Add a 'Super Solo' that would show the selected layer(s) only in the viewport AND the timeline

IDEA:

The request is an extension of the current solo and Shy functions - currently we can solo layers in the viewport and make them Shy in the timeline as separate actions. I’d love to see an option to ‘Super-solo’ layers, which would allow the user to show only the layers they’ve got selected in both the timeline and the viewport in a single action.

This would be super-useful when working on heavy / busy comps - being able to quickly reduce down to just the layers I need to see at that time would reduce cognitive load by a lot. It would also potentially help with performance, by reducing the amount of layers etc. that need to be drawn onscreen.

PROPOSED USAGE:

The User selects one or more layers, then runs the 'Super-solo' command. The result is only the selected layers are visible in the viewport and the timeline. All other layers are hidden in the viewport and the timeline.

Some kind of indicator would be needed to show the user that Super-solo was active, in case a project was saved with Super-solo active.

Running the command again would restore the full timeline view, while respecting any changes made to visibility/shy status during the Super-solo.

Regarding Shy status, I think the ideal would be that Shy status was respected when running Super-solo. So if a user selected 5 layers, and one of that selection was set to Shy, all 5 would show in the timeline, and the Shy layer would retain it's shyguy checkbox status.

By the same logic, a layer could have visibility turned off and be added to the super solo - it would not be visible in the viewport but would still show in the timeline.

I'd imagine that the best solution to how Shy itself behaves when Super-solo is run would be a dropdown in preferences that the user could select. Off the top of my head, options would include:

• Keep current Shy setting (at time of running super solo)
• Always turn Shy off
• Always turn Shy on

My personal preference in that would be to always turn shy off, so I could see if I'd accidentally included some layers in the selection.

Just having Super-solo be off or on would remove any potential issues with trying to add layers to an existing Super-solo session, it would simply be to turn it off, amend the layer selection, then turn it on again.

TLDR:

Add a new Super-solo function that when activated, would only show the layers selected at that time in both the timeline and viewport. All non-selected layers would be hidden in the timeline and viewport until the Super-solo was deactivated.

Visibility and Shy status would be respected on the way in and out - so a layer could have visibility turned off and still be included in the Super-solo set, and if any changes were made while in Super-solo state, they would persist when the Super-solo was ended.

Examples of similar functionality include:

• Magic Solo by Nitroman for Cinema4D https://nitro4d.com/product/magic-solo/
• Focus in MtMograph Motion (which I did previously use, but the non-sub version is broken in recent AE so can’t use it any more)
• DUGR https://rxlaboratorio.org/rx-tool/dugr/
• EJ’s SortIt for After Effects https://eyedesyn.com/product/sort-it-for-after-effects/

(Note, some of these I have only just heard about - big up Laurence Yates, Coen Bouman, and Ryan Summers for the heads up on them).