2023 new Track Matte feature needs some work.

[Filip23315833k75u]

Being able to select any layer in the stack as track layer was a long time dream feature.

The problem I have now is that this new feature instead of being some additional feature to Track Mattes, completely replaced the old one - no bueno 😕

1. There still needs to be a simple way of making the above layer a track matte like we used to.

Right now we have to use the pickwhip, which is not fast or comfortable by any means, or pick the above layer from an all layers in comp dropdown. Well I'm on layer 67 of my comp and I want layer 66 to become the track matte - scrolling down through the layer list down to layer 66 is again not fast and not comfortable.

I don't know make right clicking the layer dropdown automatically select the above layer as track matte, give us a keyborad shortcut that when pressed will make the above layer a track matte, at the very least make the current layer more visible in the dropdown list so it's easier to scroll down and find it - maybe bold font??

2. Right now the track matte is a sticky property, meaning that when we duplicate the layer the duplicate has the same track matte applied - yeah, this is probably logical and fine. But there are still instances when I want to duplicate the current layer together with its track matte. I know that right now I no longer have to but still sometimes I want to have two separate track mattes, because they are similar but will slightly differ from eachother - and surprisingly it happens a lot in my day to day.

So please, if I have two layers selected the top one is a track matte for the lower one, and I duplicate them, please reassign the new track matte to the new layer - because right now I get a new layer, a new track matte, but the new layer is still using the original track matte.

What I'm saying is, the old track matte system wasn't that bad. Track mattes are separate layers, we need to store them somewhere to have order in our project - having them directly above the layer that is actually using it was not a bad thing.

Sure we were having a bad time when several layers were supposed to use the same track matte - and the new feature solves that - but seriously, how often in your shots do you come across that situation? More often than not it's just one track matte layer per one footage layer - and each layer has a different track matte.

The new feature solved a problem that sometimes happens, but completely ruined the workflow for 90% of the rest of the shots 😞

[Filip23315833k75u]

And for the love of God, an easier way to disable a track matte. Right now the only way I can see is to select none from the dropdown list. Weeeeeellllll, if I have layer 66 selected as my track matte, selecting none requires a lot of scrolling up.

Seriously guys the Right Click on the dropdown thing.

If no track matte selected - set the layer above as track matte.

If a track matte is selected - set the track matte to none

[Warren Heaton]

We can still place the Matte Layer directly in front of the Fill Layer, assuming its the Matte Layer for one Fill Layer.

This was a huge feature request.  I'm not sure we'll see it revert to the prior behavior.

[Filip23315833k75u]

Yes, but the problem is with selecting it to be a matte layer.

Now it became much more complicated than before.

[Warren Heaton]

Clicking and dragging the pickwhip straight up to the front layer for Alpha Matte is not too different than the legacy method.  Then click the icons to the right if Alpha Matte Inverted, Luma Matte, or Luma Matte Inverted are needed.

[Filip23315833k75u]

Have you actually worked with the new system? Not just trying out if it works. Did you actually spend a couple of hours selecting track mattes during working?

Hitting the tiny lasso tool every time is a little less convienient then what we used to have - it gets annoying really fast. Not to mention that we now have two identical columns in the properties row: Track Mattes and Parent and Link - and I can't stress this enough - they are IDENTICAL - so you do end up picking the wrong lasso in the heat of the battle.

Like I said, I like the new system, it's fine - we just need to add a way of easily picking the above layer as a track matte.

Like Right or Double clicking the Track matte collumn for the layer, a keyboard shortcut, anything at all, just to make it faster 😕

[Gfx5ED1]

No more shortcut-key w the new pickwhip. GUI dragging slows pace. 
Filip, you have my vote. Having BOTH options seems a great idea - win/win. 

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Filip23315833k75u,

Thanks for bringing up these issues. I'm happy to share that your first request has been implemented in After Effects 23.4—After Effects now includes menu commands for "Matte with Layer Above", which can be mapped to keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog (Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts).

Your second request is on our radar, though not implemented yet. Please add your vote and thoughts to the request for that same functionality here.

To easily disable a Track Matte, click on the pickwhip while holding ⌘ (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows).

In the future, please post multiple requests as separate threads, since we may often implement one request while waiting on another. Multiple ideas in a single thread also make general discussion of any given request difficult.

Thanks again,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team 

[Filip23315833k75u]

Perfect, thanks 🙂

[JohnColombo]

Hi @Filip23315833k75u,

I hope you're doing well today. I also hope you'll be happy to hear that your second request—duplicating both a Track Matte source and reference will update the reference—is now available in the latest public Beta build, 23.6.0.44 or higher. Please try it when you can and let us know if it behaves as expected.

Thanks again for making these requests,

- John, After Effects Engineering Team