AFTER EFFECTS WISH LIST (Prior to Sept 09)

[Andrew Yoole]

AFTER EFFECTS WISHLIST

What features would you like to see implemented in After Effects? New ideas for plugins? Interface changes? Post 'em here!

Let's keep bug identification to individual posts, as these will probably be addressed more readily. Let's use this thread for specific ideas about ways that AE can be improved and expanded.

These Forums are for users, not Adobe employees, so don't forget to also fill in an  Adobe feature request form.

To view the Wish List posts prior to 2008, look here.

[David_Wigforss-Hv1BNN]

It would be nice if there was a link to this thread at the top of the forum, perhaps a mention of it after "Feature Request/Bug Submit".  Add a mention that you should still file feature request....

I wish Point Control (Expression Controls) was in 3 dimenstions when applied onto a 3d layer.  Currently it's only 2D, and in order to copy 3D position keyframes onto a Point Control, you must split it into X and Y, and then a seperate Slider Control for Z.  It's a pain and results in a messier project.

[Guest]

That's a very good request.

But note that before there's an expression control effect for that, it should exist as a standard AE UI element. There are no effects in AE making use of a 3D control point now (which I imagine should appear with a 3D axis widget).

I don't see an action to turn a thread into a sticky. I'll try to find out how to do it.

[Impulse_Fire]

id be nice if AAE could just read my mind and put what i want on the screen

[Navarro_Parker]

IMPROVE OS X SPACES SUPPORT

This goes for all Adobe software. Spaces has been available for 2 years and yet no update to CS3 or CS4 has improved compatibility. It's an OS feature that's not going anywhere.

After Effects sometimes has the main comp window in one space floating alone with the rest of the AE UI in another space.

Or the UI in one space and a file dialog box in another. Or sometimes a modal dialog box gets hidden behind the AE UI window. It's really annoying.

I can't think of any other professional software that behaves so poorly with Spaces.

[Navarro_Parker]

It would be cool if there could be separate controls for "continually rasterize", "collapse transformations", and "collapse blend modes".  Right now, all three of these are combined into one switch.  Sometimes I just want one or two, but not all three.

[Navarro_Parker]

bumpity bump bump.  I thought this was a sticky?

[Andrew Yoole]

These Forums don't have a "Sticky" function as such, but I've placed a new link in a "Sticky Threads" box at the top of the discussions.

[Andy_Bay]

Timeline folders.

Let us organise a bunch of layers (that are next to each other) in to folders that can be opened or closed to make the timeline less busy looking in complex projects. This way a hundred layers could be viewed as just a single folder layer if necessary.

3D snapping.

Let us snap 3D solids in to each others edges so that no gaps will remain between them. Well, why not actually make a snap function in which you can snap any layer or shape in to other objects edges.

[Todd_Kopriva]

> Let us snap 3D solids in to each others edges so that no gaps will remain between them.

Not that this isn't a good feature request. (It is.)

But make sure that you're using Alpha Add if you're seeing apparent gaps between the edges of your layers. These apparent gaps are usually a result of anti-aliasing, not of layer position inaccuracies. (See the note in the Alpha Add section toward the bottom of this page.)

[jblessing00]

I would like to see the auto save check to see if you are in the middle of something before it auto runs every x minutes. Make it so that it only runs after there has been no input from the user for 10 seconds or something after x minutes have gone by.

I have had After Effects crash numerous times because I was right in the middle of something when it went to save and then it never recovered.

[Rich_Pulham]

Better error trapping!

If you do something wrong, it should catch the error and tell you that you did something wrong (even if it doesn't tell you why).  Instead, the program crashes and you don't have a clue as to why.  I think a lot of the "instability" problems result from poor error trapping.

My biggest learning problem with CS4 has been knowing what NOT to do.

[TimeRemapper]

It would be great if the confirmation window (dialog box) for overwriting an existing file created by an output module (when hitting "render") had a little checkbox that said "ok to all", or something of the like.

[Andrew Yoole]

There is a newer version of this thread available here.

This thread is now closed.