Adobe responds to After Effects gripes
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
Now that the CS4 cat is out of the bag, the good people on the After Effects team have graciously taken the time to respond to most of the top 25 After Effects gripes here on Dear Adobe (a couple were left out as they were misfiled at the time they pulled the report). In their response Michael Coleman, Product Manager for After Effects, also writes:
I know folks wonder where web form suggestions go, but I can assure you that the feedback received here goes directly to a real person on the After Effects team. Here’s the URL: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform
There seems to be a good mix of responses; some have already been addressed in CS4 and others have jsut been deemed ‘good suggestions’. In closing, we’d like to thank Michael Coleman and Ellen Wixted (Product Marketing Manager for After Effects) for taking the time to get these responses together and that we hope that other product teams might consider taking a peek at their own Top 25. Without further adue, After Effects gripes and their responses:
1.) I want to buy After Effects. JUST After Effects. Help me out, willya? #1332
Adobe: After Effects has always been available to be purchased separately.
2.) Multiprocessing that doesn’t slow down After Effects renders as often as it speeds them up would sure be handy. Barring that, AE should be smart enough to detect when the MP overhead is exceeding its benefit. #1339
Adobe: After Effects CS4 has a brand new preference panel to match the number of CPU cores used for rendering with the available RAM. This will help optimize multi-core rendering. In addition, CS4 will also allow you to limit the number of cores being used for rendering in order to leave some processing power for other applications you are using at the same time. There are also numerous small improvements to multi-core rendering under the hood of CS4.
3.) The option to import text layers from PSDs into After Effects as a text layer and not rasterized pixels. #1573
Adobe: Use the “Convert to Editable Text” menu commmand. Available in After Effects 6.0 or later.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/8.0/help.html?content=WSB0C11C4A-7F82-4fdf-81DD-3E39B052541A.html
4.) Support OpenFX plug-ins in AfterEffects (and Photoshop), it’s an open standard accepted by almost the entire visual effects industry. #1630
Adobe: We are generally supportive of open efforts, but there are currently far more native After Effects plug-ins available than OpenFX. In addition, virtually all OpenFX effects are already available in a native After Effects version. Looking toward the future, Adobe is developing technology to allow you to use the same effects across multiple hosts and platforms, which offers several distinct advantages to developers and customers. This technology is called ‘Adobe Pixel Bender’. For more info, see http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Pixel_Bender_Toolkit on the Adobe labs web site.
5.) Why do I still have to do RAM previews in After Effects? And why does AE still do pixel aspect ratio correction by dropping or adding columns of pixels? It’s 2008, not 1995, folks. I know you know how to properly scale images without making them look like crap, so why don’t you do it in your viewports? #1310
Adobe: We’re always working on increasing performance. Given today’s computing platforms, though, RAM previews are a fact of life with complex, deep compositions in real-world projects. Better Pixel Aspect Ratio scaling is a good feature request.
6.) more 3D in after effects. #1881
Adobe: Good feature request.
7.) Let us copy text from another app and paste it in After Effects’ text tool. #1568
Adobe: You can currently copy and paste text into After Effects.
8.) Why can Photoshop import 3D models but After Effects can’t? How does that even make sense??? #1979
Adobe: Good request. In the mean time, After Effects CS4 is compatible with 3D layers from Photoshop CS4 PSD files. 3D PSD layers can be animated as real 3D objects in After Effects CS4. 3D objects, therefore, can be brought to After Effects via Photoshop.
9.) why is Actions feature available in Photoshop but not in After Effects? #1280
Adobe: Good feature request.
10.) After Effects is a FANTASTIC application and THE BEST Adobe product. Please let the other teams learn form the After Effects team.
Adobe: Thank you! We work closely with the other teams and we’re always working together to make the best products possible. It’s a little known fact that many great things in After Effects are contributed from all over Adobe, and we’re collaborating more and more with each release.
11.) Make After Effects graph editor more intuitive/usable.
Adobe: The graph editor has recently been redesigned with customer input. Please provide specific suggestions for improvement and we’ll take a look at incorporating more feedback into future versions..
12.) Would it kill you to update the filters in After Effects so that they can all work in all color resolutions? 8 bit is not enough.
Adobe: Most effects have been already updated to work in 32-bit color space. In After Effects CS4 we have also upgraded the 3D Channel effects to 32-bit. Help us prioritize your top plug-ins for conversion by providing a list of the ones you use most frequently that are not already 32-bit.
13.) Can we get inverse kinetics in After Effects already?? #3403
Adobe: Good feature request. (Check out Flash CS4, by the way — it has IK!)
14.) I Love After Effects! #2561
Adobe: Thanks! So do we!
15.) After Effects automatically comes forward after renders are completed. (disrupting work in other applications) #1293
Adobe: Most people are not experiencing this issue, but it is not the intended behavior. Will investigate.
16.) Make the text tools the same for After Effects as in Photoshop… I keep hitting ‘T’ and opening opacity! #1603
Adobe: We’ve given the ‘t’ shortcut to opacity since it’s more frequently used in After Effects. We’d like to have customizable keyboard shortcuts someday, but in the meantime in After Effects, use cmd+T on the mac and ctrl+T on windows.
17.) After Effects: Syncing animation to audio is important. Why must you make so, so hard? #2344
Adobe: You can play audio in realtime while creating timeline markers for animation synchronizing. See this page for more info:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/8.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7e62.html
18.) Make After Effects save a shadow copy of the project automatically before rendering starts, OR make After Effects not crash while rendering. Up to you #6617
Adobe: Good suggestion. While crashing is rare, you can also enable Auto-Save in the preferences for additional project backups.
19.) After Effects: Variable feathering on masks. Why I must make sooooo many masks!? In Full HD!? 60 freakin’ i!? #2332
Adobe: Good suggestion.
20.) I love to scroll through hundreds of layers in After Effects. Layer groups or folders I could collapse or turn off would be more 21st century than a frikkin’ nose-over-wall icon!!!! IT’S THE 21st CENTURY!!! #2433
Adobe: After Effects CS4 has a very handy new search field in the timeline and project panels that is a great way to quickly get to the layer or property you’re looking for. This dramatically reduces or eliminates timeline scrolling.
21.) Could you please consider adding Private Use Area access to ligature glyphs and to alternate glyphs in fonts such as Garamond and Arno so that people using non-OpenType applications could use them to produce graphics? Maybe special PUA-access versions of the fonts? #954
Adobe: Good suggestion.
22.) Please let me open “legacy” files—I paid for both versions, why can’t I open old files with new programs without having my paths be all fricked up. #4147
Adobe: All version of After Effects will open and render old project versions. Note that if you have moved the source files, you may have to re-link the source files to the project.
23.) After Effects: I’d like use of vast amounts of RAM I’ve purchased. Why can’t you see it? Love- OSX #2320
Adobe: After Effects can currently use 3-4 GB per core for RAM previews and renders. More RAM per core is a good suggestion.