Updated Exposure control in viewer panels

[TimKurkoski]

Greetings! I'd like to introduce you to a minor but hopefully helpful UI change in the latest release of After Effects Beta (build 22.2.0x55), a re-vamped Exposure control at the bottom of the Composition, Layer, and Footage viewer panels.

A quick summary of what's changed:

• The old Exposure control was two different controls: a button to turn exposure previews on and off, and a numerical control for the exposure value.
• The new Exposure control is a single button to turn exposure previews on and off. To change the exposure value, click and hold on the button to bring up a menu with the value controls.
• Note that if the value is 0.0 when you turn on Exposure, the menu will automatically appear. This lets you know that turning on Exposure won't have any effect until you change the value. This will happen the first time you enable Exposure in a new project, because its default value is 0.0.

This change is part of our ongoing effort to improve the Composition panel UI. Specifically, the toolbar in the Composition panel had grown over the years was in need of tidying as we add more 3D controls, like Ground Plane and Extended Viewport.

Speaking of Extended Viewport, it's button uses the same design as the new Exposure control. Together, we hope they make the options in the toolbar row of the Composition panel feel consistent and intuitive.

Please let us know what you think about this change. Thank you!

[Shebbe]

I appericiate the efforts to make the Composition panel UI more streamlined, but needing extra clicks to change settings when there is plenty of space left is terrible design if you ask me.

I don't see any reason to hide the value behind a dropdown menu!

[sskaz]

Totally agree. The numerical value is perhaps one of the smallest UI elements in that panel. Seems like a poor compromise to make it harder to use just to save about 30 pixels. Maybe you guys have secret plans to add a ton of new buttons here in the future (please do!), but this seems like a regression at the moment.

Ultimately this entire UI panel should be fully customizable like in Premiere (though I think the UX is a little clunky, I’ll take clunky over not having it at all). Then if your analytics suggest the exposure control isn’t used by most users, by all means, hide it entirely and then those of who do can simply add it back.

[Shebbe]

Hiding as an added option to me makes more sense than hiding it in the first place but I do like the idea of customizability. If space is really a concern why not implement a few toolbar options under a cog icon all the way left of everything. 

1. Simple // compressed icons and most unused buttons away

2. Advanced // all buttons as expanded as possible (could even separate out the color channels e.g.)

3. Custom (Premiere Style, but keep current size ofcourse)

Just thinking out loud here.

[TimKurkoski]

Update: The Exposure control has been reverted to its original layout. Read more here:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-beta-discussions/exposure-control-reverted/m-p/12725577...