Inspiring

Question

AFTER EFFECTS WISHLIST

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
August 31, 2009
203 replies
212715 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 .

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S

sillybomb

Inspiring

3 features that may or may not already exist that I'd like to exist:

(please do tell me if it already exists)

When making shape layers, rather than using only merge paths implements - how about an actual mask tool within shape groups?

Or a stencil alpha in the compositing effects dropdown-> then a black shape could act as a clipping mask within a shape layer group

OR within merge paths add a 'path only' option/section that ignores fill values?

usage: for complex shapes where merge paths has undesirable effects.

Grouping layers within comps as has been already suggested

A 'thisGroup' type code for expressions.

Usage example:

Random moustache generator
Expression control slider number (1-5)

5 moustache shapes named 1,2,3,4 & 5

on slider:
- seedRandom(0,1);
- random(1,5);
on each moustache groups transparency
- if(thisGroup.name == effect(moustache number)) 100 else 0;

Easy to then duplicate moustache layers and add more types without modifying code each time

N

nextseason

Participating Frequently

So we were still using CS6 until recently... I know we may have been the last people in the country to get up to date, but we're finally current. The playback in After Effects has been driving me crazy ever since and I was wondering if there were any workarounds or discussion about why they made certain changes...

Problem 1: I hit RAM Preview, I leave After Effects to do something else on my computer, sometimes that thing involves sound... then a minute or three later After Effects finishes previewing and just starts playing audio from that comp, whether I'm actually in AFX or am in something else like Chrome or what have you. This drives me crazy, is there any way to get it to finish its preview but have it wait for me to return to just start playing?

Problem 2: I set in and out points for some portion of my comp, then I preview it... it's not a terribly heavy comp so it previews pretty quickly, but it either plays slowed down audio, or no audio if I set it that way, until it's ready to play in real time. But, by the time it's ready to play in real time it's 2 or 3 or however many seconds into playback. So now I've missed the beginning of what I'm trying to view, and have to wait until it gets to the end and starts over. Sometimes that's 2 seconds, sometimes it's 20 or 30 or more.

So my two issues that I'd like to see options or fixes for (and please do tell me if I'm missing some settings somewhere), would be that RAM Preview waits for you to come back to AFX before just playing when it finishes, and that playback doesn't begin until it's ready to actually play the whole thing - basically, like it used to be.

Thanks for looking.

Peter A Lund

Inspiring

I would love to have finally a new way to map our shortcuts.

Something that works beyond editing a text file

Something that shows me the keyboard or maybe some other interface

what do you thing ?

kind regards

rejoice in the way things are.When you realize there is nothing lacking,the whole world belongs to you.>Be content with what you have;rejoice in the way things are.When you realize there is nothing lacking,the whole world belongs to you.

Peter A Lund

Inspiring

Hey ,

today I have seen that in Premiere you have the ability to connect a midi controller.

I would love to have this in AE.

Imagine how nice it would be , if we could make the functions of particular, so that you could

interact with it.

I use a controller for my vj app and I would not work without it.

What do you think ?

A BCF2000 would be great, or?

kind regards

rejoice in the way things are.When you realize there is nothing lacking,the whole world belongs to you.>Be content with what you have;rejoice in the way things are.When you realize there is nothing lacking,the whole world belongs to you.

Awesome_determination0D4D

Known Participant

I would wish multiple clips in same layer in AE just like PP. As of now, if you have to cut a single stream of video or audio to trim out unwanted data, the newer clips need to be put in new layers. This makes it cumbersome and lot of layers and real estate to manage.

the_dudes

Inspiring

Please NO folder structure in the layer panel. That doesn't clarify structure, or accelerate work. But I really whis AE would have an usable flow chart! Since they already have it, why not make it usable, with multidimensional linking??

Szalam

Community Expert

Are you thinking that the flow chart could be beefed up to bring us a nodal workflow paired with AE's powerful layers-based workflow? Best of both worlds, you say?

Intriguing.

NimChimpski

Inspiring

Arrays of hideables would be good - does Zorro do that? To explain a bit: all the layers pertaining to text could be one array and all the shapes could be another

P.M.B

Legend

You can essentially do this with select label groups. For instance if you right click on the label of any text layer you can "select label group" at the top of the menu & AE will select every layer that shares that label color. You can then hide them or shy them or whatever. At least in CC2014 you can.

~Gutterfish

Joe Creative

Inspiring

Thank you Szalam for the link. Funny that people that I work with wish you guys just put folders structure to clean things up a bit.

And to Gutter-Fish... my name is Joe not "Dude"! You make a good point, but it sounds like a lot of work. The plugin looks like it will work for now until AE team places folder structures within their timeline. I shown the team here were I worked at. And we are getting the plugin. I just wanted to see and ask the AE team about this request.

P.M.B

Legend

The plugin actually looks pretty cool. I though you were talking organizing assets in the project panel

~Gutterfish

Joe Creative

Inspiring

Hi guys,

I just wondered why you guys haven't made subfolders like Photoshop? A little organization would help out since assets starts growing in your timeline.

I found this plugin for AE: Layer Storage - aescripts + aeplugins - aescripts.com

Can you guys do this? Or do I need to buy this plugin???

Best,

Joe

P.M.B

Legend

Dude,

Just make yourself a template project folder with all the sub directories you want. Every time you start a project just duplicate the parent folder and rename it. If you're ambitious, with a tiny bit of research you can write your own executable that will create the directories for you. Just open your command prompt, create some folders and watch what the commands are. Or you type "help" in the command prompt and you will get a list of every (or alot of) system commands. Buying a plugin or the AE team coding this feature is a waste of resources.

~Gutterfish

S

seank33680394

Participant

The ability to taper strokes

I

Insectula

Participant

Sony Vegas has a tool called Color Match. You pick a frame or photo you want to match colors from and it tries its best to emulate them. It is the most awesome tool! Please!!

Szalam

Community Expert

Insectula wrote:

Sony Vegas has a tool called Color Match. You pick a frame or photo you want to match colors from and it tries its best to emulate them. It is the most awesome tool! Please!!

The Adobe mobile app that used to be called Hue (now just part of the Capture app) allows you to do something similar. You snap a picture and create a LUT that you can use in Premiere or AE to color your footage. Is that the kind of thing you mean?

I

Insectula

Participant

Cool! Will try it!

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