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!
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