Thoughts about important updates

Hello everyone,

I only use After Effects with ACES 32-bit. That's why my wish list only refers to effects that support 32-bit.
I hope this will not only be helpful, but also show what could make this programme more popular.

1. There is no denoiser or renoiser for the 32-bit version. And even if existing 16 effects were optimised for 32-bit, these effects would be 10 years behind the times. Currently, it is necessary to purchase DaVinci separately, add or remove noise there, and then export it to After Effects.

2. The camera lens blur is far too limited. This effect needs to be updated, as absolutely every other programme offers more bokeh options than this one. Even Premiere has announced an effects library that can create better bokeh than After Effects, which is very strange.

3. Rotoskoping gets worse with every update. In my opinion, the best version is V25.1. But even this is much too slow or much too inaccurate compared to other options such as magic mask in DaVinci. Here, you have to go back to DaVinci and export for After Effects. The biggest problem with the tool in After Effects is that the refinement brush does not follow the contour of the Roto brush, which is incomprehensible to me. When the light in the scene changes stroboscopically and the Roto Brush follows the contour cleanly, the refinement brush completely freaks out. AI is much more advanced today than what After Effects offers, and I am very sure that a mind-blowing improvement is possible.

4. Working with mask effects: I have already mentioned in a post that these should function more like stencils and not be determined by the position and scaling of the layer.

5. It would be good if After Effects didn't blindly interpret all imported footage as ACES2065-1. Sometimes it says that After Effects has recognized the footage as rec 709, but still interprets it as ACES. Completely incomprehensible.
It would be good if After Effects didn't blindly interpret all imported footage as ACES2065-1. Sometimes it says that After Effects has recognized the footage as rec 709, but still interprets it as ACES. Completely confusing.

6. It would be good to make all effects, or as many as possible, accessible for 32-bit as well. For example, why is Vibrance still in 16? Is it because it needs a 100% limit? Can't that be worked around? Color Boost in Davinci does the same job in 32-bit depth.

7. Tracking can now also be done with AI using photogrammetry, which would be a brilliant option to switch to. The free point tracking system, where you track more points yourself, could create a 3D camera as a result. Then it would be similar to the solution in Blender. What is definitely missing is a preview of the track points you select. A square window that displays the track point live. This allows you to see very clearly if there is any deviation, even if the footage is blurry. And while we're at it, a lens distortion pipeline is essential if you want to create clean, professional tracks. This needs to be built into the track, either with precise AI recognition or presets, or the ability to interpret distortion grids. Mask tracking can also be improved, perhaps with better shape recognition.

8. Removing objects in After Effects is only possible in a tutorial. When it comes to real shots, you can forget about it. Manual frame-by-frame retouching in Photoshop is more accurate. Please enhance this with AI. Today, it is possible to replace and remove anything, and it must work with 32-bit. The only workaround right now is to convert the project to ACES CC, create a reference frame, retouch it in Photoshop, update it in After Effects, and switch back to ACES CG. That can't be normal. (This workflow is not optimal because the retouched colors and highlights are not displayed correctly.)

9. Small but annoying 😄 When I save a new render job and select the storage location, can the location be saved by project or render job? Currently, the location that was last used is selected (no matter wich project you worked on). For example: If you create a project file for each shot and render V1 everywhere, it would be good if you could also save V2 in the same folder when duplicating the render job without having to search for it again in the folder structure. This problem arises when you are working on several projects at the same time and have to jump back and forth between them. Then you have to select the new storage location each time. This saves sooooooo much time on a large project with hundreds of shots. 

So, thank you very much for reading this far 🙂 I would be pleased to receive your feedback. These are the most important aspects of my workflow, and perhaps they will be helpful to others as well.

Thank you! 🙂