After Effects projects
EffectCraft can import After Effects projects, and save projects that After Effects can open. Both are deliberately careful: what they carry over is tested to match, and anything they can’t carry over exactly is listed before anything changes. Expect some parts of a large project to be left out or changed.
On a Mac, use ⌘ in place of Ctrl.
Import an After Effects project
Section titled “Import an After Effects project”- Choose File › Import › After Effects Project… and pick an
.aepfile, or its XML form,.aepx. - If some parts can’t be imported exactly, EffectCraft lists them first: Some parts of this project cannot be imported exactly (left out or changed). Choose Import Anyway to go ahead, or Cancel to change nothing.
The project’s items arrive in a folder named after the file, as they do when you import a project in After Effects. The first composition opens. Ctrl+Z undoes the whole import in one step.
What comes over
Section titled “What comes over”- Folders, compositions, solids and footage items, and the main project and composition settings.
- Solid, null, adjustment, footage, precomposition, text, shape, camera and light layers, with their timing and switches.
- Transform properties, keyframes and expressions.
- Masks, track mattes, markers and time remapping.
- Text, with its character and paragraph settings and text animators.
- Layer styles, and a growing list of common effects.
Anything else is listed in the import report and left out, never dropped silently. After Effects plug-ins don’t run in EffectCraft, so their effects are left out too.
Known gaps
Section titled “Known gaps”These are open reports. Check the import report for your own project.
- Lumetri Color effects aren’t imported: #3111.
- Puppet pins are skipped: #3093.
- Color Control effects from templates can lose their colors: #3170.
- Some layers import at the wrong scale: #3099.
- More import bugs are collected in #3087.
Footage and fonts
Section titled “Footage and fonts”The import keeps each footage item’s path. If a file isn’t at that path on your computer, the item shows as missing. Relink it with File › Dependencies › Relink Missing Footage…: see Footage is missing or offline.
Fonts are matched by name. Text in a font you don’t have installed keeps the font’s name and is drawn with a fallback font. File › Dependencies › Find Missing Fonts counts the layers that use one.
Export for After Effects
Section titled “Export for After Effects”Choose File › Export › After Effects Project… to save the open project as an .aep file for After Effects 2026. As with import, EffectCraft first lists anything it can’t write exactly. Choose Export Anyway to save, or Cancel to write nothing.
Other ways to move work across
Section titled “Other ways to move work across”- Lottie: File › Export › Lottie JSON… and File › Import › Lottie… move animations between EffectCraft and any app that reads Lottie.
- Premiere Pro: File › Export › Adobe Premiere Pro Project… writes Final Cut Pro XML, which Premiere Pro imports. File › Import › Adobe Premiere Pro Project… reads Final Cut Pro XML, FCPXML, OpenTimelineIO, EDL, AAF and OMF files. EffectCraft doesn’t read or write Premiere’s own
.prprojformat. - Another EffectCraft project: File › Import › EffectCraft Project… merges it into the open one, in a folder named after the file.
- Photoshop, PDF and Illustrator files import as footage or as a composition with File › Import › File….
What carries over in your head
Section titled “What carries over in your head”The panels, menus, shortcuts, effect names and expression language follow After Effects, so your skills carry over even when a file doesn’t.