Troubleshoot template building in After Effects
This guide helps you fix problems when you build video and motion templates in the Extension for After Effects. It is for template builders working in Adobe After Effects with the extension installed.
Start with these checks
A few habits prevent most template-building problems, so check these first.
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Update the extension to the latest version, because outdated versions cause errors that a newer one fixes.
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Confirm the problem in the extension’s Preview before you upload, so you catch it in After Effects rather than after a render.
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Where you can, drive dynamic content with the extension’s parameter links rather than After Effects expressions, because the renderer does not evaluate expressions the same way your local After Effects does.
Common causes and fixes
Each problem below is a common template-building problem in After Effects. Select one to see how to fix it.
Problem: Selecting a layer and adding it does nothing, and the layer never appears in the extension.
Solution: check the following causes:
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Confirm the layer type is supported: a text layer must be Point Text, not paragraph (box) text.
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Remove any other Templater-style plugins, such as Dataclay, because they can conflict with the extension.
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If it still fails, clear the cache: close After Effects, uninstall the extension, clear the After Effects cache folder, then reinstall and reopen.
Problem: The rendered colour does not match the colour in your project.
Solution: this usually comes from a colour profile applied twice.
New After Effects projects set the Working Color Space to None, and any other value bakes a colour profile into the render. To compare fairly, import the render into a new project and overlay a shape filled with the expected colour value. To remove a profile from footage, open Interpret Footage and set the colour management to Preserve RGB.
Problem: Text overlaps itself after you add a line break.
Solution: the layer’s line spacing is too tight for more than one line. In the Character panel, set Leading to Auto, or to at least the font size.
Problem: Some assets are missing in the render, though they appear on your own machine.
Solution: the upload renames layers, so an expression that refers to a layer by its name breaks once the project is on the server. Refer to a layer by its comment instead of its name, using the layer-by-comment form of the expression.
Problem: Thai text renders with the wrong spacing compared with the Preview.
Solution: in the Character panel, set Kerning and Tracking to 0. If it still looks wrong, set Kerning to Metric. Check the Preview, then upload the template and produce the adaptation again.
Thai text that fails to render at all is a separate Adobe issue, covered in Work with fonts.
Problem: A right-to-left text layer fails to render when layer scaling is used.
Solution: right-to-left text does not support the extension’s built-in layer scaling. Remove the scaling from the layer.
Problem: The project will not upload, with an error such as Cannot eval script: null is not an object.
Solution: a layer is missing its default asset. In the Layers panel, check each layer’s default; an image layer’s default must point to a file with an image extension.
Problem: Live SVG text renders in the wrong position or is cut off.
Solution: convert the SVG’s text to outlines (vector paths) before you upload it.