exclude an layer from the adjustment layer

[mouad]

Hi ,

i don't know why adobe still didn't add this option to after effects !!!!!!!!

we have alot of problems with this

i can't just keep pre-comping stuff !!!!!

adding a simple column between the 'track mat' and the 'parent' to exclude the selected layer from an adjustment layer in top of it will simple thing's Up .

please consider this option

My bests

[dariosaquetti]

True. I mean there's always a way.People have  been working with AE for ages.But I guess, since we are in 2014 and this software has been around for 20 years such a simple update wouldn't kill. Is something basic.Even photoshop has it.

[Rick Gerard]

If you have a layer that you don't want to include an adjustment layer and for some reason you absolutely cannot put that layer above the adjustment layer then simply duplicate that layer, move the duplicate above the adjustment layer and make it a track matte.

[murmer]

"you can use property links to quickly apply the same set of effects or other properties  to a group of layers"

This sounds helpful.  Can you add some detail or a link explaining how this works with effects?

[Fred Sprinkle]

Totally agree with dariosaquetti. I love After Effects, it's been helping me put food on the table for over 10 years, but this needs to be changed.

Even with the current architecture, I'm sure an adjustment layer "breaker" layer would be possible. It would basically create a virtual precomp for everything below it.

A similar thing can already be done with 3D layers, you can "break" the layer order with, funny enough, an adjustment layer.

There are so many times pre-comping is just not efficient, also property links are too slow and hard to manage.

I've wanted this since day 1, still do, and I am not anti-precomp or something. Please!

[Roei Tzoref]

If you haven't already, please submit this as a feature request in the wishform page.

[trashcaneron]

In Photoshop, you can create a clipping mask. This can be (sort of) achieved in AE by duplicating your target layer and using it to track matte alpha your adjustment layer. Granted, this only works if your layer is worthy of track matte (alpha or luma to key it).

Further, you can pre-compose - obviously. That's not the request though. The request is for some workflow optimization. Hard to argue with that...

And Property Links are great (and can serve many of the requirements), but what about masks? And - if you could somehow use property links with masks (and animated masks), wouldn't that be effectively the same thing as clipping masks + adjustment layers?

Point being, I don't think it's a complete restructuring of architecture. Every other Adobe program has the ability to group / folder layers, and effect only those layers via clipping masks or throwing adjustment layers in those folders.

Sometimes, a comp is too complicated to precompose things, you end up having to write expressions to keep things moving properly - and don't get me wrong, it's good to know how to do those kinds of things. It could be easier though! Think about saving time!!

Imagine the workflow in After Effects if you could group layers as well as precompose them. In photoshop, you have that ability (smart layers = pre-compositions). I use both constantly. Sometimes it makes sense to make smart layers and sometimes it makes more sense to group. They both have their purposes!

This is a feature that would help AE novices (or those transitioning from Photoshop), sure, but ultimately for advanced users it would greatly improve their workflow and cut down on a lot of time.

I will submit a feature request.

[Impressive_Genie5D42]

Just put the layer that you want to exclude over the adjustment layer

[trashcaneron]

uh... yes... not sure that's what the request is for

[mpbMKE]

It's 2021 and we still need a better system for precomps.

[SASCHi]

Working with After Effects again after a long period, the adj layer "problem" isn't solved yet. What a pity...! Can't understand why ADOBE don't  develop such things further for their user having better times using AE... It's 2021... Solving such little issues are imho much better for artists/users than "cool" & fancy AI things like in Photoshop...

[kalamazandy]

Thank you. I love how the people all answer "Bleh, bla bla, you aren't using precomps because you don't know AE." But clearly they've not come up with a request that would create a precomp loop. Linking things together gets very annoying, and more time consuming, when you need to link things together between comps, because if you had things parented, if you precomp, you just broke that. So precomp, then go through and fix all of those things. Oh, but you can't just replace a parent by linking position to position with an expression either, because that doesn't keep the offset. So now write a more complicated expression that subracts the difference. Oh, and you had to precomp 50 layers to make the adjustment? So you have to create the expression 50 times. So sorry that it's unnecessarily time consuming, but that's just the way AE works, and you're not using it right...right?

I so hate this answer. I always want to use set matte to replace track matte, but it doesn't. Track mattes work completely independently of position and scale. So if you want to replace it, then you have to be sure you are working with objects that all have the same scale, and now you're going around precomping everything to fix one problem, while creating a bunch more. So, put it on an adjustment layer. Oh shoot, you have a background layer that shouldn't have that? Back to precomp again. Oh, but that broke all your expressions? Well that's just how AE works, adding several days of fixing garbagage because they don't want to admit that adding an effect or button for not being effected by an adjustment layer would often save a ton of time. 

Sometimes you have 3 months for a project. Awesome, plan away. But sometimes you have a few hours. A button that gets you what you want, even though you didn't plan for it, is extremely useful. 

[muffinny]

Yeah, It's terrible. 2022. And still no way to do selective Adjustment layers. In photoshop you can gropu layers and adjust clipping masks. It's terrible after all these years still AE can't do this simple task.

[Adept_thinker6C2A]

Yep, this is exactly the issue(s)! Thanks for giving these real-world examples. This isn't about amateurs who don't know "how to use AE", this is something professionals need that would be an obvious improvement. I've got a comp where I just want the adjustment layer to apply to everything except the background. If we can have effects that only apply to the layer they're on, why is it such a crazy thing to ask for adjustment layers that apply only to a given selection of layers without precomping? Fingers crossed that this is implemented one day!

[elliotruddy]

There is more of a fundamental flaw with after effects architecture here that Adobe are not will to admit - Please follow this example. I'm working on a film title here - it's a heavy composite. One of the final stages is to add chromatic abberation to all layers Except the background layer. I cannot precompose because if I do my blend modes will work incorrectly and the alpha channels will create a dark shadow underneath in the main comp. If I add an adjustment layer I can get the desired effect but now the footage is covered in CA that I don't want. If I add chromatic abberation to each layer indivusally I'm met with a black edge banding around each object because it's only applying to that layers individually alpha channel. If I add CA within my title precomps then I my CA is affect by all of the blur and glow affects on the outermost precomp.There is forced compromise here - it is crucial for after effects to add some form of node based work around for situations like this.  - I understand this is probably a project that is best tackled in Nuke, but as a motion designer (not VFX artsist) pulling a favour for a friend - nuke isn't an option. Now I know this isn't a massive deal, but it is a limitation of After effects. Examples attached, and link to the final sequence here 

[elliotruddy]

Please excuse the horrible grammar and spelling here, I did not proof read...

[ShiveringCactus]

I think your points are valid and there's been times when I've been stuck with wishing I could exclude a layer from an Adjustment Layer too, but in the case above, would the Collapse Transformations option help you out?

This passes through the transfer modes from the layers in the precomp.

[elliotruddy]

Unfortunately not, for some reason, in this case it causes the blend modes to work , but slightly differently to  inside the precomp, in this case it's causing a differnece transparency levels through some parts of the title (bizarre, I know - since the only difference is literally having the footage being placed outside vs inside the precomp). This scene was built out a little bit awkwardly to allow for the god rays on the tilte fade out to be visible and blend with the live action footage. That god ray transition is massively over complicated to get working with a transparent layer - much easier on black. Hence the reason for all of the un-mult effects, screen blend modes and multi-layer stacking to rebuild opacity. - The project has been signed off now so there's not much point in opening a can of worms on it, but it was a dissapointing limitation.

[Fasih K.]

Try DaVinci Fusion and start living in paradise 🙂

[defaultssnr9dt6dpfc]

How do these forums consistanly garner condesending responses?  I love these "if for some reasone you need to..."  how about something as simple as if I use a precomp with 30 layers that use add and multiply layers it ruins those effects so I can't just precomp because it won't work. Lets say I want to de saturate a stack of muzzle flashes and not affect the plate layer underneath.  

[Roland Kahlenberg -]

The issue is two-fold - 
1) Majority of users do not understand how Adjustment Layers work. An Adjustment Layer works by encapsulating or compositing ALL layers below the Adjustment Layer. THEN, any effect(s) applied to the Adjustment Layer is applied to THIS SINGLE COMPOSITE. 

So, effects applied to an Adjustment Layer ARE NOT applied to each layer below the Adjustment Layer. Keeping this in mind, a large majority of the comments here are irrelevant. 

Secondly, I feel the application of the Adjustment Layer MAY have been better if it was an Effect OR a Timeline Effect, much like Parenting. With either of these two options, it would have been much easier, I THINK, to specify contiguous layers to be affected by an Adjustment Layer. So, current constructs where a Layer is used to define an Adjustment Layer delimits its utility. 

Perhaps we may yet have an Adjustment Effect (with Pick Whips/Layer Parameters) OR an Adjustment Comp Effect (much like Parenting/TrackMatte).