Hand tool not working when using Cryptomatte Plugin

[Peter Bokor]

I'd like to report a bug. When 3D Channel -> Cryptomatte plugin is active the Hand Tool is not working which to me is very annoying. In this particular EXR I've got plenty of objects and I'd like to use the hand tool to pan around the viewport to select the ones I need for matte. It also doesn't work when pressing SPACE. However, when click off to deselect Cryptomatte plugin, Hand Tool works so I can move around in the viewport but I feel this is an unnecessary additional step just to find the objects I'm looking for. Please could you fix this?

Thanks.

I'm on AE 23.1

Thank you.

Peter

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Peter Bokor,

Thank you for reporting this issue. Paging @fnordware to take a look at what might be going on here and/or offer insight.

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Peter Bokor]

Thank you @JohnColombo , appreciate it.

Regards,

Peter

[Peter Bokor]

Hi @JohnColombo ,

Have you got any updates on this one?

Thank you.

Regards.

Peter

[JohnColombo]

My apologies, @Peter Bokor, we don't have any further information about this. Our partner @fnordware developed the EXR/Cryptomatte plug-in, so they would be the best person to answer this question and let us know if this is something that needs to be updated in the plug-in or is a general issue in After Effects.

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[fnordware]

I don't think there's anything I can do from the plug-in side. I just tell AE I accept clicks in the comp window and when the Cryptomatte plug-in is selected, it passes those to me. I don't think I can tell AE to use its own move tool if the space bar is held down, but AE could probably do that if it wanted. Might be a good feature request.

To get back to the hand tool quickly you can either deselect the Cryptomatte plug-in or turn off Show Layer Controls (Command-Shift-H). The latter can be dangrous because people later wonder why clicking in Crytomatte and other things doesn't work, forgetting they turned it off.

[Peter Bokor]

@fnordware Thanks for your response.

@JohnColombo Is this something the team could take a look at?

[dmwilk]

@fnordware the click handler has a field to indicate whether or not your plug-in has handled the event and therefore whether AE should continue processing it. there is also a suite PF_HelperSuite1 to ask for the currently selected AE tool. In this case, you would just leave the PF_EO_HANDLED_EVENT bit cleared in event_extra->evt_out_flags when the hand tool is picked and AE would happily take over the unhandled event.

We use this lots internally so pretty sure it should work for you. Feel free to contact me offline (you know how to reach me) if you have further questions 🙂

[fnordware]

Wow, @dmwilk, you sure know a lot about After Effects. 😜 I guess most plug-ins should only handle clicks when the Arrow tool is active? Didn't see any SDK samples using HelperSuite, but happy to do it. Commit here.

[Peter Bokor]

Can we expect the fix to appear in one of the upcoming releases of AE ? Thanks.

[James37861221bo8p]

In version 24.6 if I add a cryptomatte effect to a comp, I can no longer pan the comp while holding down the space bar or middle mouse button. Using the Hand Tool does not work either. This makes it impossible to zoom in and move around on a comp to make selections for the effect.

[James37861221bo8p]

Hi, I just logged this same problem then saw this post. I see the same problem in 24.6... when can we get a fix please? It is most problematic, and I have to completely remove the effect before panning can be restored, so this bug renders the effect useless.

[fnordware]

The Cryptomatte plug-in will be updated in the next version of AE, and this fix will be included. It might be in the beta right now…

[James37861221bo8p]

Awesome! If anyone can confirm it is in beta right now I will install it and test.

[fnordware]

Confirmed!

[JohnColombo]

Per @fnordware's confirmation, marking this thread as Started, indicating a fix is available in public Beta builds.

- John, After Effects Engineering Team  

[James37861221bo8p]

Confirmed it is fixed in the beta. Thanks!

[JohnColombo]

Hi all,

The fix for the use of the Hand tool while the Cryptomatte effect is selected has been released in After Effects 25.0 and later. Thank you again for reporting this issue and to @fnordware for the fix.

Cheers,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team