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.  ... View more

This is awesome, and I was Super excited about it.....until I tried it.  It doesn't work if some of the layers selected have no effects. So, you know, layers like Nulls? Those Might have effects, but usually not right? ... View more

So have you figured out how to do it with media encoder? This is useful for single projects, but also quite useful if you need to render something like 100 clips as separate clips at once. If I know I have 3 machines available, I could just send 33 on each machine, but that requires time for user input, And not all the computers/files will render at the same time. It's much better when one computer just picks up the next job upon completion.  ... View more

You're thinking too simplistically. A path, in after effects can be a compound path. So when someone says path in AE, it's not the same as in illustrator. It could mean multiple paths, as one path definition. You can have 18 open lines as "the path." 5 of those lines could be reversed, where the other 13 aren't.  So you can't just put a negative number to make the path switched, because that changes the Entire path, meaning all 18 lines in that example. There is also a reverse path direction on shape layers in after effects, but you've got the same problem. If those paths need to be treated as one path, for something like a shape morph, then the direction of those are important.   Instead, copy the lines, paste them in illustrator. I suggest adding an arrowhead to one end so you can preview direction easier. Then select the reversed lines there, reverse the direction. Then copy the paths, come back to AE select the paths and hit paste to replace them.  This also works for closed paths of course, but it's more difficult to see the direction in illustrator.  ... View more

This is Such an unacceptable solution by SentinalOne also. And as Akash is suggesting, if you can't turn it into some sort of alert mode, then it could be effecting productivity in nearly All of your software, and you'd just be cursing how slow your computer or your software is, not having a clue that all along, it was just because SentinelOne was keeping you from working.  Try running blender. It's Aweful.  It seems everything that is doing GPU computing is being effected by every new action. But it's difficult to know. Maybe it's Also slowing down the entire thing.  ... View more

Wouldn't storing your working data on cloud storage essentially solve the issue? That would provide a local copy as well as a second copy of the data on an MS, Google, AWS, or other server which is running advanced antivirus.  Sure, for mission critical work. But as an example, StentinelOne is causing issues with Every GPU based software right now. Blender is hardly even useable. Photoshop takes ungodly amounts of time to do repetetive tasks. It's not just an annoyance. It's a loss in productivity.  And I agree, basic antivirus isn't enough. You also need to train your users not to do stupid crap. Fine, make policies that you have to go through IT to use a plugin or something. Malware is also completely different than virus, and Sentinel does a crap job at trying to avoid it. If something is custom targetting a group then it's not going to block squat.  Once antivirus starts effecting productivity, it has worn out it's usefulness, and instead, you are better off skipping it, and coming up with methods for backing up your data. You can't argue with backing up data a couple times a day and removing it physically from a system either. You can't cryptolock what you don't have access to.  That actually happened to us because someone was running an old XP machine that IT forgot about. They locked our files. We just said "screw it" and restored from a backup. Lost about 2 days of work in all, and 1-ish day of files.  Losing 2 days of work is approximately a .8% loss in productivity for the year. So if some stupid software causes us to be on average 2% slower, then that is Worse. ... View more

I may have narrowed this a Little? Changing the audio did work for me. And I can change it back as well. In my case, I have audio either going through HDMI to my monitor (which is actually a 32' 4k samsung TV), or going through the built in realtek card to use headphones. I really wish there was One more audio option for windows, rather than selecting the device, select [whatever windows is using]. I'm sure it's not that simple. BUT, this is a fresh machine. I Was working on a laptop and using an external graphics card through thunderbolt 3, which Adobe sometimes has issues with, because then I have multiple graphics cards. But this new system is easier to troubleshoot. I installed Motion V3 plugin, which is Indespensible if you animation motion in AE (should be most of us right?). First, it wouldn't install, and no idea why, so I had to install it with the ZXP installer through aescripts site. I had this on my other machine as well, but not sure why it gives error -403. After installing that (but unfortunately I installed Overloard as well at that time) I started getting a Log2Transport issue, I think I got the name there right. It just sometimes stops working. I mean, I don't know what it does, but it's an adobe software.  And when restarting, sometimes that causes a hang as well.    I happened to get this particular hang after using the Dynamics tool in Motion V3. It might have done the same thing when I used excite, but not sure. The first few times I just restarted. I didn't know what happened. This time I came looking for answers, and switched my audio. Yup, works fine. Sitched back. Still fine.    So hopefully that helps. Still a workaround, but Adobe saying not to use plugins would be pretty weak. I mean, the only reason we are using a plugin is to fix some useability or add function that Adobe isn't doing themselves. Motion v3? It's just a UI automating some things that are already built in like manipulating curves and writting the expressions for you to do a bunch of things. Of course, if some of those things weren't run by expressions they could run faster.  ... View more

It's already there Axel. It's been there for quite some time, as has it been requested for Photoshop. Anyone who has learned to use them in the video applications that have them wonder why in the world this doesn't exist in image editing. Well, it Does exist in image editing, just not in Adobe. Affinity has it. There are also a couple pieces of software that have it to add to anything on screen, in case your software doesn't support it. Of course, that's limited to your monitor colorspace then, and only 8bit? And one big advantage to using scopes, is you no longer have to rely on what you see on your monitor to adjust an image. A completely colorblind person could set off a very good starting point for skin tones and white balance by just looking at the graphs.  ... View more

There are quite a few reasons using "their eyes" is not as good an idea as using vector parade and vectorscopes. And it's definitely one of those things that you don't think you need until you use it. And since most photographers haven't ever had access to it, they may prefer just using their eyes for a while. But your monitor color does shift over time. So you have to calibrate every couple weeks? And unless you lock yourself in a dark room, then time of day effects how your monitor appears.  And yeah, still use your eyes. For sure. But start with a scope. It'd be like saying....no no, don't use a histogram to see if your image is properly exposed when you take a picture. Just use your eyes. But if your digital camera's screen is a bit off, you may be unintentionally clamping your shots, losing out on a bunch more detail that you could use. Looking at my camera screen, then comparing to a nicer monitor attached, I see more detail and color information in the monitor. Both histograms tell me the exact same information. The same goes for the other tools as well. You can quickly nail skin tones, adjust white balance using different techniques, and adjust values and contrast, knowing what the image is going to look like without ever even looking at the image once you get practice at it.  Eyes have their place, but so do visual graphs.  ... View more

Let me tell you why you Shouldn't do this.  First, you're being told to change your disk cash preferences. Then immediately after that, delete your preferences. Now, this actually deleted the preference you just created. I don't know about you, but I can tell Right away that isn't going to do anything.    Anyway, no, that didn't work. And it wasn't going to work because it really isn't doing anything other than causing an annoyance, because now your preferences are gone.    To anyone reading this, don't bother with this one. You'll just be annoyed that your preferences are now gone, and the audio issue you are having is still happening. ... View more

Just so that other people can find this solution as well: If you need to reverse your path direction you can also copy the path to illustrator. Reverse the path direction, then copy it back. This Actually reverses the path direction and isn't a trick that works just in the case you want to animate something onto the path.  If you want to know Why you might need this, one example is morphing from one shape to another. Often shapes were drawn in different directions. So you need to reverse only One of them. And that will work. Another tip there is also making the start point for both shapes in a similar spot. if you're moving from a "T" to an "S" them use something like the buttom left corner of both as the start point. That helps ensure slightly less overlapping as the paths move from one to another. And you'll have to make sure you're paths are drawn in the same direction. But it's a letter, how are you to know?    So since there's no tool to control One paths' direction in AE, then just copy it over to AI, reverse it, and come right back. Works for shape layers And masks.  ... View more

I actually tried to post this, and it looks like it's already posted but you can't vote for it because someone said it was resolved.  It isn't resolved. I can't play audio with BLANK frames. Once it plays all the way through, it's fine.   The issue is Probably a caching issue that they screwed up. Because if you create a region, turn on looping in playback, then move to just before the end of your render region and play, it plays the few frames, maybe has some audio issues, but then once it gets back to the beginning, it's fine. And if you go to the beginning of the already cached frames and hit play, you'll get framerate issues, like something isn't keeping up. So either the audio goes briefly silent, or it sounds terrible for a second till it catches up.    So the workaround is to loop, and start at the End? That's so dumb. That's no way to work. I really hope someone figures this out soon. It's been broken for too long. And bug reporting is so useless at Adobe also. They pay more attention to when a bunch of people make a big stink about something on the forum. Bug reporting is just like throwing something over the wall. You have no idea if it is going to do anything.   ... View more

Oh thank goodness. I was afraid this was going to be something stupid. I find myself doing this a LOT though, and wish I could do it with a hotkey. It seems like I can only have one multitrack open, so not sure why it even gives me the option of inserting into new, or the one I have open.    This must have changed from off/on in a recent update or something, because I've always inserted at current time. So I have to make sure to check that time first to make sure I don't write over what's already there. I hate it when Adobe decides to change a default.    Just wanted to say thanks, I guess to both of you. Had the question not been properly asked, I wouldn't have been able to find the answer. ... View more

Is there a way for Someone Else to mark a correct answer? Because installing an Old version of the software is a Really crappy workaround. This is still a workaround, but it's better than Adobe's solution will ever be, so I'd say this is the preferred method.  This is likely a bug, and Adobe should get their act together and make it so it can open large EXR files. But if you're using exr, you should probably be using a plugin that makes exr more useful, like the free one you're linking to.    So I really wish someone would change the "correct" answer to this one.  ... View more

I understand the ideas behind making sure your user experience matches the user's expectations and having to make sure to also allow for exceptions. And no, no one will want a popup every time. I was just stating that I couldn't think of a reason you would select a layer And the layer it is referencing for duplicating, and Not keep the reference intact.    Also the parent option is good. I hadn't thought of that, becuase I've never seen it before. And no, there's no reason they can't be parented. In fact, it Might be parented already. I had to have two layers for that, one for a rectangle fill and one for a rectangle outline. I needed to change the color of the mattress with a fill Effect, so they had to be two objects. So the expression is just parenting the one value really. That was faster and easier than doing expressions on each fill. And it's easier to update on all 12 versions of the animation. Just change the effect. But changing the expression IN the shape is a bit more time consuming. ... View more

fair enough, not a bug then. And it makes sense that if you copy something with an expression you may not want the expression to change. But I can't think of a reason you would be copying/duplicating a layer with an expression And the layer(s) it references without wanting those updated. In Excel (yes, I know, terrible reference but it applies), if you copy a cel that references another, then paste it. That cell will reference the original cell. But if you copy Both cells, and paste them, it now updates the reference to include the pasted cell. As far as user experiences go, that is likely more obvious to the majority of users. Why would you be including the original reference otherwise? The same would go for duplicating. In my opinion, if you select a layer that references another and duplicate it, no change should happen. But if you select Both layers, the expression should update with the newly duplicated layer name, created a new reference. So not a bug, sure, but I think they made the wrong choice.   Is there a way I could be writing an expression like that in a way that it Would update? If I keep the layers together I could use layer index to handle it, but I don't like doing that because it is very easy to accidentally break. And I often have to share files with others I work with, or open up the same file 2 years later and make an update (that's what happened here).  ... View more

The project is finished, so finally had a chance to open up the old project to replicate it on video.  AE version 17.0.1 (build 52) So here you can see that I copied and pasted layers that already have copies in the other composition with the same name. So AE renames the copied layers, but the expression doesn't get updated. Outside of the short video I also tried a few other things, and all had the same results....except once!?  I was going back and forth trying different combinations of numbers and no numbers. One time, I think after hitting undo but then renaming the layer, I broke the link between the expression and the layer it points to. But then I hit undo, changed it again, and it was fine. And of Course I can't repeat that. I've tried every combination I could think of.    One odd thing about this file though, the original started a couple years back on whatever version of AE that was. And they've changed the expression system. So this may just be a fairly isolated issue.  ... View more

I agree with you there, and your last sentence is why I left and tried to find where you are supposed to submit a bug. On UserVoice you put a title, then pick from a few options, which are: Animation Compositing & effects General Performance Stability User experience/interface Workfow & interoperability.   Well which of those would be flagged as a bug? It's not that I didn't google it. The first thing I Did was go to that site, but then though....."no, this can't be where you would submit a bug. That would be a terrible user experience." But alas, this is Adobe we're talking about, who can't even decide on how to scale things consistently through their different software. I guess they opted for the bad experience, again.   I've used that site a few times before, and I've found the community to be much more responsive here. I posted about a dual graphics card bug there, and the response I got was, "Don't use more than one graphics card." No joke. Rather than saying, "yes, this seems to be a bug. Until it's fixed here's how you disable your graphics cards prior to starting AE or Premiere" they just told me not to use more than one graphics card. They ended up just quietly fixed the bug. ... View more

Thanks Rick. Although, funny thing is that's Not the first internet result, And it's a different option than the "adobe community professional" mentioned. It Is nice to be able to flag something as a bug instead of just submitting it to them through there because they Rarely respond in any way. I've used that one in the past. I think there used to be a link to it in the help menu.    Anyway, I'll have to go back to my previous version and do a video screengrab to show the issue. Unfortunately it's the worst kind of bug...the kind that only happens Sometimes under unknown circumstances.   Yes, this is Usually the behavior. But it's not what was happening. It could be because this file originated a year ago, so was either 2018 or 2019 AE. It probably has something to do with how AE holds on to autoincremented numbers. I think I had used an autoincremented number and it Happened to be the correct name, so I must not have changed it explicitly. I'm moving to changing names to not end in numbers just to avoid any mistakes in the future. But there's no reason to know that until you've experienced an error, or you're taught about it.    I AM a little confused at your first statement about copying a layer as many times as you want without numbers being added. I'm trying to replicate what I thought you meant, but I don't think I'm understanding. Duplicating or copying a layer that I've named always adds a number unless I'm copying in a new place where the name doesn't already exist.  If I create a solid named black, and rename it "test" then copy that. Now in a new cop and create a null, name it test. Now paste and your solid should be named "test 2"   The issue I was having was that even though the layer didn't exist, it was still being renamed. Not only that, but the expression attached to it was not updated. I'll have to screen record that. But that will have to wait until the project is complete.  ... View more

That's not true. AE did not previously incremented numbers that don't exist in your composition. It only did that if you duplicated or pasted a layer in a composition that already had that number.  If you cut a layer that is numbered, and paste it just to reorganize, it doesn't rename the layer. I just tried it on a layer named "48 3" and sure enough it's still pasted as 48 3. And pasting a layer with a number into a new composition usually doesn't cause it to be renamed. Something is amuck.   Also, saying no offense when calling someone stupid shows a lack of social intelligence. Maybe just leave those types of comments unwritten in the future, as they don't add to the value.      ... View more

Perhaps that's why it isn't obvious. There's nowhere there that is obvious for Reporting a Bug. That's where I went. And google brought me to the same location. You first have to give a title, then search, providing it doesn't exist, give it as an "idea?" One of the ideas there is actually, to give a proper bug reporting tool. lol   The useability here is terrible. Adobe should be better at that.    I'll have to tweak some things to provide a screen recording, but may not get to it till tomorrow.  ... View more

Nope. All posted workarounds are not working. I uninstalled Encode, removing preferences, and reinstalled. I turned off parallel encoding I turned off Also "import sequences natively" Still, the render wants to take about 40 minutes. But from Premiere, if I render without Queue it takes just over a minute. Any more ideas? Maybe you folks could just enable queuing Inside of Premiere while you figure out what is broken? That would be super. ... View more

Oh, of course. That makes sense. So everyone, just think of where it Should be, based on using other Adobe software, then look in one of the Other menus. I mean, why would you package it somewhere close to Project Manager, or Project settings? Removing unused clips is Definitely an Edit function. In case you didn't catch that, it was 100% sarcasm. My favorite Adobe blunder lately is how even within the same application, holding shift and not holding shift to constrain proportions. It's almost like Adobe no longer has quality control. But hey, at least they are threatening legal action against us if we don't uninstall older Adobe software. ... View more

This is complete BS. And it has nothing to do with personal preference. The ONLY reason to make a change like this is to make one software match another. But that's not the case here because most things don't work like this. In fact, Illustrator is probably better here. Hold shift while using a corner keeps aspect. Hold it while using an edge does something else. I can't remember what, but it's useful. lol And Photoshop is NOT for beginners! To the teacher's post, they are explaining, this is a Very easy thing to learn. And it's not even Necessary to learn the hotkey. Photoshop Elements is for beginners. If you can't figure out a hotkey, you probably aren't the type to use them in the first place....so use the button up top that locks the aspect ratio. This should be one of those things that as soon as you change it from locked/unlocked it changes your preference. Having to change xml files, or dig Anywhere into program files is just terrible programmers. It's like they've never had a meeting with someone involved in user experience before. Get some decent user experience people Adobe, Please. Really the only major complaint I have about your software as a whole is poor decisions regarding UX. Crashes here and there? Yeah, programmers make mistakes, most likely because of the crazy number of variables for all the systems they have to support. That's expected. But you CAN control how things are designed as far as things like this. ... View more

That does sound like what I would want. I mean, I'm finished, but it took me an hour to go through all the keys. I'm Not sure that works with individual keys either, but I didn't look hard. I'll have to look into it closer. I've set up global colors before, when I know that there's a good chance of a change, but that's a Big pain in the butt to do if you have to key different colors, because then you have to create variables for each color and create something rather complex. And I'm also not sure that would Quite work with anything other than hold frames. So if this goes through and actually changes each reference, then it's Totally worth the 30 bucks. ... View more

I kind of wonder if this is at all related to the graphics card problem. I have to disable my second graphics card. This is a recent occurrence. Updating drivers didn't help. Then i confirmed, it's definitely an Adobe issue. I'm using a laptop with an external graphics card. I asked someone at a completely different company how he's doing, and he said the same thing with his tower, which has 2 nvidia cards in it. Same deal. He found he can't open Any of the adobe software that uses video unless he disables one of them. another coworker has the same issue, but he has one Quadro, and one not. You Don't have to disable the Intel built in graphics though. Anyway, I can't close my extensions at all. Can't disable either. So many crashes lately. Almost makes me want to use something else, even though I'm paying for Adobe junk. ... View more