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.

[Navarro_Parker]

- How about a continuous zoom tool?

Check out Imagineer's zoom tool -- very sweet. Hold down Z and move the mouse up and down. The point of zoom is where the magnifying zoom is and it smoothly zooms in continuous values (not this 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 1 business). Ahhh, OpenGL!

[Guest]

1.) image sequences are restricted to 30.000 images.

1.) the "countdown" text plugin is very unflexible because a.) the number is also limited to 30.000, indepedently of the slider value you are setting.
and b.) the automatic comma sh*it drives me nuts. give us more room please.
yes, there may be expressions, but i´m not interested in those in this particular case!

fix this precompose nightmare.

fix 64 bit adress for mac

fix this 3 GB RAM stuff

fix Open GL crap

fix this Standard/Advanced 3D stuff. Shadow resolution set to 4000 makes my machine cry and standard 3D makes my client whine!

this is driving me nuts, it´s driving me nuts and causes bad health to me.

FIX IT!
FIX IT!
FIX IT!

just one FIX!

CAN YOU HEAR ME?

[Andrew Yoole]

^ I agree with your first few requests, but would like to point out:

Rebuilding AE in 64 bit is a massive undertaking, and will be presumably be done for CS5, not CS4. The 3GB limitation is a component of that undertaking.

AE's OpenGL implementation is rock-solid and adheres strictly to the standard. Any OpenGL issues you may have are a result of poor third party drivers, not AE.

What version are you using? The Standard 3D render has not existed since AE 7.0.

[A. Cobb]

More on Adobe's 64-bit roadmap here:

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/04/photoshop_lr_64.html

The short version: Adobe's stalwart Mac apps like Photoshop and AE are written for Apple's Carbon API, which acted as a bridge between the Classic Mac OS and Mac OS X. Apple has dropped all plans for 64-bit Carbon, choosing to focus solely on the 64-bit Cocoa API. This is probably a good thing in the long run, but it means Carbon apps have to be rewritten for the Cocoa API to take advantage of 64-bit addressing. This is, apparently, a lot of work, and we already know it won't happen for Photoshop before CS5.

[Guest]

Question to Standard/Advanced OpenGL = Windows PC
Working in OpenGL is pure BS not about BAD third party drivers, same stuff on Mac Machines! thee only thing that works somehow justyfying is Adaptive Resolution.

About 64Bit adress an 3 GB limitation: i´m not interested if this course is undertaking or a lot of work.
i work a lot to be able pay my newest octacore intel machines and i´m really not interested in Adobe´s plans for CS5!!!!!!! I wan´t to work to the given hardware limit!!! I´m dependent from Adobes Products since ages because i do not have the money to switch to another application suite, why should i anyway just because the lack of development?

why is this so hard to undertstand for a millions of dollars heavy company!!!???

nuff said bout that. it´s driving me nuts!!!!!!!!!

[David_Wigforss-Hv1BNN]

How many programmers do you think Adobe employs that solely work on After Effects? I bet it's less than you think.

Before Adobe goes 64bit (with PS for Windows), shouldn't Apple release a 64bit version of QT?

As for image sequence limit - interesting, didn't know the limit. But that's a LOT of files in 1 directory... How long does it take to open up that directory in Windows Explorer?

[_Matthew_Ingram_]

Two things:

1) There ought to be the option to render out Marker Regions in the Composition Timeline as separate QuickTime Movies. One could add to this the ability to just render Timeline area 1 or 2 or 5. More flexible than just "Work Area Only" and really useful if you're burning a DVD etc.

2) This MUST get in sooner or later! When you (Mac) Control+Click a composition's Tab for that menu there ought to be "Reveal Comp in Project Window" option. No more searching around the Project folder for composions....

[A. Cobb]

i This MUST get in sooner or later! When you (Mac) Control+Click a composition's Tab for that menu there ought to be "Reveal Comp in Project Window" option. No more searching around the Project folder for composions....

Try control- or right-clicking on empty space in the timeline window. You'll get just such an option.

[Guest]

David Wigforss

How many programmers do you think Adobe employs that solely work on After Effects? I bet it's less than you think.

if you open PS and count all the names there´ll be 60 people or so just on photoshop.

[A. Cobb]

Can we maybe move this discussion to another thread so it's easier to ignore?

[Guest]

Don´t worry Aaron, i´ll never post anymore anything into Adobe Forums because nobody is listening anyway.
Ignoring is the highest virtue that human beeings bare.

goodbye

[A. Cobb]

Going back to the original purpose of this thread:

I'd really like the ability to set default render settings and output module for individual comps in the Comp Settings.

[Navarro_Parker]

- Aaron, that's a good one!

[_fxpat93_]

an install who i can choose install on my system only one language, beccause it's more clean and more light, like the old after effects 6.5 installer

[_musa_musa_]

hi
I wish the below items :
1 - selecting color like photoshop , especialy the magic wand tool
2 - extrude , extrude , extrude
for text and shape
3 - something like REVOLVE in Adobe Illustrator or like LATHE in Maxon Cinma4D
thanks

[ChrisPoisson]

I would like a slider or something to control the opacity of layers, so you can see the keyframes without twirling the down.

[_Steve_Patterson_]

If it hasn't been mentioned already, non-perpendicular guides.

[_Darren_McNeill_]

Simple, I would like After Effects to have the ability to extrude Text in 3d space.

Nothing complicated, just be able to create 3d Text.

We had to purchase Maya just to create 3d text for a single project, it would have been nice to be able to do it with after Effects.

[Navarro_Parker]

Maya is really overkill for simple text extrusion. Have you checked out Zaxwerks' 3D Invigorator?
http://zaxwerks.com/invigorator_pro/index.shtml

[_Darren_McNeill_]

Cheers for the link, I'll check it out.

True, Maya is overkill, but my company were willing to pay for it so I got it.

I use it now to create Marketing animations, as this was my original background, so it hasn't gone to waste.

Zaxwerks 3d Navigator though would seem to suit others in the team that cannot use Maya so I'll check it out.

Thanks again

[_Jim_Curtis_]

I would like to see Layer Groups, like Photoshop has, so that I can see all the contents of my Precomps in my Main Comps.

Also, an extruded drop shadow is long overdue.

Thanks AE team.

[_invisiblerabbit_]

Being able to specify how many processors to use in the multiprocessing preference pane.

I've got 8 processors. Using six of them should be more than enough. Using 1 roughly quadruples render times, but using 8 makes the computer unusable for anything else. Perhaps an option to instruct AE to leave 2 of those processors alone would solve the problem.

Also I want to add my support for extrusion and lathing of shapes and text. Being able to use bezier paths to drive the extrusion scale over it's length would be very helpful.

[A. Cobb]

invisiblerabbit, while it's not as convenient, you can limit the number of processors used for multiprocessing by editing the preference file:

http://aescripts.com/2008/01/23/after-effects-802-released/

[_invisiblerabbit_]

Aaron, you just made my week.

[_bryan_mendelson_]

I would like to have some form of a plugin manager to easily manage plugins within after effects