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  • After Effects 2021 Viewer Problems

    Posted by Alex Malone on March 26, 2021 at 2:55 am

    They seem to have removed some buttons in 2021 that have made my life way harder and I have no idea how to navigate or search for these features now. At the bottom of the viewer there used to be a button that you could choose “2 views horizontal, 2 views vertical, etc.” and then choose the angle of the view etc.

    Now in the 2021 update of After Effects these buttons are gone, and I have no idea how to bring them back OR more importantly take a viewer away.

    Currently I have found using the viewer button I can add a viewer through that but my composition seems to be stuck in a 2 viewer mode that I can’t figure out how to remove and its significantly reducing the area that I can work in/see.


    Is there a way to get the quick buttons back at the bottom of the viewer panel that let me navigate this so easily?

    John Cuevas replied 5 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Tero Ahlfors

    March 26, 2021 at 10:27 am

    If you add a camera to the comp those options will show up on the lower right of the comp window.

  • John Cuevas

    March 26, 2021 at 1:05 pm

    This was a poorly thought out update by from the developers.

    In After Effects 18.0, the Composition panel’s toolbar was updated to improve the layout and to improve designing in 3D. As part of these changes, 3D controls, including the View Layout menu, now only appear when there are 3D layers in the comp. More details here:
    https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/user-guide.html/after-effects/using/composition-basics.ug.html#Improvedcompositiontoolbarfor3Ddesigning

    I, and others, have been submitting feature/bug reports explaining the drawbacks of this new viewer window. You should let them know too.

  • Alex Malone

    March 26, 2021 at 5:41 pm

    Thank you so much! That is so stupid that I have to initiate a 3D layer JUST to remove my 2 view layout, very disconnected planning by the developers and not something that you would naturally think of doing ever.

    At least I can stop going crazy now working in this scuffed 2 view mode I was stuck in! Thank you again!

  • John Cuevas

    March 31, 2021 at 8:23 pm

    Looks like it wasn’t the most popular change…

    As of today, in After Effects Beta v18.2 build 9, the view layout can now be switched by going to the View menu > Switch View Layout. You no longer need to have a 3D layer in the comp to switch the view layout.

    We’re looking at other changes in this area. Please try the Beta build and let us know how these changes work for you.

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