G2

Film download F.

Student

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/15/2026

"Cinematic Animations and Smooth Keyframing with Deep Creative Control"

4/5

What do you like best about Adobe After Effects?

Animation & Keyframing Control

Users rave about being able to animate literally anything — text, shapes, images — frame by frame or with expressions. The keyframing is described as smooth and the effects as cinematic, with a deep plugin ecosystem. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Adobe After Effects?

The biggest frustration for me is the rendering times — even on moderately complex projects, you end up waiting a lot, which really breaks your creative flow. It makes iteration feel slow when you just want to preview how something looks.

Performance in general is an issue. After Effects isn't well optimized, and it starts to drag noticeably once your compositions get heavier. You'd expect smoother handling by now, but it still eats through RAM and CPU like nothing else.

The system requirements are no joke either. You basically need a high-end machine to run it comfortably, which feels like a steep ask on top of an already expensive subscription.

And as someone at an intermediate level, the learning curve hit me hard. There's a point where the basics click, but going deeper into expressions, pre-comps, and advanced workflows feels like a whole other software. The interface doesn't make it easy to figure things out on your own — you're constantly relying on tutorials. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Adobe After Effects solving and how is that benefiting you?

After Effects sits at the center of my content workflow. I use it to create motion graphics and animations, add visual effects and compositing, and produce polished content for social media ads and YouTube videos.

The core problem it solves is the gap between raw footage and something that actually looks professional. Without it, my videos would feel flat — After Effects is what adds the layer of polish that makes content stand out in a crowded feed. Whether it's an animated lower third, a smooth title sequence, or a composited effect that would be impossible in Premiere alone, it consistently elevates the final output.

For short-form content especially, where you have seconds to grab attention, having that visual edge matters. After Effects makes that possible, even if getting there takes some patience with its performance quirks Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.