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.

[John Stanowski]

I think he meant he wishes Solo would hide the layer in the timeline just as Shy does.

[gnokka]

Right, most of time i need to focus on few layers in timeline.

So i select all layers, deselect that few and then i hide with shy switch.

I would like to select my few layer, and shy all other.

[Guest]

Bigger Buttons like these guys finally did in there new release.

[jahesscreen]

1.: A function to render all layers (or clips) of a composition as seperate clips.

[Todd_Kopriva]

> A function to render all layers (or clips) of a composition as seperate clips.

http://www.redefinery.com/ae/view.php?item=rd_RenderLayers

That's listed in After Effects Help, here.

[jahesscreen]

Thanks for the link.

But: Why don`t adapt such small functions to a new version? (render layers seperately, or un-precompose.....)

There are lots of great scripts outside. Go pay the creaters some bucks and make AfterEffects even better

[Guest]

How about the ability to use Dynamic Link to import other AE comps into AE!

Would be fantastic for workgroups. Several designers could be working on separate sub comps with another designer working on the master comp. Any updates are automatically reflected in the master project.

[Guest]

How about an option to "add noise" to the Ramp filter? Or call it "reduce video compression banding". It would be really helpful for new users who are frustrated by gradient banding when rendering to compressed formats like h.264.

[jahesscreen]

1.: >2000 Undo Steps

2.: the ability to have several projects opened currently - and you can switch between them at the bottom of the "window" menue.

Like these:

Go to -> Window

.

.

.

___

Navigator

.

.

Effects

.

.

.

___

01.: Project1

02.: Project 2

03.: Project 3

.

.

.

[Mark Moser]

Photoshop history panel

• Mark

[Andy Bay]

This has been requested several times, but once more:

Copy-paste in the right-click context menus. Those menus have all kinds of stuff in them but no copy-paste. Which is probably one of the most common tasks in any program.

[jahesscreen]

An EASY and FAST way to do simple Cameramapping.

Maybe an "Texture" effect witch is applied to a 3D layer and where you can link an invisible layer (which is the picture you want to map)

[Szalam]

There are ways to do what you're asking for already for mapping. Here are some:

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_vanishing_point/

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_camera_projection_2/

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_camera_projection/

[jahesscreen]

Of course, but there are faster and easier ways

[bad Timing]

We need to preview live green screen in 1080. 

We would pay the entire price of After Effects for just the ability to get one frame for setup confirmation. 

We don't need to capture live.  We can work with the files in post production.  We just need a simple preview.

[Rick Gerard]

You need a computer with a capture card and something like DV Garage's Conduit to pull the real time key. There are many products that will do that, but none without some way to capture live video from a camera.

[Guest]

Rick's right. Check out DVGarage's Conduit. You can preview a live key at 1080p, 2K, or whatever your capture card supports. It's a great tool that's saved me countless hours. For any greenscreen shoot, I absolutely wouldn't shoot without it.

[bad Timing]

Thanks to you both for the suggestion about DV Garage's Conduit.  We have the correct equipment. 

I hope someone has experience with Conduit can help me understand something.   We really only need one very basic function.  I read the material and was unable to determine if it will do the one thing we need to.

I understand and believe we can live view the actors keyed in front of the background.  

But can we move the background behind the actors in real time?

We use a large virtual set and need to be able to reposition the background to the part relative to that particular shot.  Nothing more.  The other software we tested does not allow us to move the background.

We don't need the software for any part of the capture. 

Now we shoot the image and put the video file in post production After Effects. Trial and error.   You can already see that is costing us time.

Thanks again for the Conduit suggestion.  We had no idea it existed.

[Navarro_Parker]

Yes, you can pan/zoom a still image, or load up a Quicktime movie in the background (or even another camera)

[bad Timing]

Thank You.

This is very important for us.  Thank you for the great suggestion.

Thanks to everybody for helping.

[Andy Bay]

I think this task would be well suited for Adobe Onlocation.

This live chroma key preview used to be possible also with Adobe Ultra (included in Master collection CS3), but Ultra as we knew it back then is discontinued AFAIK.

[TheFosterHouse]

• A real 3D coordinate system with a 0,0,0 origin point.

• Parenting that doesn't change the values of the child.

• Easily cloning and linking of filters and layers (see ff-Effect Instance at AE Scripts)

• Keyframing in roto brush

• Ability to changing the order in which masks are applied to a layer in relation to layer styles and filters.

• SCOPES!!!!!!! dear god give me a histogram, vectorscope and a waveform monitor. Color finesse doesn't count.

• Multi-pass Comparative forward and backward tracking. (like Tracker Viz)

• re-center on track as it's tracking.

• Create new text layer, adjustment layer, Solid, null etc… above currently selected layer.

• Better Disk Caching for RAM previews. I really want RAM previews to remember the state of a comp so if that state gets changed then changed back, the ram preview is restored and playable.

[Rick Gerard]

TheFosterHouse wrote:

• A real 3D coordinate system with a 0,0,0 origin point.

• Parenting that doesn't change the values of the child.

Just a comment on these two ideas. 0,0,0 at the center of the comp would cause more troubles than it would solve and it would be out of sync with any other compositing and editing app. 0,0 has always been the upper left corner of video and pixel based images. It's always the starting point for vector drawings. 3D apps use 0,0,0 as the center of the world, but it's an easy task to translate those coordinates to the pixel based measurements used in image and video processing apps.

When you parent a layer to another the new position is measured from the upper left corner of that layer. This makes a lot of sense to me and it's useful info for a lot of manual positioning once you wrap your head around it because it defines the relationship between the layers. Tying the values to other values through expressions is easy with the toWorld and toComp arguments. Personally I don't think either of these are good suggestions. That's my 2¢.

The rest of your ideas are prety good.

[TheFosterHouse]

Hey Rick, Compositing applications like Nuke have an actual 3d Origin point. it can translate just fine between 2D & 3D. As for the parenting thing, I find it completely idiotic that the values of a layer should change to where it is in relation to another layer rather than where the layer actually is. I can't tell you how many times this has completely screwed me in a project. Here's an quick example: I want a new layer to have the same position of a layer that is the child of another layer. in order to make that happen, I have to un-parent the layer, copy/paste and parent the layers again. I shouldn't have to do that. Besides, it's super confusing when I look at a layers values and they aren't representing what's actually going on. As for changing the expressions, if the values change by them selves, then the expressions should change by them selves. Better yet: have a switch in the timeline that switches between absolute and relative values.

Hey Bob, I actually own a copy of Test Gear, but I can't use it all the time because it causes 1-2 seconds of lag after any mouse button release. I'll click on a click on a  layer to select it, release the mouse button, then move the mouse, and most of the time, the layer will move in the timeline because AE thought that I've had the mouse button down when i moved the mouse. I've done a LOT of testing to nail down the problem and it always came back as Test Gear. I've put bug reports in, but it's never been fixed. You guys were super fast about fixing a crashing bug in test gear 2.5, but this one hasn't been updated. I did go back and test it in CS4 with the previous version and the lag isn't there. I really want to use it, but the lag is unbearable.

[Rick Gerard]

Not trying to start an argument here, but I translate between 2D and 3D every day with no problems in AE and I've heard that arguement before. Last time I used Nuke was about 2002.

I like the parenting thing because it's easy for me to wrap my head around and it's easy to type in values to position the children precisely to the parent. Maybe a switch that would reveal world position or relative position would be a good idea.

For Scopes I've used Scopo GIGIO and it's been great when I needed a scope, but frankly, mostly I use my eye and the info palette until I'm ready for final color grading. But then, again, everybody has their favorite workflow.