Feature Requests

Currently there is no way to play video backwards. This is especially tedious when using rotobrush. Although rotobrush has been designed to work backwards from given frames, currently the only way to actually work backwards with rotobrush is to use the page-up keyboard command.  This means you can only work backwards 1 frame at a time, which is very tedious. Other tracking apps easily allow you to track backwards, including the built-in After Effects tracker, as well as Mocha.  The fact that the AE mask tracker and motion tracker can track backwards, but rotobrush cannot, seems like an oversight. And while you're at it, you may as well bring back the option for ping-pong in the preview too!

Guide layers and adjustment layers are "special" and work differently to other layers in a timeline.Can we please have a method to differentiate them that's more visible than just using label colors. The AE interface used to show reversed layers with red stripes through them, so presumably the interface code is able to add some degree of textures to layers in the timeline. Even something as simple as a grid, or checkerboard pattern (that works with the label color) would be useful to instantly identify guide layers and adjustment layers in a composition. I have attached a crude mockup but it's really just a conversation starter. 

Feature Request Hello, Being new to After Effects but a very long time user of Adobe products (in the print world), could I please make a request: please give us the ability to have a light interface as per Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign et al. For those of us coming from the print side of the street, compulsory dark mode is too much.  Many thanks

Please allow Stroke Size <1.0 in Layer Styles Currently, 1.0 is the bottom value.

When distorting a text layer, Corner Pin takes a rectangle of the size of the Comp.This is quite useles. In many situations, we want to distort the bounding box / sourceRectangle; the exact contents of a layer.Please add that as a checkbox to the Corner Pin effect.

I think it would be great if this was an option in the Project Settings, similar to how it worked in Premiere.  I find myself color-coding project items quite often, but if you have already used them throughout multiple comps in your project, then it can become hard to keep the label colors consistent. Having an option like this would make organization much more flexible. It already works for the item's name, so why not the label color as well?

Hey,When a layer is off with the eye shut, the layer in the stack should also be grey out (or textured differently).Keys frame would be available and we should be able to move the layer as normal...but we need a visual feedback to easily identify witch layer is on or off.It is confusing to search for the good layer as it is right now in.Premier is doing it well and it should be implemented in AE also.

I have just started looking into Tumult Hype, and it has a feature which I would love to see in After Effects. The graph editor has an animated line that gives you a preview of the speed of motion it will produce. It's a really quick way to preview the effect of adjustments before previewing in the composition. In the screenshot attached, the blue square is moving from bottom to top with the speed indicated by the graph curve. It can also be seen around 8:05 in this YouTube tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDwKOhNC_Ag&t=485s

In Warp Stabilizer sometimes I want to only use part of the image for tracking - if a moving object is filling a substantial part of the image it can produce unwanted results.It's possible to manually delete the unwanted tracking points but this is very tedious. It would be very useful to be able to draw rough masks and use only the trackers within (or outside) that mask.

It would be very useful if the 'smoothness' of the Warp Stabilizer could be separated in pan, tilt and roll.Quite often I'd prefer to stabilize much more of the 'roll' than the pan or tilt. But there's no option at the moment. 

Hi everyone!When will we see AE take advantage of the performance of modern GPUs to improve workflow and final rendering? This improvement would be very welcome.For years now, Resolve and 3D programs have been implementing more and more GPU usage, but AE has stalled in time. Can we fix this?If it's not a primary guideline I'll understand, but I don't think it's just me who thinks that we could improve app speed a lot with the use of the GPU.Best regards

When a new Project is created, and it is still empty - no assets - the Save command is greyed out. Why?I like to Save my project immediately, so I can't forget, and to start the Auto-Save schedule. Please make Save available always, and make it 'Save As...' when the project is Untitled. Just like other (Adobe) apps do.

Similar to workspaces menu that allows a quick reset for different setups - minimal layout for laptop only, or everything within reach for a 2 monitor setup - it would be great if there was a monitor in which I could quickly choose where I am - just on my laptop travelling, at home with my laptop + 2 monitor setup and all the hard drives, or at some other random location.  This would automatically choose media cache and disk cache location and autosave location, rather than having to manually reset each setting when you get back home. The popup message that your media cache location can't be found, could then be used to ask you, 'We can't find your media cache location, choose where you are now', or even better also give you the opportunity to rescan for that hard drive if you happened to forget to reconnect it before you started After Effects or Premiere. It could sit next to the workspaces menu. 

Bonjour!I was wondering if there's any way to add a nifty new option in the Timeline panel. Basically, I'd love to have the ability to search for things only at the property level, and not have the search function scouring the entire expression. Don't get me wrong, searching at the expression level can be handy too, but having the option to separate the two would be fantastic!I hope you don't mind my asking, and thanks so much for considering this request!

What if under effects there's a draggable parameter that auto removes background with precision? We see the tech being used alot in virtual calls, for example in Teams, Google meet or Instagram and Facebook filters replacing background with virtual backgrounds and they can do that real time while on call. Rotobrush already exist yes but it's too bulky and inefficient. These background remover effects are way lighter and quicker to use. Is that possible?

Workflow issue:A large 2 GB background file is referenced in all AE projects. When you then collect the files, this large file is collected in all projects. This will overload the server's storage capacity.Idea:In the "Collect Files" dialog, provide an exclusion option for which file should not be collected. Add an additional path entry to automatically search for the desired file on the server, so that the large file is only stored once on the server.

Would be great to have a panel that is for notes. Basically a text file that opens into the workspace where we can make project notes and then be able to save that file as a txt.

untill now AE don't have this very usefull feature "exclude an layer from the adjustment layer" . i think this feature should be in after effect. now adjustment layer will affect all layers below and  no way to exclude an layer out.

I have come across a situation I am hoping Adobe can work with us users. ISSUE:I have nested comps that are a few comps deep. I need to access information from the grandparent of the child, but I cannot flow upstream. IE: MC_Container_A / MC_Framwork / MC_Footage.I need MC_Footage to access information from MC_Container_A. WORKAROUND:From many trial and errors I have work around where I have to name all the comps with the same trailing name. (A)IE: MC_Container_A / MC_Framework_A / MC_Footage_AI then access the comp name replace the "Footage" with "Container" in my code and access the information I need.While this is a decent workaround, the issue is I now have to rename all my comps in the project library and when there are tons of comps to rename and duplicate it gets a bit tiresome. SOLUTION:As I have been looking at your "Flowchart" view this has the very thing I need. Each comp has a flow and even when a comp is nested in several different comps, it has its own

EaseCopy (https://aescripts.com/easecopy/) is about the plugin I use the most on AE. It's so simple, and so useful I can't even imagine anyone that doesn't have it docked in their workspace. Forever.  It's free too!  I'd say it should ship standard with After Effects. I hate that even the simplest plugin is a hassle to install on my work machines because of IT bureaucracy. I honestly have a list of free plugins (and a few paid ones - Overlord anyone?) that I believe should all come standard with AE. But since one idea per topic, this one is for EaseCopy.

Does anyone use this community forum? Google first right?

Would love to see this. Such a simple idea.

Just a suggestion, maybe im crazy but it seems like a blinking square would be an obvious thing to include i the options. Would love to see that added in a future update! (like the old alien movies unless im misremembering) love this new feature!!

I'm sure this has been requested before. PLEASE can the app icon colours be differentiated. Currently AE, PR, ME and AU are all purple. It's annoying when one is trying to launch one of them.

Please, for the sake of my ears, lower the levels of these sound effects. Neighbors three houses away know when I finish a render. My family who lives in a different state is aware when my renders fail. Astronauts currently on the ISS are perpetually updated about every time I take a snapshot. Every new update, I manually go in and lower the levels of the files, but then every time I update I forget and the first render that happens shatters mirror and cracks drywall. Please, -10 dB on these. Heck, -15!