Adobe After Effects 25.4 Adds New Features and Workflow Enhancements

Adobe’s August 2025 After Effects update introduces easier ways to stagger animation timing, paste text formatting only, manage HDR color consistency, and benefit from workflow streamlining, including automatic app relaunch.

Plenty of interesting new features in the very latest version of Adobe After Effects.

First off, 25.4 allows you to quickly offset layers and keyframes. Just hold Command + Option on macOS or Ctrl + Alt on Windows, then drag your layers to create staggered layer or keyframe animations in the Timeline panel. The first layer selected stays in place, while the last layer moves the full distance dragged. All layers in between are evenly spaced in time between the first and last.

Handily enough, you can even offset keyframes using the same method; just select keyframes across multiple layers, then hold the keyboard shortcut and drag to stagger their timing across layers. Not having to manually adjust layers of keyframes in the timeline to achieve the same effect could be a proper time-saver.

Elsewhere, the new Paste Text Formatting Only feature allows you to paste a copied formatting, such as font, size, color, and style, without changing the actual text. Instead of manually matching text styles across layers or within a single text layer, you can use this feature to quickly apply formatting from one text element to another. This can help maintain a consistent design and save time, especially in large projects with many text layers where the content varies but the styling needs to stay the same.

25.4 also lets you import and export HDR content by using CICP (Coding-Independent Code Points) metadata. This helps ensure that colors and brightness levels stay consistent from editing to final output, no matter where the content is viewed. Additionally, if you are working in a HDR compatible color space, you can now export your composition to PNG sequence with embedded HDR10 metadata.

And for those still on the AE learning curve, new Info buttons next to each effect in the Effects & Presets panel link to detailed resources, allowing you to quickly learn about an effect’s purpose and behavior, without interrupting your workflow.

Finally, After Effects now automatically relaunches when changes are made to preferences or features that require a restart. This applies to scenarios such as enabling logging, installing scripts or ScriptUI panels, using the Startup & Repair function, and toggling effects in the Effect Manager.

There’s some bug squashing too. Full list below.

• Sending a 3D model from Substance Painter to After Effects no longer triggers an error on macOS devices.
• The 3D View no longer influences the rotation of 2D layers when using the Rotation tool.
• Writing EXR files to network storage is now significantly faster, with improvements depending on network speed and NAS architecture.
• All 3D models separated by a bin-breaking layer are now visible in the Draft 3D mode.
• Quitting After Effects while the “Import File” Finder dialog is open on macOS no longer causes a crash.
• Sending multiple compositions to the AME queue no longer causes text to appear blurry or “vibrate” in rendered output.
• Importing specific JPEG files from network locations no longer causes After Effects to crash due to file handling issues.
• Using Edit > Edit Original on files rendered from After Effects with project links now correctly opens the associated original project.
• Refocusing After Effects after resizing an image on disk that is part of the current project no longer causes a crash.
• Scale, Rotation, and Orientation values now update in real time in the Properties panel when adjusting layers in the composition viewer.
• Projects using the Adobe Clean font on Windows no longer trigger warnings during mogrt import and conversion.
• OCIO Transform effects now retain their previous settings when projects are reopened.