[Walter Soyka]

After Effects will paste whatever you copied, and if it has to add an effect to complete the paste, it will.

If you want to paste modified properties, you have to copy them first. If you select the layer with the properties/keyframes you want to copy and hit UU, it will show all modified properties — not just the ones with keyframes. Select the properties you want to copy (whether they have keyframes or not), then copy, then paste.

[Walter Soyka]

Dropdowns in Ae use index numbers to represent values. For the Text Selector Mode, the first item, Add, is 1. The second item, Subtract, is 2, etc.

Here’s the code snippet you’d want, with comments on two lines explaining the changes:

var Animator1 = layer.Text.Animators.addProperty("ADBE Text Animator");
var A1opacity = Animator1.property("ADBE Text Animator Properties").addProperty("ADBE Text Opacity");
var A1Selector = Animator1.property("ADBE Text Selectors").addProperty("ADBE Text Selector")
var EndA1 = A1Selector.property("ADBE Text Percent Start"); 
var ModeA1 = A1Selector.property("ADBE Text Range Advanced").property("ADBE Text Selector Mode"); // no "subtract" here, just get the object
ModeA1.setValue(2); // set the Text Selector Mode to the second item in the list, "Subtract"
EndA1.setValue(36);

[Walter Soyka]

Ok. Then I’d suggest you render to something Ae can handle natively, without having to use QuickTime. If you render to an uncompressed AVI, does it work?

You can always transcode to your destination format once you have an uncompressed master.

[Walter Soyka]

Maybe try the current release of After Effects? Not only is actually tested in Windows 11, but it no longer relies on legacy 32-bit QuickTime. Adobe has written DNxHD/DNxHR support directly into Ae since 2015.

[Walter Soyka]

Rather than trying to link a mask to a shape, you can use a Track Matte so that the shape itself reveals the text.

On the text layer, select the shape layer with the Track Matte selector. This will show the text layer wherever it intersects with the shape layer. It will also hide (eyeball off) the shape layer, so you’ll have to re-enable it to see both layers in your comp at the same time.

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/track-mattes-and-traveling-mattes.html

[Walter Soyka]

Unfortunately, your Intel GPU is not supported by Element. See the approved GPU list here:
https://www.videocopilot.net/assets/public/misc/Element-GPUs.pdf

[Walter Soyka]

Yes! You need to switch your shape path from Closed to Open.

Select the two connected points that you wish to separate, then right-click (or go to the Layer menu), select Mask and Shape Path, and uncheck “Closed.”

[Walter Soyka]

After Effects can’t handle images beyond 30,000 pixels in either dimension. Maybe you can scale it down a little in Photoshop, or split it into a couple of tiles in Photoshop and composite them back together in After Effects.

[Walter Soyka]

Yes, you use the new method .setTrackMatte(). It accepts two parameters: the layer to use as the track matte, and the track matte type. Here’s a very rough example:

app.project.activeItem.layer(2).setTrackMatte(app.project.activeItem.layer(3), TrackMatteType.ALPHA);

The track matte types are TrackMatteType.ALPHA, TrackMatteType.ALPHA_INVERTED, TrackMatteType.LUMA, TrackMatteType.LUMA_INVERTED, and TrackMatteType.NO_TRACK_MATTE.

You can remove a track matte from a layer with the .removeTrackMatte() method.

[Walter Soyka]

Any chance you can post one of the rendered files so we can see what you’re seeing?