AFTER EFFECTS WISHLIST

[Andrew Yoole]

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 September 2009, look here.

[TynanW]

Cheers Adolfo.

[joshtownsend]

How about being able to drag media into the timeline without having to got through the project window.

Also the curves like Lee said would be great (especially with a photoshop CS4 style picker what works with Curves, hue/sat ect). AE has all the tools for being a great color corrector but the UI isn't that friendly (i won't say scopes again).

[RKeller91]

For the music related, I'd like an option to see and snap to TEMPO (in BPM, bars, notes, etc) along the top bar

(even if the actual rendering must round to the nearest frame.)

Perhaps even native import of MIDI data / timing

Also, the "sound scrub"? (or whatever it's called) segments should be longer if you want, so you can better understand what

words or music are occuring (or maybe there's a way to do that allready?)

[Guest]

As you can split the main comp view in to 2 views, 4 views etc,  would it be possible to allow, say your primary comp in the left view and a pre-comp (within the primary comp) in the right view so if you modify an animation in the pre-comp you can see it updating in the primary comp without having to switch comp views? If this feature already exists (which I can't find) I shall be hugely embarrased and apologise profusley.

Cheers,

Simon

[Todd_Kopriva]

> As you can split the main comp view in to 2 views, 4 views etc,  would it be possible to allow, say your primary comp in the left view and a pre-comp (within the primary comp) in the right view so if you modify an animation in the pre-comp you can see it updating in the primary comp without having to switch comp views?

To lock the current viewer, split the current frame, and create a new viewer of the same type in the new frame, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+N (Mac OS). Then, set each viewer to whichever composition you want to show in each.

See "Viewers" for more information about "edit-this-look-at-that (ETLAT)" features.

[Guest]

Argh! Brilliant!

Todd you are a star. That is exactly what i wanted.

Cheers mate!

Simon

[ShrikeVFX]

For Christmas I want:

Soft Selection for pins on the puppet tool (see Autodesk 3DS Max soft selection feature)

A more feature-heavy gradient than the antiquated "ramp".  I want easing, multiple points of color, the whole works.  (and yes, I know, gradient overlay blah blah I want it in an EFFECT please...or maybe just take one of the requests above and move layer styles to the effects palette)

Scopes yes please.  Just jack them from premiere thanks.

App-native customizable hotkeys (c'mon let it go guys)...or at the very least leave MY hotkeys alone; I'm STILL upset about ctrl+G.

But I will trade all of that for CUSTOMIZABLE BRUSHES oh lord please please please BRUSHES BRUSHES BRUSHES (I'm talking about like importing photoshop or illustrator brushes or the like, not the dusty OLD brush system in place now)

Oh, and my students would like a "create-passing-grade-motion-graphics-project" plugin, so they will have to "stop doing so much work".  Just a one click thing would be fine for them.

THANKS

[John Stanowski]

YES! PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES!

Sorry to shout but I WANT PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES!!

And like I said before: more options for color like Illustrator (Color Guide panel).

AND SWATCHES!! Why on earth would there be no Swatch Panel?

Please?

[Navarro Parker]

How about a ROI/Crop layer using something like a shape layer?

Just think, you could set up multiple crops or ROIs in one comp. Also, by using a rectangular layer, you have numerical control over placement and size -- plus the ability to copy and paste crop/ROI zones to different comps. (Something that can't be done now)

[Todd_Kopriva]

> How about a ROI/Crop layer using something like a shape layer?

How would this work differently from a mask?

from "Region of interest (ROI)":

"To create the equivalent of a region of interest for a single layer, you can draw a temporary mask around the part of the layer that you are working with. The area outside of the mask will not be rendered. This can make working with a small portion of a large layer much faster. Be careful, though, since not rendering the pixels outside of the mask can change the composition’s appearance significantly."

[ShrikeVFX]

> How about a ROI/Crop layer using something like a shape layer?

How would this work differently from a mask?

Or a shape layer (or solid) used as a track matte for a layer?

Or a shape layer (or solid) set to "stencil alpha" transfer mode?

Yes, a mask is prolly fastest and most efficient, but if we are understanding you correctly, I think there are quite a few ways to achieve this

[Navarro Parker]

In your suggestions, all that's being done is masking out parts. But you are still rendering the full frame of your comp.

Using ROI, you can render a cropped version of your movie.  You can't do that with masks. You can only freehand drag a ROI rectangle. You can't numerically place it or copy/paste it between comps or projects. (like you can with a layer)

And by crop, I mean actually changing the pixel dimensions of your comp. Like a crop tool.

What if you wanted to slice your comp into four sections? You would have to make four different comps, each one displaying a different corner of your original comp. With my suggestion, you could render all four quadrants from a single comp by telling the output module to use a specific crop layer.

[Todd_Kopriva]

> In your suggestions, all that's being done is masking out parts. But you are still rendering the full frame of your comp.

Try it. Compare render times between RAM previewing a composition and then RAM previewing it with a temporary mask drawn to obscure all but a small piece of it. One is faster. That serves a lot of the purpose of an ROI.

[noel_d3]

After effects for me is the best software for compositing , but it would be nice to debug some functions :
In the project window, if I delete the first frame of a sequence in the explorer, After can't find it anymore in the project sequence.  And sometimes when I open a composition on on another machine it doesn't automatically find the files collected. When I collect files, if there is a copy error, it's stop.
In the expressions, if I open a project in another language that doesn't work anymore.
The region of interest doesn't render faster with effects than with the whole image.

best regards,

Léon

[Navarro Parker]

OMG, y'all!  Please fix this whole model dialog box warning hell. How about an error panel, similar to Growl (if not supporting Growl directly)?

Here's what I had to put up with this morning.  I freakin' get it -- you can't find a font!

Do I really need to be alerted by every single layer that uses it? And does it need to completely tie up AE until I click 'ok'?

[Aaron Cobb]

Hear, hear!

This happens in a number of places in AE:  expressions errors, overwrite file warnings, and so on.  It's particularly bad with overwrite file errors, since it is often impractical to delete all the files you are trying to overwrite first, at least in the case of image sequences (because they typically need to be in separate folders), and if you dismiss the dialogues using the keyboard and hit "return" one too many times you end up stopping the render you were trying to start.  For warnings like that, an "Apply to all" checkbox would be a big improvement.

[noel_d3]

Now all new projects are in full HD. If we want to continue using After-Effects with compositions of 50-100 layers, we need an X64 Bits version which quickly manages multithreading.

[yenaphe]

noel_d3 wrote:

Now all new projects are in full HD. If we want to continue using After-Effects with compositions of 50-100 layers, we need an X64 Bits version which quickly manages multithreading.

I'm sure you know that AE product manager Michael Coleman and Adobe announced that AE CS5 will be 64bit only.

[noel_d3]

I hope the old versions of plugins will be compatible with 64-Bit version.

Indeed the price of plugin I use is higher than After Effects and the development of many plugins is stopped.
It's the role of Adobe to make this compatibility possible, otherwise it would remove many functions in After Effects ...

[TrustyThompson]

How about an option to (If it doesn't already exist and i'm too blind to see it) shutdown your computer once a render or group or renders in completed?

I hate leaving my computer running for any longer than I have to so if I go to bed or what have you I don't like leaving it on for hours doing nothing.

[ja_janus]

look for  "" A_Render_n_Shutdown_v1_2.jsx ""

[Guest]

i just want adobe to put mocha inside ae and buy the rights of some plugins like " trapcode particular" and "Zaxwerks 3d invogorator or animator" so the package must come with these....

and also i want 3d motion tracking in ae...

in addition to these also "direct linkingof ae camera moves  to 3ds max cameras or opposite" would be nice!

[skinny_a]

I'd like to either see After effects become more similar to something similar to nuke with true 3D compositing and a legit nodal way to composite, but if that is too much of a learning curve form the tried and true adobe interface and techniques what about integrating it with premier almost like having a premier light built into it. Instead of Ram previewing you could have a composite timeline and an NLE master timeline working together within the same program. I realize that Adobe had dynamic link - it doesn't really work well at this point. Stu Maschwitz has an interesting take about this on his blog: Prolost.

I think one way or another though after effects needs a bit of a serious overhaul in either direction as it feels like the last few iterations have not kept up with some of the newer technologies that have come out (don't get me wrong - I love After effects, but it could always be better).

Just my 2 cents.

[Navarro Parker]

Here's a no brainer -- how about adding "Reveal Composition in Project" when you right click a comp tab?

(As it is now, you have to find a blank area without any layers to right click in, right?)

[defaultfsxfr438h69c]

You can right kvm on the tab of the composition just above the timeline and see the same options there.