After Effects - Change Ruler view measurement to percentage

Hello Editor1961:

Unfortunately, the After Effects Composition rulers only display pixels.

Since we can change this in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, it can leave a designer scratching their head a little bit over why this isn't also a feature in AE.

Sometimes the percentage values are pretty easy to calculate, like 10% of 1080 being 108, but then when  you're subtracting 108 from the bottom of the 1920-by-1080 Comp is suddenly gets trickier to do in your head.

Sometimes I use the Shape dialog box of rectangular Masks applied to a Solid layer that's at the same size as the Comp.  Other times I use the Scale dialog box that allows for changing those units to Percent of Comp.  Then I draw Guides to those results.

Other times I draw guides in a Photoshop or an Illustratror document that's the same dimensions as the Comp and import that as a Comp.  Photoshop and Illustrator guides get converted to After Effects guides on import (another unfortunate thing is that this isn't a live relationship).

You may notice that the Composition pulldown menu has options to import and export Guides, but this is just to go back nd forth with Premiere Pro (also unfortunate).

-Warren