After Effects

It is essential for medium to large studios to have the ability to switch the enabled plugins in After Effects through a startup option by creating a plugin list in a format such as JSON beforehand. This is because it is common for different plugins to be required for each project in a studio. Allowing the use of plugins that should not be used can cause confusion in the workflow and contract disputes.For example,/Project_A・using Trapcode Suite 16・using Boris FX Sapphire.../Project_B・using Trapcode Suite 15・DO NOT use Boris FX Sapphire...These settings can be switched as options at startup. It would also be useful to include the actual aex plugin directory in the plugin list.I am saddened by the fact that After Effects, with its long history, does not have this feature. I hope that After Effects will continue to evolve into software that satisfies production needs.

I noticed in a tutorial, in the Photoshop timeline, that layers are also tracks for editing.  That you can move different footage to a single track if not needed for compositing (ala Premier).  That feature would greatly simplify everyone of my After Effects projects even if just editing assembled precomps without having to link to a Premiere project. Of course that opens a separate thead re caching/playback.    

I love Create Shapes from Vector Layer.But, to keep things organized, it would be nice when Ae keeps the names I give paths / sublayers in Adobe Illustrator. Currently paths are renamed Path 1, Path 2, Path 3. Not very descriptive.

I would like to have a contextual menu item in the Project Panel:Create new Folder containing selected items. That's faster and more convenient than first creating a folder, then selecting items and drag 'm into place. 

The "Preserve RGB" checkbox (reached by right-clicking a footage item in the project then selecting Interpret Footage/Main/Color) needs to be javascript-able to facilitate automatic comp-building by javascript generated by my 3rd party application. At present, every user must be notified repeatedly that they must manually set this checkbox on multiple imported images (image distortion maps). This is annoying and makes us both look stupid. I see requests for other scriptable capabilities on this panel at https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-ideas/request-for-additional-scriptable-capabilites/idi-p/13362206  My general request is that all persistent project/comp/etc settings should be scriptable as a matter of course, so they don't have to be uncovered and pleaded for one at a time.  Technically this item is a "new feature request" though I view it as a bug report.

Around 2012 you removed the option for rendering a .mp4 file directly out of AE. Please add it back. The work around is to either render in a different codec and compress that in media encoder, or to launch the render directly from media encoder from AE (which is extremely slow and cumbersome, especially when you have large/complex project files). Not sure why removing functionality seemed like a good idea at the time...?

Currently the OCIO color spaces list is flat. Both OCIOv1 and OCIOv2 allow for the implementation to read the categories making selecting what you need a lot quicker and brings much more clarity.Please implement this too.  

Okay, so I'm probably the biggest luddite on this board. I got my first cell phone in 2005, smartphone in late 2015, and I'm finally updating all the way from 2021 to 2023 becuse the workflow features are just undeniable. This means I'm also willing leave OS X Catalina to try dealing with Monterey (which I...shudder). This sounds lame, but these are big steps for me.  I don't know if there's a preset/plugin for this or if I missed something, so please forgive me if this is redundant... Like how After Effects color labels layers in the preferences...What if we could do that for customarily for properties? That way when I spread out a set of keyframes I always know that the blue keyframes are opacity etc.? Has this been discussed at all? Thanks for reading. 

When I'm using the side panels it's annoying to need to scroll down after selecting them to actually use them, and mousewheel always messes up the settings so I have to manually select the scroll bar with my mouse and scroll down to where the panel settings are which is slower than just not using the shortcuts at all.

Ability to use eyedropper on 2 different chosen areas of an image to get the calculated average rgb color blend and possibly also average opacity value between them. It would also make it far easier to mix colors when editing layers for animation, and it gives perfect color mixes (if it uses the same method of color mixing as a two color gradients center point would). Other software already has this feature.

It's very hard to adjust complex motion data (tracking data, mocap data or complex animations) in AE.It would be great if we could add an extra "animation layer" on top of every parameter to adjust for example slight drifts of a tracked mask.thx,Patrick

Although I know they have made an option to have Ae open with "Separate Dimensions" on position values by default with the latest release (THANK YOU!!), even with this selected, there are some items that you still have to go in and manually switch to "Separate Dimensions" (PSD files, nested shapes within layers, etc).I do this every single time I animate the position of a layer or element of a layer. I would LOVE to have the capability to make a hotkey for this.thank you!

01; Sinto falta de um atalho que de mais precissão no zoom, tipo um contr +- como tem nos outros softerwer. 02; A biblioteca não conversa muito com com o after Effects, quando se clica nas cores ela não transfere para o texto ou forma. 03; O print dentro do programa deveria ir para área de transferencia de envio do computador, ou uma opção que deixa-se a cena em tela cheia para que fosse feito o print. 

1) An adjustable "Soft Selection" in the graph editor would improve the manipulation of data a lot. For example, the adjustment of tracking data where every frame is a keyframe.2) A "Soft Selection" in the viewport (for the selection of mask points etc.) would be a great improvement for rotoscoping etc.thxPatrick

I think  It could be great, introducing a "move anchor point visual tool" in the future versions of after effects.Sometimes it get really hard using the snapping tool and, most of all,  using it manually, all over a lot of layers. So please it would be nice introduce an exstention (like some external plugind does) that does this job in one click. It would be helpfull also in the 3d solid layers and could be really similar to the cinema 4d tool "Axis center".We would save a lot of time. Thanks  Thanks.   

 Hi Devs!!Although Essential properties is a really powerful tool for toolkitting and templates.I NEVER use it for that, I just use it to re use other design elements, and even for some more advanced rigging. All that being said I would really love if you added paths support. Would make it quick to have more complicated rigs that you can make based of of shapelayersie, hair rigs, chains, wind socks, leaves. etc.  Demo below! Thanks to Greg Stewart for building the demo script https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TABgXxJQqhU    

I have never used this key other than to write in capitals. I am constantly having to turn it on and off so I can see my preview then on again. Thanks.

Assigning a keyboard shortcut for "move playhead to cursor" in Premiere saves me thousands of clicks. Is there an equivelant in AE? Can there be?

I could not find an already-existing "idea"/feature request for this. A discussion on this topic exists here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/select-keyframe-at-cti-playhead/m-p/9003274 To restate, some of us need a command (that we can map to a keyboard shortcut) that will select a keyframe(s) at the CTI. There are navigation methods to move around the keyframes but this does not automatically select them. Start with a new General Preference: "Automatically select keyframes at CTI". NOTE that this preference should not interfere with the already existing auto-selection of keyframes by other circumstances. For robustness a new menu command "Select keyframe at CTI" should be added to one of the drop-downs. If keyframes are already selected when the user selects the new command all keyframes will be DESELECTED except the ones at the CTI based on some type of precedence algorithm which will need to be developed. One suggestion to get the ball rollin

These lack from the contextual menu. (and: how are Global Light Angle and Altitude 'Blending Options'?)

Description:Add functionality to copy various property settings from existing Render Queue items (finished or unstarted) and paste them onto other, unstarted queue items. Proposed Workflow:Select/highlight any of the 3 sections: Render Settings, Output Module, or Output To.Extra bonus points if you could select any combination of the 3.Copy to clipboard.Select another unstarted render queue item(s).Paste.If the main comp name is selected, it should be smart enough to paste into the appropriate area(s).If there are multiple Output Modules, it should only update the last output module.Appropriate areas update with the copied settings. Why is this valuable to you?Currently nothing in the Render Queue panel supports copy and paste. This would be easier and significantly faster than making templates, especially for new users who don’t understand the template system. The amount of steps needed for making new templates only feels worthwhile for permanent/heavily used settings.&

A feature which we've sought to develop our own scripts for, is that of being able to check and collect files in an appropriate structure (and character usage/replacement). This is crucial for workflows that utilise DAM/cloud storage. And will likely increase in necessity with time. While external post-collection scripts CAN do the job, they come with their own headaches and errors, so an ideal scenario would be for the flagging, renaming and collection to be done on the fly. Whether this would flag illegal names/characters on import, during production or at the collection point, it would be incredibly useful to be able to force or customise how things get collected.  

Would be great that when you see a missing effect it will tell you where that effect came from. I would assume pretty simple to so the ABOUT info within AE so that ease of use when looking for that missing effect/plugin.

I often use the library when using several apps on a project, most often for colours. However it's mad that I can't add to it from AE, particularly for colors! Sometimes I open Illustrator purely to add a color to a library, then go back to AE to do the work.  So, in summary, make Libraries in AE more like Ai or Ps, where you can add to it as well as read from it.

Hi Adobe Community!What if Adobe Photoshop and After Effects could have the power of eyedropper tool similar to Adobe Illustrator? It would be great if it could copy all of these elements, fonts, shape, and color; but even better even if it could copy only a certain set.Thank you! 🙂