Cannot paste values between essential properties on different layers

[RobBarrett]

Unsure if this is a bug, or intended behaviour, but when copying an essential property and pasting onto other layers that share the same essential property, that value doesn't get pasted. Similarly, when copying an expression only from an essential property, it's also not pasted when other layers that share that property are selected.

The workaround for this is to select that property on each layer (rather than selecting the layer itself) before pasting. This is quite inconvenient, and doesn't follow the convention for other property types.

[Mylenium]

I think it's normal, since EG properties get their own identifiers and AE can't auto-associate the properties as it does with native properties.

Mylenium

[RobBarrett]

That's understandable if you're trying to copy/paste between different pre-comps with different, but identically named, essential properties. However, it feels like a missing feature to not be able to transfer values between duplicates of a single pre-comp.

[Mylenium]

That can be argued either way, I suppose. EG is simply agnostic of "special" properties, which is good for some things, but of course screws with your workflow. Perhaps they'll enahnce it one day with a property type check...

Mylenium

[DaciaSaenz]

Hi @RobBarrett,

Its true... this is as designed because of the special nature of Essential Properties. Now that the Essential Properties are accessible in the Properties Panel (In Beta) we are revisiting some of these behaviors for the future. 

One thing that comes up often is not having the ability to copy / paste keyframes for EPs as well. As @Mylenium points out, part of the block in behavior is in not being able to knowingly target the correct stream. 

I'm collecting feedback on these known limitations to bring back to devs. And I have wild ideas and dreams of being able to apply values to the "same" kind of EP in a batch move but for now, the workaround that I can offer is that you can Push the expression or keyframes from one EP back up to the Primary Comp and every instance of that steam that hasn't been edited in other "sibling" EP Comps will inherit the change. 

Now you might not always want to Push up a value to the Primary so the workaround has some limitations. It will also show an Expression error on the Primary comp since something like "essentialProperty("Shape Layer 1 Rotation")" is not defined in the Primary comp. 

Definitely a sloppy workaround for expressions. I'd love to connect with you soon though and be on the lookout for a post asking for feedback about some current behaviors that I'm currently questioning. lol. 

Thanks Rob! 

Dacia

[SteveKirby]

I raised this in the dev Slack a few weeks ago. From a user's perspective, it should 'just work', despite the way EG's were built.

[Manaus]

Not only inconvenient, but very time consuming as well.
Unfortunately, it's holding essential properties back making it clunky to manage