Feature Requests

When using the roto brush, once you're happy with your result you click on 'Freeze'. Once it's finished 'freezing' it still says 'freeze'. I suggest that this should now say 'Un-freeze'. It's a small thing, but it's bothered me forever.

Now that After Effects is slowly introducing features that free the user up from the horrors of layer-based compositing (e,g, the new pick-wip track matte feature), it's time that a compositing option was introduced that allows an effect to be matted using the luma or alpha of another layer. Logically, this would exist in the current drop-down that allows masks to reveal/hide an effect. In addition to using masks, there could be an option to use a layer, with a pick-wip to select, and buttons for luma/alpha and invert, just like the current track matte options. Currently the closest way of doing this is to use an adjustment layer and track matte but it can quickly get very messy and that method has many limitations especially once a composition uses 3D layers.

The Gradient Ramp effect becomes a lot more versatile when a blending mode / compositing mode dropdown menu would be added.

Enable CTRL/CMD + Backspace to delete entire word left of cursor on layer/folder names & text boxes which would greatly increase workflow / organization speeds in After Effects and Premiere. Currently when you hit the keyboard command you insert what's either an unknown character or just a box that reads as a space when you close the edit, which isn't as useful and if that's a needed command it could be assigned to something that isn't already a standard and regular use command within an OS. So at the very least being able to reassign the command would be extremely useful but it doesn't show up in the keyboard commands as an option.

It's currently impossible within expressions to set the width or height of a Paragraph Text box.This would be a massively helpful feature for text-based templates and animations.

There is an issue with how layer duplication currently works, and I got myself confused. However, an Adobe employee suggested submitting this as a new Idea. The IdeaEither make the duplicates appear under the original by default, or create a checkbox that enables this behavior in the Properties. Alternatively, add a separate command/hotkey (e.g., Alt+D). It would be even better if users could also specify how many layers to duplicate, perhaps on a dedicated panel/tab. Additionally, please add the missing condition check that causes the issue. The IssueThe issue impacts the attached Effects that contain pulldown attributes for layer selection (propertyValueType == 6421), e.g., SetMatte or CC Composite. If that property points to its host layer (i.e., self, index n) and the layer gets duplicated, the host layer moves one position down to index n+1. Yet, the Effect still points to index n, not n+1, which breaks the behavior of the Effect. How Will the Idea Help My Workflow?

Might be a pretty Niche feature request, but its been bugging me for a while, that Im not able to manipulate the blending mode via expressions or keyframes.In my specific case, I work with data driven animation and Im changing the color of a layer based on certain conditions. My layer has to be either Red, Green, Blue or Silhouette Alpha.My workaround for now is creating an extra layer above my main layer, that has its blending mode to Silhouette Alpha and matte it to that layer. Then I add an expression to that layers opacity, to make it turn on/off based on the conditions. Apart from my usecase I think it could also add a lot of creative flexibility being able to animate between all the different blending modes.

I wanna link each key to an In or Out point. If I change the In point, the position of all keys change 

When working with the region Of Interest, unfortunately there is no shortcut to crop. Please add that to the contextual menu when right clicking the icon.

Hi. Is there any way to lock a shape? I have quite complex layer with lots of shapes and when ever I try to select the layer and move it, it selects shape points and tries to move those. It's quite anoying. Only way to move it is with arrow keys on keyboard. So, is there a trick for this? Mikko

Everytime I open a library in AE it gives me this tooltip that sometimes doesn't even go away with 1 click. Firstly - make the library window remember the last library openSecondly - remove the redundant tooltip from EVERY library use   

Erweiterung der Ersetzen-Funktion (alt-drag footage from project panel onto layer in timeline) um die Möglichkeit, den im Footage-Fenster gesetzten In-Punkt beizubehalten, so dass der Clip in der Timeline nach Ersetzen genau an dem Punkt startet. Momentan wird ja der Layer immer mit dem Anfang des neuen Clips ersetzt.

It would be great to be able to set a customisable quantize grid that we can snap keyframes to when working with music. Similar to how a beat grid works in any standard music DAW.   

Camera layers, Lights, Sound, these layers will never have effects applied to them, why would we display an empty effects panel and waste AE screen real-estate, while it could be the perfect place to control the properties for these layers?Think about other properties like shape layers for example and how easy it would be to just control their properties in the effect/properties panel!Here is how that could work: http://www.sandervandijk.tv/after-effects-features/effects#property-controls

Hey all, I'm building MOGRTs more and more, and I often use a ton of expressions as I find it can really help speed up the animation workflow. I'd like to ask for some kind of global object to use in expressions.  This would make expressions many times more efficient and lightweight to run.  It could be a global function or class, but I think an object would be preferable. An example from a recent project is where there are many moving elements that are adjustable via the EGP (essential graphics panel).  Depending on the user inputs in EGP, the layers move differently or at different times.  Due to the way AFX expressions work, I had to write a script and then copy and modify it for every single layer, and in that script there was a lot of duplication in the script.  When there was an amendment to the script, I had to edit every instance of that script and account for any unique properties of that layer. Imagine then, I have a global object that

I can't draw a mask on an EXR file. (I can, but no effect)Bug or do I something wrong? Or just not featured?

It is not a good UX to have the operation interrupted every time Auto Save is performed.Have Adobe considered background processing for Auto Save?

Enable marking and copying error messages to quickly search for them online.It is a pain in the ass to self write your error messages to google.Maybe you implement a "Search online" Button, next to the "Ok"Button, when the Error window is appearing.THX

(For anyone searching, this may also be called the “File Name and Location Template”.) Currently you can only edit the output destination templates from the Render Queue panel. The Render Settings and Output Modules templates can also be edited from the queue, but also under the Edit menu > Templates. The output destinations should also be added here because many users (most users??) are unaware this exists. Bonus round: the output destinations template editor should have an export/import functionality like Render Settings and Output Modules editors. Double Bonus: All three template editors should be accessible from After Effects Preferences/Settings dialog for increased visibility.

Why isn't the output destination information stored in aep?When working on multiple projects simultaneously, it is necessary to specify the output destination each time, which is very annoying.Either the destination information should be recorded in aep, or the destination should automatically become the current directory.

Hey folks,1. is there any i can lock certain parts of the timeline not messing other parts? when i took render and send it client. based on the render specific parts they give feedback, while working on their feedback its easy to mess up other parts. so i want to isolate a pertical part of the timeline and my changes only saves to that part. how to do this?2. is there anyway i can scrub timeline with holding hotkey, i remebre in autodesk maya you can hold a hotkey then you can move right and left of your window that moves the viewport timeline in there, can we do that in here for preview moniter or timeline? or why not premier pro's "play head moves cursor" opition not here in after effects? any workaround for these?thanks!

I'm happy with OCIO being implemented but there's still a lots of polish needed.   Viewers One of which is to separate the view from the display for the viewer and output color settings. It is much cleaner to work with over the flattened list we currently need to deal with.   Current: Suggested:   The name labels could be shortened to View and Display if the viewer panel is too small and be removed if even smaller.  Output Module For the Output Module I'd like to see a dedicated 'display bake option'. The current Show All checkbox lists the display+view spaces all the way at the bottom which is unwieldy and functionally doesn't make sense.  Here are two suggested approaches.   Option 1: Where the context of the menus change once the Display Output box is ticked. Option 2: An additional section that becomes enabled when Enable is ticked and the above gets greyed out.   Thank you for reading.

You propably have people asking you that, but it would be just great to have a Onion Skin function at the Ae, so we could see some of the frames/keyframes before or even after. That could help a lot while doing some animation, effects and I think everything, couse you have a more wide view of what you are doing without needing a pre render

Currently the only way to switch between shape and mask creation is to click the icons in the toolbar. The default actions for these tools are well thought out, however I find myself masking shape layers quite often, which while selected default the pen and shape tools to "creates shape" when I almost always need to create a mask. While an option to change the defaults could work, I think an easier solution would just be an additional hotkey or the option to assign one to those buttons. Is this possible?

Please implement a middle-click mouse button to close comps, like the browser does. It's way faster than having to look for the "x" button. Easy for you, easy for the users 🙂Thanks a lot