Feature Focus: New and Improved Null Creation Commands

[JohnColombo]

Hello everyone,

We're excited to unveil Create Nulls for Positional Properties, a new command for easily creating simple animation rigs for positional properties. This new command is available in After Effects (Beta) 25.2.0.93 and later. After selecting a point property in the Timeline, you can use Create Nulls from Positional Points from either the Layer > Create menu or the Keyframe Assistant menu.

Much like Create Nulls from Paths (which we'll talk about more in a minute), this new command allows you to instantly create linked Nulls from any positional point in After Effects. Shape gradient points, Puppet Pins, effect points...the list of compatible properties and creative possibilities is extensive.

Linking positional points to Nulls has many benefits, including:

• Attach any point to any layer through layer references or parenting without writing expressions yourself
• Parent Puppet Pins to each other for character rigs
• Bring 2D effect points into 3D space
• Separate the dimensions on resulting Null layers for finer control of any point
• Use parenting to animate the position of layers through scale and rotation

  

In addition, the three commands for linking Path points to Nulls can also be accessed through the same menus as the new Create Nulls for Positional Properties. The linking for Path points has been updated for better handling of Shape paths inside nested Shape groups, so the Nulls can be placed more accurately, even when the Shape group transforms are offset or animated.

Note: The Nulls can still become offset from the Shape Path points if Skew or non-uniform Scale are used.

What we would love to hear from you

• Are these new commands useful in your workflow?
• Which menu location do you find more intuitive? (Create menu vs Keyframe Assistant)
• Are you encountering any positional points that aren't linked correctly to a Null?
• What similar improvements might be useful?

Any other insights you can provide are greatly appreciated. We'd love to hear how this new feature is working for you in the Beta builds!

Thanks again for your feedback.

[1suky1]

Anything that saves time clicking is a worthy and welcome feature. 

I didn't read the post and my first instinct was Create menu but it's grayed out, and I can't figure out in which scenario it wouldn't be grayed out. It could be way easier through Create. A popup appears with all possible positional properties and I select which ones I want to create? Instead of me having to go into each effect, select the position property, then make sure I right click on them to get Keyframe Assistant menu... 

Another similar improvement would be "Create parented nulls for selected layers". I had many situations with a bunch of images in different sizes that need to be evenly positioned, sized, and then animated. So the only option is to painstakingly start creating nulls, or precomposing every image 1 by 1... This one would definitely be in Create menu.

Also, we can right click from Effect panel on the property and get Keyframe Assistant menu but the option is again grayed out, but from properties panel it is not. If it's gonna stay in Keyframe Assistant then it should definitely work from Effects panel.

And I might have found a bug? Creating positional point null for Shape layer's anchor point messes up its position. On solids it works fine.

[JohnColombo]

Thanks @1suky1! This feedback is very appreciated. 

I didn't read the post and my first instinct was Create menu but it's grayed out, and I can't figure out in which scenario it wouldn't be grayed out. It could be way easier through Create. A popup appears with all possible positional properties and I select which ones I want to create? Instead of me having to go into each effect, select the position property, then make sure I right click on them to get Keyframe Assistant menu... 

This is an interesting suggestion. I'd be somewhat concerned about the sheer number of possible properties being overwhelming. What I'd suggest is filtering the properties in your Timeline to the effect properties you want to create Nulls for, then select them and create the Nulls. Would love others to weigh in here, too.

Another similar improvement would be "Create parented nulls for selected layers". I had many situations with a bunch of images in different sizes that need to be evenly positioned, sized, and then animated. So the only option is to painstakingly start creating nulls, or precomposing every image 1 by 1... This one would definitely be in Create menu.

Thanks for this, too! Would this be a separate feature request?

Also, we can right click from Effect panel on the property and get Keyframe Assistant menu but the option is again grayed out, but from properties panel it is not. If it's gonna stay in Keyframe Assistant then it should definitely work from Effects panel.

This is the result of there being differences in how the Properties panel and Effect Controls work; the Properties panel selects a property when you right-click it, but the Effect Controls does not, changing whether the menu command is enabled. It a very valid point though. Is the Keyframe Assistant an ideal place this command or would the Create menu alone make more sense? 

And I might have found a bug? Creating positional point null for Shape layer's anchor point messes up its position. On solids it works fine.

This is a good call out. Shapes and Solids are handled differently, so we'll take a look at this case. That said, does selecting the Position property of the Shape layer produce the correct result? How would you use linking the Anchor Point to a Null differently than linking the Position?

Thanks again for this feedback!

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Could the issue be related to Content>Transform>AnchorPoint/Position being non-zero? This is a known issue with Points follow Nulls and perhaps it's also an issue with the new features?

[Manaus]

That's definitely a great addition, even more for new users.

At the top of my head, I would love some updates for the pickwhip on expressions. Instead of writing relative property path by hand, it would be nice to pick them.

Same for anchoring the size of parametric shapes. That are easily achievable by making the position the size divided by 2.

Or even pinning Gradient Fills and Gradient Strokes to the bounds of a shape. Again, easy to setup with expressions, but not fast and not accessible for most users.

Anyways, great update, it's exciting to see QOL like this.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Interesting! I posted this on SocMed a couple of days ago - 

Looking forward to dig into the Expressions   🙂

[Davide Boscolo]

It would be nice to right click on top of a path/mask point and create a null controller from there.