New Extended Viewport added to Draft 3D

[Christine Goldby]

After Effects takes another step toward better navigation in your 3D scene in the latest Beta release (22.2.0x19). Introducing the new Extended Viewport as part of Draft 3D.

As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback. Your responses help us know when features are ready to ship or if they need more polishing. Please speak up and help us build the product you need!

Extended Viewport

The Extended Viewport extends real-time 3D draft previews beyond the composition's frame boundaries. See what your off-camera 3D content contains, then bring it into the scene with ease. Switch back to standard frame view when you need to see your composition’s final look.

How to Use
To enable the Extended Viewport, turn on Draft 3D button in the preview toolbar. To the right, you’ll see two more buttons. The first turns on the 3D ground plane for your scene. The second is the new Extended Viewport. Click and hold on the button to change the opacity of the extended view.

 

Known Issues

• When using multiple view windows, you may need to enable/disable the Draft 3D options that you want on in each view.
• The hand tool is not currently supported. Turn off Extended Viewport in order to use this feature.
• Playing the preview is not currently supported. When playing, the Extended Viewport feature will automatically be turned off.
• Using magnification other than 100% will produce some rendering issues. Zooming in and out can help you locate layers in the scene but should not be used to look at pixel accuracy when Extended Viewport is turned on.
• Rendering glitches may occur when EVP is first turned on, or when windows are resized. In most cases these issues should resolve themselves shortly on their own.

Enjoy!

[hnnssth]

Could we have that feature for 2d Layers as well? 

[Scott Simmons]

One of the first things I looked for also; but I added a 3D null and turned it off with the rest of thalaers as 2D and the Extended View worked.

[Tom Olsen]

2D layers do show up in the Extended Viewport region when you have Draft3D and EVP turned on.

[Scott Simmons]

Yes, I wasn't clear. As long as there is at least one 3D layer and EV and Draft3D are enabled,  then 2D layers show up into the EV. But you need one layer to be 3D which can be a Null or any invisible layer. Then your 2D comp benefits from the EV.  Isn't that right?

[Tom Olsen]

What do you see as the primary advantage of this feature with 2D layers-only? Thanks for the feedback.

[Andreas Urra]

Hi Tom, the Extended Viewport for 2D layers allows for a quick, intuitive, visual working style: E.g. like in Illustrator you could have your assets arranged outside the Artboard (or Composition in AE) - like in the kitchen/cooking analogy. Then you can easily grab and drag them into and out of the "plate" when needed. You don't have to rely on item/layer names or identifying them in the layer stack - you just "see" them and grab them.

You recognize instantly if something is missing or just out of frame. You can freely brainstorm, arrange and shuffle things around without putting them into the visible area first (and then drag them out again).  

Actually, it is a real pleasure to be able to do that : )

I am sure @Scott Simmons and @hnnssth have additional interesting use cases, too.

[andi_urra]

Sorry, I was logged in with the wrong accout ; )

[andi_urra]

Hi Tom, I think the Extended Viewport is a great addition for 3D, as well as for 2D, especially when you are used to working in Illustrator. And like in Illustrator, I wished it would always be available, without the need for Scott's nifty workaroud. By the way, thanks Scott for that tip!

[andi_urra]

It would be great if the transparency slider for the Extended View was aware of the screen border (lower edge). Currently, it always pops up beneath the Composition viewer. However, with the layout being flexible many animators dock the timeline to the left, full height, with the comp viewer also in full height. But then the buttons for Draft 3D and the Extended View touch the bottom screen edge. So the slider popup goes actually out of the screen and isn't visible (Windows 10).

P.S. I just checked: My Windows Taskbar defaults to Auto-Hide, wich causes the application to literally touch the screen border. When I disable Auto-Hide and have the Windows Taskbar static on, then the transparency slider will be seen (overlaying the Taskbar). It would be great if it wasn't dependent on the Taskbar being on.

[TimKurkoski]

Thanks for reporting this, @andi_urra . I've filed a bug for our developers.