Feedback Request: Changes to 3D view settings for ...

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Jul 29, 2021

Hello! We'd like to get your feedback about changes made in After Effects that affect the default 3D view settings of new comps: When you create a new comp, the Composition panel will now default to a single 3D view (the active camera) with Draft 3D disabled, and the 3D view layouts have been updated. Please let us know how this works for you. Is this how you expect a new comp to behave? The reason for these changes is related to the improvements to the Composition panel toolbar made in After Effects 18.0. The toolbar has been de-cluttered so that it is easier to find and use the controls. This includes only showing the 3D controls when there are 3D layers in the comp. Many of you let us know about a problem with this. If you have changed your 3D view settings, when you create a new comp it will inherit the 3D view settings of the previous comp, but since there are no 3D layers in a brand new comp the controls aren't visible and you can't change any of the settings! To fix this, we spent some time iterating on the experience of creating new comps and switching 3D views. While some of these changes have already shipped in After Effects 18.4, others are only in After Effects Beta (bolded text in the list below). Regardless, we'd like to get your overall impressions of these improvements. Here's what has changed: When you create a new comp, it will always be set to: Draft 3D off View Layout at 1 View 3D View at Active Camera (Default Camera) Note: The 3D controls remain hidden in a new comp until a 3D layer is created. The only thing that has changed are their defaults in new comp. Changes to 3D View Layouts: The 3D View Layout menu (i.e., 1, 2, or 4 views) is now accessible via the application View menu > Switch View Layout. When you switch the View Layout to 2 or 4 views, there are new defaults for the individual views: 2 Views: Active Camera (on the left) and Default Camera (on the right) 4 Views: Active Camera (top left), Top (top right). Front (lower right), and Right (lower left) Individual 3D Views are not shared between view layouts. For example, if you switch the 1 View layout to use the Bottom view, and then switch to 2 Views or 4 Views, the Bottom view will not be present (unless you had previously assigned it to one of the views in those layouts). All of that is pretty straightforward, and hopefully the result is a smooth experience when you're working with 3D in After Effects. Under the hood, new logic needed to be added. In previous releases of After Effects, creating a new comp would simply duplicate the view settings of the previous comp you were looking at. Now, as part of our continued refinement of 3D workflows, After Effects has some logic for what 3D view settings it uses by default. Please let us know what you think of these changes. Thanks!

Tim Kurkoski · ‎May 28, 2021

My AE does not remember this preference for some reason -- I would uncheck it, then it'd reset it when I reboot AE. How do I make a permanent change? By @nhara That's unusual. I'm not experiencing this problem on my machine, so I'd like to explore this further with you. Can you please tell me: Which exact version of After Effects you're using, from the Help > About dialog. Also, is this the public release or the Beta release? The current public release is 18.2, and in the rest of my message I will assume you are using that. If you are not, please update and test the problem with 18.2. Which OS you are using. If macOS, please state the full version (ex. 10.15.7 or 11.3). What language your OS and After Effects are running in. I'd also like you to try resetting the preferences, and if that doesn't solve the problem, I'd like to get copies of the preferences files in the before/after states. Please follow these instructions: In After Effects, open Preferences > General. Click the Reveal Preferences in Explorer/Finder button at the bottom. This will open the folder where the preferences files are. Quit After Effects. In the preferences folder, navigate up one level. This will be the Adobe/After Effects folder and you'll see folders for each release of After Effects that you've used on this machine (18.0, 18.1, 18.2, etc.). Move (don't copy, just move) the 18.2 folder to your desktop and rename it "My 18.2". You may want to recover these later. Leave this Adobe/After Effects folder open for later steps. Launch After Effects. It will ask if you want to migrate preferences, choose Do Not Migrate. Quit After Effects and look in the Adobe/After Effects folder from step 3, there should be a new 18.2 folder there. Copy it (don't move, but copy) it to your desktop and rename it "Fresh 18.2". Launch After Effects. Open Preferences > 3D and change the options as you desire. Quit After Effects and look in the Adobe/After Effects folder from step 3 again. Copy the 18.2 folder to the desktop again, and call this one "3D options disabled 18.2". Launch After Effects. Check and see if the options have re-enabled themselves or not. If they have, immediately quit and make another copy of the preferences folder, call it "Problem state 18.2" If the options have not re-enabled themselves, continue working until the problem occurs, and then make the copy of the folder, "Problem state 18.2". Please DM me via this forum and send me the three copies of the 18.2 preferences folder, "Fresh 18.2", "3D options disabled 18.2", and "Problem state 18.2". The files aren't large, but you can zip them up if that's helpful.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Apr 21, 2021

Thanks for the kind words, @martialC! I was wondering if the option to have 4 3d views separated with one main panel and 3 other small ones on the left/right/top/bottom have been removed cause that is the configuration I used the most and it was really handy, but I can't find that option anymore in the update with the new toolbar. You're not missing anything; the views that included unequal divisions were removed. During our research phase for the improved toolbar, our user interviews suggested those views were little-used and were just cluttering the menu. That said, we're open to restoring them if the functionality is important to common workflows. I strongly urge you to post this as a request at our UserVoice site so it can gain visibility and votes: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/ As a workaround, I recommend you create multiple Composition viewer panels and arrange them as you'd like, and save that as a workspace. Also another thing I noticed is that the toolbar doesn't display well when there's a system display scaling on a 4k monitor on windows (like scaling the display top 125% for example) the toolbar seems to disapear far to the left Could you please provide a screenshot? I tested multiple monitor scaling settings on my Windows machine just now and the toolbar is behaving as I expect it. So I'm clear on where the problem is. A visual and more description of the problem would be helpful. Thanks!

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Mar 12, 2021

Hi Paul, Thanks for this post. There is a change in After Effects 18.0 that causes this. tl;dr - Create a 3D layer (any layer with the 3D layer switch enabled, or a camera or a light), and the View Layout menu will come back. The team is looking at how to make these workflows better. As part of the improved Composition panel toolbar, 3D controls only appear in the toolbar when there is at least one 3D layer in the comp. This includes the View Layout menu (1, 2, or 4 views), the 3D View menu, the 3D Renderer menu, and the new Draft 3D and 3D Ground Plane buttons. There's a bit of an unanticipated, sticky problem here that when you create a new comp: the Composition viewer panel for that comp will inherit its view settings from the previous comp. This is how After Effects has worked for a long time, but the change to only show the 3D controls when 3D layers are present brings a new wrinkle. Thus, if you had changed the view layout (as you did) to something other than a single view, the new comp will be showing that same set of views but the controls to change the views won't appear until you make a layer 3D. We're actively discussing the best way to address this problem. While I've got your attention, I have a question: the View Layouts are primarily designed for 3D workflows (so you can view top, sides, etc. of 3D layers while working in 3D space). However, because the individual views can all hold different comp viewer settings like alpha channel, transparency grid, etc., they can also be used for 2D work, similar to having 2 independent Composition panels open for the same comp. Are you using the View Layouts only for 3D work or are you also using them for 2D work?

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Feb 22, 2021

Thank you for reporting this bug. We're aware of the problem and are working on a fix.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Feb 19, 2021

Hello! Today we’re introducing new UI in After Effects Beta that helps you visualize when 3D layers are rendered together. The new binning indicators for 3D layers show you which 3D layers render together in the same 3D space, which allows them to intersect and cast shadows on each other. We call such a group of 3D layers a “bin”. Starting in After Effects Beta version 18.1.0.3, you’ll see new icons in for 3D layers the 3D Layer column in the Timeline panel. An outline around the 3D icons indicates which layers are in the same 3D bin and thus render together. Here's an example of what it looks like: It’s important to understand that this new UI does not change how After Effects renders 3D layers. The 3D binning indicators are only a UI enhancement, part of our ongoing effort to improve the experience of working in 3D in After Effects. What We Want to Know We want to know what you think about the new 3D binning indicators: What are your overall impressions? Is there anything we can do to better communicate what is happening with 3D layers in your project? Have you run into any confusing scenarios with the new UI? Any specific examples and/or screenshots you can share? We appreciate any feedback you can provide as the After Effects team continues to improve 3D workflows. What’s New Quick summary: Only the indicators are new. These new 3D binning indicators are useful because it gives you a visual map of how After Effects composites 2D and 3D layers together, which hasn’t changed much since 3D layers were introduced twenty years ago. When a comp contains both 2D and 3D layers, their order in the layer stack matters: contiguous 3D layers will render together in the same 3D space prior to being composited with 2D layers. Another way of phrasing this is that when 2D layers are in-between 3D layers, they prevent the 3D layers from rendering together. That’s an oversimplification (keep reading for more details) but gives you the basics of the logic After Effects uses in these cases. When 3D layers render together, we call this group of layers a “bin”. The new binning indicators show you which layers are in the same bin by drawing a line around the 3D layer switch for those layers. There are a few different types of layers that will cause bins to be separated. We call such separating layers “bin breakers”. Bin-breaking layers include: All 2D layers except null layers 3D adjustment layers 3D layers with layer styles Nested composition layers with the following conditions: the 3D layer switch is enabled; the Collapse Transformation switch is enabled; and the layer has a layer mask OR a track matte You will also see a dotted line around some layers’ 3D icons, such as null layers, cameras, or lights that are in-between other 3D layers. The dotted lines indicate that this layer doesn’t participate in the bin, but it doesn’t break the bin. Cameras and lights, for example, are inherently 3D and will affect all 3D layers in the comp, therefore, they don’t directly participate in bins. Disabling a 3D layer’s visibility (i.e. turning off the layer’s visibility eyeball switch) removes that layer from the bin. It may break the bin or simply not participate, depending on what’s above or below it. In addition to the 3D binning indicators, some layer types have new 3D icons that help you identify if the layer renders in 3D or if it only has properties that affect 3D rendering, like a 3D null or a collapsed, nested composition. Known Issues Text layers with Per-Character 3D enabled do not show the 3D binning indicator line around their 3D icon. Thank you! We’re looking forward to your feedback. (Use this Beta forum thread to discuss this feature and share your feedback with the After Effects team and other Beta users. If you encounter a bug while using this feature, let us know by posting a reply here or choosing "Report a bug" from the "Provide feedback" icon in the top-right corner of the app.)

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Feb 10, 2021

Thanks for reporting and providing a screen recording. Unfortunately, the screen recording did not capture the error message. Could you post a screenshot?

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Feb 10, 2021

Thanks for reporting, Rene. I assume that this is the same issue that @Jeff Almasol has already reported (unless he tells me otherwise).

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Feb 10, 2021

Thanks for the feedback, @Rene Andritsch. We've passed it along to our UI designers. Quite a bit of research, including validating designs with users, went into all of the changes we're making to the 3D experience in After Effects. This includes the Composition panel toolbar. > Would it be possible to give the user the an adjustable toolbar? That is something I'd also like to see. But it is a larger, longer-term project. The intent of the current changes being made to the Composition panel toolbar is to clean up UI that has grown over almost 30 years and needed some pruning. That said, I've poked our UI designers about this, too. Are you familiar with the customizable toolbar in the Program and Source monitor panels in Premiere Pro? Would that set of functionality work for you in After Effects?

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Feb 09, 2021

Greetings! We’d like to introduce you to two new features in After Effects Beta, available today in version 18.0.0.20 and later: Redesigned Composition Panel Toolbar: The row of buttons at the bottom of the Composition panel has been streamlined and re-organized to show only the most used features. 3D options are now contextual and won’t get in your way when you don’t have 3D layers in your comp. Settings that are no longer accessible via the toolbar, such as pixel aspect ratio correction, can still be controlled via the Composition window menu. 3D Ground Plane button: When Draft 3D is enabled, a new button in the toolbar at the bottom of the Composition panel allows you enable or disable a ground plane in the comp’s 3D space. What We Want to Know We want your feedback on these features. Primarily: Does the redesigned Composition panel toolbar improve your workflow? What would you change? How does the 3D ground plane feel? Is it helpful when working in 3D comps? What’s New Changes to the Composition panel toolbar and related functionality include: The most used controls have been reorganized and moved to the left side of the toolbar. 3D controls have been moved to the right side of the toolbar and only appear when there is at least one 3D layer in the comp. The new Draft 3D button enables or disables the new real-time draft 3D renderer introduced to After Effects Beta last October. This feature was previously enabled by changing the Fast Previews mode to Fast Draft. Please note the real-time draft 3D renderer is different from the Timeline panel “Draft 3D” control, which has been removed. The new 3D Ground Plane button enables or disables the 3D ground plane when Draft 3D is enabled. The 3D ground plane was also introduced last October, but could not be disabled. Improvements and bug fixes have also been made to the 3D ground plane. The new 3D Renderer menu allows you to switch between composition 3D renderers without opening the Composition Settings dialog. 3D Reference Axes are now enabled by default. (This was added to After Effects 17.7, also released today.) They can be disabled via the Grids and Guides Options menu, on the left side of the toolbar. The Select View Layout menu has been streamlined. The Fast Previews menu has been streamlined. Fast Draft is now known as Draft 3D and is controlled by the button on the right side of the toolbar. Draft mode has been removed; it is no longer applicable. The Renderer Options command is now in the 3D Renderer menu on the right side of the toolbar. Controls that don’t need to be within easy reach have been moved to commands in the Composition panel’s menu (the three-bar menu button on the panel’s tab): Always Preview This View, Primary Viewer, and Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction. Pixel Aspect Ratio correction is now enabled by default. Controls with low usage have been removed: Adobe Immersive Environment, Show Timeline, and Show Composition Flowchart. (The Timeline and Flowchart panels can still be opened from the Window menu, if not currently open in your workspace.) Known issues: The Exposure value (for previewing HDR overbright values) can’t be adjusted; the Adjust Exposure hottext is missing. This has been fixed as of After Effects 18.0.0.21. The 3D ground plane is not always positioned at the center of the comp. The Composition panel toolbar has a gradient between the controls on the left and the 3D controls on the right. There is a dark line above the Composition panel toolbar. Thank you! We’re looking forward to your feedback. (Use this Beta forum thread to discuss this feature and share your feedback with the After Effects team and other Beta users. If you encounter a bug while using this feature, let us know by posting a reply here or choosing "Report a bug" from the "Provide feedback" icon in the top-right corner of the app.)

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Feb 08, 2021

Thanks for the report. We're aware that some Windows machines will crash when enabling Fast Draft in After Effects Beta. We're working on a solution for this, which I hope will be available in the next couple of days. In the meantime, in the latest build of After Effects Beta (as of Feb 8, build 18.0x17), you can work around the problem by running After Effects Beta as an administrator. (Go to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects (Beta)\Support Files, right-click on AfterFX.exe and choose Run as Adminstrator.) This step will, of course, not be necessary once we fix the bug.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Jan 29, 2021

Thank you for reporting this. This is a known issue in the current builds of After Effects Beta. On some Windows machines, attempting to initialize the new Fast Draft 3D engine will fail and cause After Effects to hang, and the app must be forced to close. More recent builds may crash outright without hanging. It doesn't happen on macOS, and we're still unclear why this condition only occurs on some Windows machines but not others (and even then, not 100% of the time). My own Windows machine is affected, its configuration is very similar to yours. Our developers are deep in the problem as we speak, often using my machine for debugging, and I'm getting daily updates from them. I don't have a timeline for when this will be fixed, but just to reiterate, we're working on it now. Sorry, I can't answer your question about DirectX. I don't have first-hand knowledge, and even if I did, it might not be something we're ready to announce.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Dec 08, 2020

Thanks for reporting this. We can confirm that in After Effects Beta (version 17.6, as of build 33) on Windows, the new Fast Draft renderer is not behaving well and can cause After Effects to hang, and then crash. We're investigating the problem.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Nov 09, 2020

Thank you for reporting this. When I use the LiebeGerda font in After Effects 17.5, the bold and italic variations are slow to render and cause the UI of After Effects to slow down momentarily. Something is definitely weird here, and seems specific to this font, so I've filed a bug for the team to investigate.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Nov 06, 2020

On the frame you're adding new strokes, is the existing propagation going forward or backwards? You can tell the difference by the direction of the green arrows in the Roto Brush propagation span bar, below the time ruler in the Layer panel. This is important, because if you add strokes, they will only propagate forwards OR backwards, depending on which direction the propagation is already going. Propagation only works in one direction at a time from the base frame (the first frame you draw strokes on, represented by the green rectangle with the dot in the middle). If you need to change the Roto Brush propagation in both directions from a given frame, you should create a new span. Drag the one of the blue end points of the existing span to the end of where the existing propagation is OK, then move the CTI to the frame where you want to create the new base frame for propagation and draw new Roto Brush strokes. Then propagate the new span backwards and/or forwards as necessary.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Nov 06, 2020

To propagate Roto Brush backwards from the current frame, you need to go frame-by-frame by using the keyboard shortcut for previous frame, Page Up, or use the Previous Frame button in the Preview panel.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Nov 05, 2020

Thank you for reporting this bug. We're aware of this problem and are investigating a fix for a future release. Specifically, the bug is that when using the new Fast Draft renderer, actions that redraw the Composition panel but not the contents of the comp, such as panning or resizing the panel, cause it to draw as black until you interact with the comp to force it to redraw again. This problem only occurs on Windows, the bug doesn't occur on Mac.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Nov 03, 2020

The tools you have highlighted in the toolbar are the new 3D camera tools in After Effects 17.5. (Not the 3D transform gizmos.) Instead of a single Unified Camera Tool, After Effects now offers different camera tools, similar to 3D modeling applications. Full details are here: https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/user-guide.html/after-effects/using/work-in-3D-space.ug.html You can activate the old-style Unified Camera Tool by holding the Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key while the mouse cursor is over the composition. Note: there is a bug in After Effects 17.5 which causes the Option/Alt behavior to incorrectly override the alternate behaviors of other tools, like the Zoom and Pen tools. This bug is fixed in After Effects Beta, which you can install from the Creative Cloud desktop app. Also note that you can disable this Option/Alt behavior, and thus avoid the bug, by disabling the new "Activate Option/Alt Left/Middle/Right..." option in Preferences > 3D.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 29, 2020

Update 29 Oct 2020 Fixes for several problems where holding the Option/Alt key incorrectly activated the camera tool are now available in After Effects Beta, build 17.5.1×41 or later. You can test these fixes by installing or updating After Effects Beta via the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 29, 2020

Update 29 Oct 2020 Fixes for several problems where holding the Option/Alt key incorrectly activated the camera tool are now available in After Effects Beta, build 17.5.1×41 or later. You can test these fixes by installing or updating After Effects Beta via the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 29, 2020

Update 29 Oct 2020 Fixes for this, and other problems where holding the Option/Alt key incorrectly activated the camera tool, are now available in After Effects Beta, build 17.5.1×41 or later. You can test these fixes by installing or updating After Effects Beta via the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 29, 2020

Update 29 Oct 2020 Fixes for several problems where holding the Option/Alt key incorrect activated the camera tool are now available in After Effects Beta, build 17.5.1×41 or later. You can test these fixes by installing or updating After Effects Beta via the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 29, 2020

In After Effects 17.5, the 1-6 keys in the number row now activate the new camera navigation tools and 3D transform gizmo modes. There is a preference to disable this and return the 1-6 keyboard shortcuts to navigate to the 1-6 markers. Go to Preferences > 3D and disable the "Use 1/2/3 for navigation and 4/5/6 for transform gizmos" option.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 29, 2020

The October 2020 release of After Effects is not branded as "2021". This release is version 17.5 of After Effects, which is a update to the previous 17.x releases. You can update your existing install of After Effects to 17.5 by updating it in the Creative Cloud desktop app. (Look for the Updates category on the left side of the Apps tab.)

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 29, 2020

To be clear: this is new behavior in After Effects 17.5. By default the 1/2/3 keys are now assigned to the new camera navigation tools, and the 4/5/6 keys are assigned to the 3D transform gizmo modes. To disable this behavior and return the 1-6 keys to markers, turn off the "Use 1/2/3..." option in Preferences > 3D. We're not planning on changing this behavior, as it is an intentional change to AE's defaults and not considered a bug. However, if you dislike the defaults or would like to see other changes, please submit an idea with what you'd like to see improved here: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 28, 2020

The 1-6 keys in the number row now, by default, activate the new camera navigation tools and 3D transform gizmo modes. There is a preference to disable this and return the 1-6 keyboard shortcuts to navigate to the 1-6 markers. Go to Preferences > 3D and disable the "Use 1/2/3 for navigation and 4/5/6 for transform gizmos" option.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 27, 2020

Do you have both the Footage panel and Composition panel open? If so, this is a known issue in After Effects 17.5. You can work around the problem by closing the Footage panel. A fix for this is in the latest build of After Effects Beta (17.5.1). Please install the beta build via the Creative Cloud desktop app and let us know if the results.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 27, 2020

Thank you for reporting this. I can confirm that this is a bug in After Effects 17.5. It looks like the code that the improved camera tools use is a little overzealous in when it takes over the keyboard shortcuts. The team is aware and we’ll look at fixing this for a future update. Until a fix is available, you can work around this by disabling the new Option/Alt keyboard behavior for the camera tools. Go to Preferences > 3D and uncheck Activate Option/Alt – Left / Middle / Right mouse click for camera navigation.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 26, 2020

Hi @marlewies , Thank you for filing the bug. As I mentioned on the UserVoice post, this is a known issue that occurs when you have the Footage panel docked next to the Composition panel. We've fixed this bug in the latest After Effects Beta build. Please download that and let us know if it was successful.

Tim Kurkoski · ‎Oct 26, 2020

Hi galen@bigfott.com , You're not going crazy. There's a bug in After Effects 17.5 where the new camera tools are a little overzealous in overriding the behavior of other tools when you hold the Option/Alt key. There's a workaround and we're working on a fix, more information here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects/help-option-key-switches-to-camera-tool-since-update-2020/td-p/11529754?page=1 -=Tim

Tim Kurkoski

Tim Kurkoski

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