Feature Requests

Why using Open Project menu command or using shortcut CTRL/CMD+O closes project? It should be closed when I choose to open another project from file browser.

Would be cool if Preview playback didn't render guide layers...

Hi there! The feature has been recently made available for expressions, but it is missing from ExtendScript.We do a lot of rich text, and we would love to be able to query and manipulate text via script. Thanks!

At present, to exit the expression editor using a keyboard, you need to press the "Numpad Enter" key or "fn + Enter" keyboard shortcut (on a Mac). The issue here is that not all keyboards are equipped with either the "Numpad Enter" or the "fn" key. Many keyboards lack both. Therefore, it would be practical to assign the "⌘+Enter" (or "control + enter") keyboard shortcut to exit the expression textbox. This adjustment would allow users to exit the expression textbox using any type of keyboard. 

Mogrts are great in many ways, but still limited in others. Providing overlays for an end user - for social safe zones, for example, or as additional instructions for proper template use or timing - can be very helpful, but requires an additional control they'd need to disable before exporting. Might it be possible to enable Guide Layers to pass through to Premiere, such that they'd be visible to the Premiere user, but would NOT appear in exports? 

due to ongoing client projects, i am required to keep using 2022. i am often sent other projects that have been created in 2023 (and now 2024) that i have to go around the houses to open, and then save backwards so i can work on them in 2022. it would be beneficial - and a big timesaver - if 2022 would just open these "created in a newer version" projects

After working in After Effects for a decade, I have two ideas that would streamline the animation process substantially, especially regarding the tedious process of making changes to timing. Please let me know if there are already features such as these - to my knowledge there are not. The first concept is keyframe groups or linked keyframes.Consider how changing the timing of a simple motion currently works.In this example, lets say we have multiple layers, each with keyframes on multiple attributes (position, scale, transparency, and an effect attribute like brightness). These keyframes line up with their start and end points across layers, but some attributes such as brightness have one additional keyframe in the middle. Lets call all of these keyframes a group. Now imagine that I want to extend the end point across to 5 seconds. A simple task in such a simple example, all I'd have to do is select all the end keyframes and drag them across to my playhead.Easy done. Al

After Effects feature request: Allow me to assign a “common media” folder on my computer that stores often-used assets for templated work. If media can’t be sourced when opening a project, look in that folder first. It’d save lots of labour. I work in a newsroom where we do many templated graphics every day. Each one uses the same 2gb movie file. The feature I requested above would allow us to just store a single version of that file on each machine and never worry about it again. 

Very simple to implement, though ideally as part of a wider update to Collect Files.Currently if you reduce project and collect files for queued comp only, and comps needed for expressions is not included.It would not be difficult to include an expressions check into the process and would prevent a lot of future problems. other things useful:Attempt fix/workaround to prevent over 256 character filenamesMany Many sub-folders and filenames causes issues on Windows. Option not to include sub-folders for PSD/AI layers.Option to match finder/explorer file structure vs project folder structureJust anything to stop every source PSD going into it's own folder just because the layers are in a folder! and get rid of the tiny subject character limit in this forum, it isn't a tweet

After so many years and versions, I think it's about time to add the basic functionality of having swatches in AFX just like in Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Make it possible to upload swatches made in other Adobe applications to make it even more user-friendly! I'm tired of color-picking and copy-pasting!!! 

Hi there,  I'm wondering if the code will allow, it would be great to change the twirl down opreation to click [which opens the effect] to open and when you jump to another effect or property etc the open/active property closes on new selection across all panels. Many thanks, Rich

Would be great to twirl up/down all the Master Properties with a hot keyMaybe pp?

Please add an option to: Precompose selected layers individually.Scenario: I have 100 layers and I need all of them to be in their own separate precompositions.Solution: alt+shift+c - precompose selected layers individually

You really should be able to copy multiple markers from a layer and paste them onto a comp in AE

AE 24.0 scripting updates for TextDocument are much appreciated! I'd like to request adding the items below: TextDocument.strokeOverFill was added. But this gives access to 2 out of 4 options in the Character Panel. Please add the scripting ability to read/write "All Fills over All Strokes" and "All Strokes over All Fills".  Please add read/write access for TextDocument.autoLeadingPlease add write access for TextDocument.horizontalScale and TextDocument.verticalScale

Please add groups in after effects which works like groups in photoshop. we should be able to group layers in the same comp and can view those layers by a dropdown just like photoshop. Precomp will also be avilable but the group should be also an option. Pros:1. We can apply an effect to multiple layer in a group without precomping it.2. we can use trackmatte with the group3. Less need of a null layer to animate multiple layers, we can just group them and animate them ( this will keep our project much cleaner.)

I've always wanted a feature to toggle on and off whether pre-comps in a master comp will "open in place" in that tab in the timeline. I find scrolling through all the comps at the top of the timeline is messy and frustrating when you are going in and out of pre-comps often. So my suggestion would be if a comp is opened from the project panel everything that's opened from inside there stays in that tab. That way if you do want that comp open you can do it from the project panel but it doesn't create unnecessary clutter. Premiere Bins have a similar functionality where they can be "opened in place"Then there can still be an option to make a new tab from that pre-comp if you right-click and makeone but the default setup is "opening in place"Maybe I'm the only one but that would make me happy

I'm currently working on a project in After Effects, and I'm trying acrobatically to decide which mode to use. Instead of just choosing a mode and going by, if we can adjust the effect of mode in After Effects, that would be a Gigantic improvement in my opinion. Instead of null object>mask out>mode>press T>adjust, we would just choose mode and down the effects panel we can just adjust it. From beginner to professional everybody can use this..

I use AI ot PSD files a lot in after effects. (generally it is a good combo).There are two ways to bring in a comp. Retain later size and document size (as I am sure you are aware)But I come up against this problem a lot where I have an ai document in layers linked in after-effects and I need to change the size of a layer in illustrator. This makes the graphics appear to shift in after effects, because the size of the layer has changed. After effects will only keep the pivot where it is even if the graphic has changed.  As I understand it you can re import the illustrator file and the graphics will remain as designed, and you can them re-assimilate into the scene. by pasting the position and anchors from the new import. But if you have 100s of layers this can be a be of a problem. Is there anyway adobe could look at this problem and give some sort of option where the original import layer size is remembered? Maybe there is something already that exhist which I'm missing?

After Effects does not remember the state of effects in the Effect Controls panel when layers or comps are duplicated or copied/pasted. A clean interface is important to me when creating templates. I usually have the effects closed, and just my customization controls are expanded and visible (in a Pseudo Effect). This lets the user know what they should look at or concentrate on. But if a user copies and pastes a layer, duplicates a layer, or duplicates a comp, then After Effects automatically expands every single effect, making a mess of everything. This has bothered me for years. Please consider preserving the closed state of effects. 

Hello,It would be a tremendous workflow improvement to be able to send Marker Spans directly to the Render Queue and to have the marker comment text appended to filename. ( i.e. Filename_MarkerText.mov )Then you would be able to queue multiple frame ranges from single comp without tedious Custom Time Spans and manual renaming. From a markers context menu:- Right-click on a marker span > Add Span to Render Queue From a Layer containing multiple marker spans, perhaps overlapping:- Right-click layer > Add Layer Spans to Render Queue For Composition Markers:- Right-click Composition Marker > Add Span to Render Queue- Right-click empty space in composition timeline > Add All Composition Spans to Render Queue- Composition Menu > Add All Composition Spans to Render Queue

Not much to the idea, just.. it would be nice to have SVG support.

Keyboard shortcuts can already be used to run scripts but they are assigned by index, not name, and are limited to the first 20 scripts in the Scripts folder. If you assign a keyboard shortcut to a script called 'Very Important Script.jsx' and later add another script called 'Another Script.jsx' to the Scripts folder, the keyboard shortcut gets unseated because A comes before V.  Now the shortcut fires whatever script was before Very Important Script in the list of scripts. This is confusing behaviour for most users and is not well documented. It's especially bad because it seems to work by name, until it doesn't. There are a number of videos out there (from very reputable sources), which show users how to assign shortcuts to scripts, but don't explain this issue. Ideally, scripts would be assigned shortcuts by filename, and all the scripts in the Scripts folder would be available. This could also allow developers to access the shortcuts .txt file and add a permanent sho

E.g. Add Grain is of no use, when it comes before layer motion blur.For a good composite, Grain is essential, an Motion Blur is too, but when grain is blurred, it is gone. So, please make Ae more flexible by allowing the user to change the order in which things are rendered.I know, precomping is a work around in a lot of cases, but it can make  a workflow quite messy and inflexible, esspecially when 3d and tracking are involved.

Please add that function next to 'Edit original...' Not all pixel files come from Photoshop, so 'Edit original' often results in opening Preview (MacOS).But I would like to force After Effects to open Photoshop to edit certain files. Shouldn't be a big deal. Adobe InDesign has an 'Edit with...' option, which does exactly what we need.