Feature Requests

The final trajectory for Firefly in AE is obviously something you are all working on, but as you deliberate how it could work, check out this workflow that integrates ComfyUI Server inside Nuke for incredible masking, inpainting, and image generation to perform a complex paint out: Comfy Nuke 

I have a couple of (I reckon) cool idea around the keyboard shortcuts for"Go to previous/next keyframes (J / K);"I use this shortcut it ALLLL day every day as I imagine many of us do, and I think we couldimprove upon it quite easily. Here are my thoughts:1) If no layer is selected - functions as it does now.2) If a layer is selected, j/k takes you to the prev/next keyframe of THAT LAYER ONLY.3) Add modifiers for Transform specific keyframe jumps.e.g. Something like SHIFT+P+K takes you to the next POSITION keyframe of a selected layer, OR, if no layer is selected the next possible position keyframe on the timeline.I think this would be really useful and save a heap of time, especially in and around detailed character rigs where there are tonnes of keyframes in short succession.

We need native support for a “live link” feature—just like Battle Axe’s Overload—built right into After Effects. Imagine designing in Illustrator and having your artwork stream straight into AE in real time so you can animate without any extra steps.It’s baffling that something this essential is still locked behind third-party plugins. Sure, you can kind of rig it today, but the Illustrator ↔ After Effects workflow is awful:You can only import one artboard at a time. That forces you to split every screen layout into its own .ai file.Illustrator files come in as single Vector layers. Unless you manually convert them to Shape layers, you can’t even move a sub-layer independently.Even when you do convert to Shapes, you can’t import each sub-layer as its own AE layer. Everything ends up grouped, and shortcuts like P, S, T, and U simply open the parent layer’s transforms—not the individual pieces you need.Right now, you can’t iterate between After Effects and Illustrator: build a rough comp

Hello, Adobe Society! In After Effects and Premier Pro, replace the video (or already cut) parts on the edited track with another video with the same timings. Ersultan Nurash, Kazakhstan. ersultan.nurash@gmail.com

Ok Adobe has finally recently brought Smooth Zoom to AE, so I guess this is also coming sooner or later - I'm not gonna go too hard on them 😁😁 they're the best! From what I understand Photoshop was the only app to have a History panel, right? and they have implemented it along all Adobe apps now. Same with the Properties tab, which in Premiere makes a huge difference!

I'm a big fan of the layer based compositing and layer based editing After Effects currently has. That being said I'm well aware of the demand for node based workflows from other professionals in my field who use software like Davinci Resolve/Fusion/Nuke. From what I gather I have heard the excuse that AE is too old and integating such feature's would be too difficult. I'm no expert on software development but my suggestion would be to devide After Effects in two. Upon opening After Effects you are greeted with a choice of what kind of project you would like to make. A "Layer Based" or "Node Based" project. Selecting Layer Based will take you to the traditional layout. Selecting Node Based will launch you into a new UI that visually more akin to something like Nuke. Over time Adobe can work on ways to integrate the two halves together but by doing this they can cater to professionals or new enthusiasts who want to try out other methods of compositing.    

I'm copying this from Spencer Tweed's suggestion from December 2, 2019--of course, since the ideas forum is not searchable I couldn't find this in this forum, just the old features suggestion, so I'm cutting-and-pasting someone else's idea, as follows:It would be very nice to re-write the "Simple Choker" effect to perform more closely to the Nuke "Erode" node. Specifically the precision is much higher and the results more reliable. When using "Simple Choker" any feathering is lost and the matte becomes hard, it seems to exponentially get less effective the wider you go, and it does not keep the original shape of your mask very well (there seems to be a blurring effect which rounds out edges). On the other hand the Nuke "Erode" node works in pixels and no precision is lost in terms of your mask shape, so it is reliable and predictable. It is behaves much like "Mask Expansion" does for a mask (no precision is lost, it is measured in pixels, etc).

Add how like Photoshop has a depth map, but in After Effects

Bonjour After Effect est devenu une veritable usine à Gaz, comme Photoshop en son temps, Pourriez vous envisager de faire un After effect simplifié pour les usages de base comme vous aviez fait avec lightroom pour photoshop?

Sometimes with complex/large projects we have a desire to clean up stuff that has been floating around from testing phases. Typically the best way to clean everything up is to reduce the project based on selected comps.   What often becomes an issue is that we can't do this if we want to maintain our global folder structure because it deletes any folder that doesn't have contents.   Would be nice to have an option to perserve folders and then clean up the ones you actually don't need manually.   Another big hurdle with reduce project is that expression that reference comps that aren't used anywhere in the selection for reduction get deleted so they break. At the minimum I would expect a warning (prior to reducing), but even better would be to simply preserve them by default.   So: - Option to keep all folders - Default: Preserve comps that are referenced via expressions  

It’s 2025. I open After Effects and… it feels like I’m still working in 2013.While Blender, Unreal Engine, Houdini, and even newer tools like Cavalry are evolving with bold updates, After Effects has barely moved. Every time a new version drops, it’s disappointing to see tiny improvements disguised as “major features.” It’s as if Adobe is keeping the program on life support without actually developing it.Let’s call it out:Graph Editor – still outdated, clunky, and untouched for over a decade. No real-time preview, no modular behavior, no intelligent UI. No modern easing tools – no built-in bounce, elastic, inertia, or overshoot. You still need to rely on Expression tricks or 3rd-party scripts for basic animation finesse. No native effectors or procedural animation tools – while tools like Cavalry, Cinema 4D, and Notch offer real-time procedural workflows and effectors, After Effects is stuck in manual keyframes and precomp hell. Still no native IK (inverse kinematics) –

every time a change is made, the program automatically saves the project. to prevent work loss every time after effects crash

I had to do some digging on the internet on setting an output module as a default so it always shows up in the Render Queue. The steps are: Clicking the down arrow next the "Output Module" to bring up the list of output templates. Command+Click (Mac) or Control+Click (PC) the template you want to be default. Look for the confirmation in the Info paul that says "Default Movie Output Module set to:..." Devs, please acknowledge that this is esoteric UI and UX. This could be done a lot better, don't you think? What if the user doesn't have their Info panel open? How are they going to know the default was set? In the evolutionary timeline, programs like Photoshop are evolving into mammals with modern UI and UX while After Effects remains a dinosaur. I encourage you to take fresh look at the program and how efficiencies can be made and tasks can be more straight-forward.

This is a "simple" request (is it really?) with a lot of applications for me.  I would like to be able to access the verticies of a text box via expressions the same way I can access them in a shape layer.  I do a lot of lower third mogrts, and this would make it a whole lot easier to make more sophistcated graphics.  I have been using MATH and sourceRectAtTime.  It would be nice to have direct access rather than sort of "linking" like this.  

Simple as that.  I work in a team of editors in both my full time job and my freelance work, so I'm often working in the latest (read least stable) version of AE. I'm sick of only having a tiny window per year where things actually work properly before this year's new version breaks it all again.  It's too much for me and obviously too much for Adobe. 

This already exists in Premiere Pro, being able to mark effects as favourites by copying them into a custom 'bin' (folder) for easy access.

After Effects' Displacement effect is 2D (x/y only), but with the new GLTF/FBX support, we can achieve proper 3D displacement in C4D or Blender, and import them into AE to animate lights, cameras, and other elements. But we cannot do that with animated displacement, so it's pretty limited. This is what we could have if AE got a proper 3D Displacement mode: https://superhivemarket.com/products/video-depth-ai

This is a simple UX change that would help a ton. When I am in a shape layer, and have a specific group or shape selected, hitting a shortcut key (Like R, S, or T) should open the parameters for that specific group or shape. Not the entire layer.  This would help workflows a bunch! Thanks!

hello i need a way to enable the hotkey of this command that drives me crazy, forward/backward 1 frame. help me to do it, if it is not possible to do it is there a plugin to do it? has anyone solved or can guide me? my broken fingers will thank you forever.   Title edited by Mod.

I'm a visual media coordinator in a university and am responsible for maintaining our brand identity via all of the content creators we work with. I'd like to be able to use the Adobe libraries for this, as it's useful to be able to share with selected users and also offer editable templates like lower thirds, titles etc.I'm trying to create MOGRTS with some updated branding but am unable to upload any of our new brand assets because there is a 1GB filesize limit. The videos we have use transparencies for transitions so I need to use the ProRes 4444 + alpha codec. I can just about manage with a couple of short 1080 HD assets but there's no chance with the 4k/UHD assets as the idents are around 5GB for a few seconds of footage.Is this something that can be addressed? My only option now is to dump everything on cloud storage, but them I lose the control over users and how they use the assets, plus I can't keep everything relevant and up to date. This 1GB filesize limt just seems like a l

It would be great to have the ability to reshape a Paragraph Text box, using the Pen tool, like I can in many other Adobe apps. User @TheYates wanted to do this a few years ago (see this post: https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/text-inside-custom-path/m-p/12566397) and I've often had to resort to multiple text boxes, adding returns (a pain when I've set some paragraph spacing) etc. which is far from ideal, especially when we do not have any kind of character/paragraph styles (which would also be incredible to have) to easily apply a style to several text boxes.

I would love if I could pin my guide layer to the top layer of my composition as Layer 1. As I bring in footage and elements it moves down.  I'm sure people also have reasons to pin things to the bottom, or multiple layers in multiple places too.  

It always feels odd when you collect a file and you assets are in a folder called "footage". I and many other motion designers call there folder that they store any and all assets "Assets". The first thing that comes to mind when I see Footage is film/video assets and not stills or Audio. It would be cool to have in that dialogue box the option to change the Footage folder name to whatever you want rather than doing it everytime after the fact. 

My animation team as well as myself, have been begging for this feature for a really long time. We are constantly, accidentally clicking on our Work-Area bar, offsetting a couple of frames on a few occasions, and then sending for render, only to discover our opening fade in is half-way through it's transition, or our end is now too long and we have content disappearing. We desperately would like to have the ability to right click on the work-area bar and select "lock". This would maybe put some strikethroughs over the range, similar to a locked layer in Premiere, do show that we can't make adjustments. If you click and try to set it it could say "would you like to unlock and make changes?", or you could right click and "unlock". Huge timesaver for those fire-drill projects that cause the stupid mistakes.Thanks!

This is currently hidden in the Timeline panel > Effects. Adding it to the Effect Controls panel will make it more obvious to users. Most people do most of their effects fiddling within the Effect Controls panel than in the timeline. (Probably?) This should be added at the bottom of every effect (like the current placement in the Timeline panel.), and default to closed to save vertical space. (See attached mockup) Putting it at the top might make someone think these render/calculate before the effect. Setting Compositing Options’ Effect Opacity to 0% renders/calculates faster (as in, always 0ms) than similar parameters within effects that control their own opacity, like “Blend With Original”. (In my limited testing &#x1f605 )