Inspiring

Question

AFTER EFFECTS WISHLIST

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
August 31, 2009
203 replies
212717 views

What features would you like to see implemented in After Effects? New ideas for plugins? Interface changes? Post 'em here!

Let's keep bug identification to individual posts, as these will probably be addressed more readily. Let's use this thread for specific ideas about ways that AE can be improved and expanded.

These Forums are for users, not Adobe employees, so don't forget to also fill in an Adobe feature request form .

To view the Wish List posts prior to September 2009, look here .

Show previous replies

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slipage

Participant

capture for usb 2 capture devices to bring in analog vhs tapes, etc

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Dan Ramirez

Inspiring

Thanks for all the great feedback guys! There are a lot of fantastic suggestions.

Dan Ramirez

AE QA Engineer

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Mark Moser

Participating Frequently

How about a way to "star" or "favorite" effects, even better, the ability to create custom bins that can store favored effects by whatever grouping I choose (like you can in Premiere)

Huntrex

Participating Frequently

How about making an effect that would "precompose" all of the effects above it. I would think this would be a big time saver for certain situations, considering all the time spent creating and navigating through precomps.

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Anonymous

How about making an effect that would "precompose" all of the effects above it. I would think this would be a big time saver for certain situations, considering all the time spent creating and navigating through precomps.

If I understand correctly what you want, it's there already. It's called CC Composite and lets you pick a mode in which all effects above of it are applied to the original footage item. It can save of layering and pre-Comping. For example, if you wanted to perform selective color correction, you could use any keing effect to isolate a color range, then apply a color correction effect to modify that range, and finally use CC Composite to overlay the keyed/modified range on top of the original content. It's really, really useful.

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Navarro Parker

Inspiring

How about something like After Effects Server?

I'm working on a project where different designers could be working on different comps of the same project. How about the ability for a user to check out specific comps on a project and when saved, will integrated back into the master project file

The standard Import Project way of doing it doesn't have any live linkage to the other project aep. If that aep gets changed, it does not update my imported one. So I have to import the whole thing again.

And if anyone mentions Premiere and Dynamic Link, I don't think I'll be able to stop laughing. Maybe it's magical on Windows. But DL on the Mac has been el stinkbombo since CS4.

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Anonymous

Colorspaces: I don't understand why Adobe has locked itself to 8 and 16bit linear and 32-bit float, all in RGB. We would like to see either YUV processing and/or more efficient bit depths like 16-bit float, perhaps even 12-bit support like the good ol' SGIs. In the process of getting beyond 8-bit linear, let's make sure things don't slow down.

It would also be nice if you had a chat with ATI and Nvidia to see how you can get >8bit support to the monitor now that interfaces like HDMI and Displayport are prevalent.

TimeRemapper

Inspiring

A sampling utility for the pen tool that, prior to drawing the first mask point, samples the RGB values of the region (mean) and automatically chooses a mask color that will provide the most contrast (stand out the best) against whatever you're masking. I use color cycling, color defining (prefs), and I frequently choose a new mask color manually. I think that I must have the worst luck. Every time I click, the mask color generated seems so close to the content! It's a personal battle between AE and I that dates back a decade.

Todd_Kopriva

Inspiring

> A sampling utility for the pen tool that, prior to drawing the first mask point, samples the RGB values of the region (mean) and automatically chooses a mask color that will provide the most contrast (stand out the best) against whatever you're masking.

That's a great feature idea. Be sure to file it here, too:

http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

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Anonymous

BUILT-IN RENDER FARM MANAGER: Yup, I said it. The goal should be to make it as reliable and as intuitive as Cinema 4D's net render code. But then take it a step further and ensure that the correct Plug-ins and Fonts are rolled out to each render node. Allow for unlimited render nodes.

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Anonymous

RAM Preview DO-OVER. Like completely gut the sucker. We need to see an accurate representation and we would like to see them a lot quicker than we currently do. For starters, make OpenGL a 1st class citizen instead of its current bolt-on after thought status. Second, the world has been using interlaced images since the 1920's, yet RAM Preview can't do interlace almost 100 years later. Did you know that interlace is not going away anytime soon?

Even with 64-bit support, there will never be enough RAM in a box. So, how about taking a page from the genius of Bob Courier and implement many of those Echo Fire nuggets that should have been in AE in the first place. My favorite feature was the ability to use a hard disk instead of RAM. I guess it is a little too late because that feature was needed in After Effects 3-9.

Then, how about some accuracy when using the QuickTime Output Component. And while we are at it, make the sucker have reliable real-time frame rates. And just for kicks, spew out YUV to the QuickTime Output Component. Again, make sure the color space conversion is accurate. Fix the darn gamma issues too.

To sum up... Accuracy, Speed, Guaranteed Real-time Frame Rates. Any questions?

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DC_B__09

Known Participant

What about a checkbox-type setting for each layer that will allow them to be omitted in the final render?

Example: I need to render two versions of the same project: first, rated G or for everyone, and second one - rated R.

John Stanowski

Inspiring

Isn't that what the visibility switch is for?

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DC_B__09

Known Participant

John Stanowski wrote:
Isn't that what the visibility switch is for?

Yes and no. That's what I'm using now, but I may have up to 10 layers scattered all over the project and at times it's difficult to locate them all if I need to re-render. Ideally if they had an option to somehow mark those layers and then set them to be rendered or not from the final render screen in one place. That would save me a lot of time.