 3D compositions.
Keyboard shortcuts for Fast Previews
Quality name
Shortcut
Off (Final Quality)
Ctrl + Alt + 1 (Windows) / Cmd + Option + 1 (macOS)
Adaptive Resolution
Ctrl + Alt + 2 (Windows) / Cmd + Option + 2 (macOS)
Draft
Ctrl + Alt + 3 (Windows) / Cmd + Option + 3 (macOS)
Fast Draft
Ctrl + Alt + 4 (Windows) / Cmd + Option + 4 (macOS)
Wireframe
Ctrl + Alt + 5 (Windows) / Cmd + Option + 5 (macOS)
Viewer Quality preferences
In the Previews preferences category, you can choose the quality and speed of color management and zoom operations used in previews.
From the Zoom Quality or Color Management Quality menu, choose one of the following:
- Faster
- More Accurate Except Cached Preview
- More Accurate
The Zoom Quality preference affects the quality of scaling performed for pixel aspect ratio correction in the Composition and Layer panels.
When the Show Channel menu is set to an option that shows straight colors (RGB Straight, Alpha Overlay, or Alpha Boundary), the Viewer Quality preference is ignored, and the preview is created as if the Viewer Quality settings were faster.
Region of interest (ROI)
The region of interest (ROI) is the area of the composition, layer, or footage item that is rendered for previews. Create a smaller region of interest to use less processing power and memory when previewing, thereby improving interaction speed and increasing preview duration.
By default, changing the region of interest does not affect file output. You can change the size of your composition and select what portion is rendered by cropping to the region of interest.
When the region of interest is selected, the Info panel displays the horizontal and vertical distances of the top (T), left (L), bottom (B), and right (R) edges of the region from the upper-left corner of the composition.
- To draw a region of interest, click the Region Of Interest button at the bottom of the Composition, Layer, or Footage panel, and then drag it to select a viewable area of the panel.
To start over with the marquee tool, hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and select the Region Of Interest button.
- To switch between using the region of interest and using the full composition, layer, or footage frame, select the Region Of Interest button.
- To move or resize the region of interest, drag its edges or handles. Shift-drag a corner handle to resize while preserving aspect ratio.
- To crop the composition to the region of interest, choose Composition \> Crop Comp To Region Of Interest.
- To crop the output to the region of interest, choose Use Region Of Interest in the Crop section of the Output Module Settings dialog box. (See .)
To create the equivalent of a region of interest for a single layer, you can draw a temporary mask around the part of the layer that you are working with. The area outside the mask is not rendered. This can make working with a small portion of a large layer much faster. Be careful, though, since not rendering the pixels outside the mask can change the composition’s appearance significantly. (See .)
Cropping a composition to the Region of Interest
Work area
The work area is the part of the duration of a composition that is rendered for previews or final output. In the Timeline panel, the work area appears in a lighter shade of gray.
- To set the work area start time or end time to the current time, press B (begin) or N (end), respectively.
- To set the work area, move the start and end work area markers in the time ruler.
Work area markers indicate the composition duration rendered for previews or final output.
- To move the work area, drag the center of the work area bar left or right.
- To expand the work area to the size of the composition, double-click the center of the work area bar.
- To show the duration of the work and the times of its beginning and end in the Info panel, click the work area bar.
Snapshots
When you want to compare one view to another in a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel, take a snapshot. For example, you may want to compare two frames at different times in a movie.
Snapshots taken in one kind of panel can be displayed in another kind. For example, you can take a snapshot of a Layer panel and display the snapshot in a Composition or Footage panel. Displaying a snapshot does not replace the content of the panel. If the snapshot has a different size or aspect ratio than the panel in which you display it, the snapshot is resized to fit the current view.
Snapshots are for reference only and do not become part of the layer, composition, or rendered movie.
A sound is generated when you take a snapshot.
- To take a snapshot, select the Take Snapshot button at the bottom of the panel or press Shift + F5, Shift + F6, Shift + F7, or Shift + F8.
- To view the most recent snapshot taken with the Take Snapshot button or Shift + F5, select and hold the Show Snapshot button at the bottom of the panel.
- To view a specific snapshot, press and hold F5, F6, F7, or F8.
- To purge a snapshot, hold down Ctrl + Shift (Windows) or Command + Shift (macOS) and press F5, F6, F7, or F8.
- To free all memory used to store snapshots, choose Edit \> Purge \> Snapshot.
Preview on an external video monitor
You can preview the contents of your Layer, Footage, or Composition panel on an external video monitor. Previewing on a video monitor requires additional hardware, such as a video capture card or a FireWire port.
Previews can be displayed on a second monitor connected to your video display cards, such as via DVI, DisplayPort, or HDMI. If you are using a video capture card to connect an external video monitor, install the appropriate drivers, and connect the monitor to view previews. If you are using a FireWire port, first connect a digital camcorder or similar device to the port; then connect the video monitor to the device. For more information on setting up FireWire previews, see the documentation for your digital camcorder, VCR, or other devices.