How can we improve After Effects?

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Back in 2004, Guide Layers were a great addition to AE. Let's do that again.

On each layer, maybe within the transform and compositing options, I'd love three checkboxes.
All checked, like we see below — the default — would simply mean "completely normal layer."

Layer Visible During:
[√] Work
[√] Preview
[√] Render

Meanwhile, to accomplish what we'd currently expect from a Guide Layer, we uncheck 'Render':

Layer Visible During:
[√] Work
[√] Preview
[_] Render

Easy peasy — plus — look what else we can do with this setup:

This will keep any layers of subtype 'crunchy-and-unnecessary-until-playback' out of your face:

Layer Visible During:
[_] Work
[√] Preview
[√] Render

This keeps layers of subtype 'crunchy-and-now-unnecessary-for-my-previews' out of your face:

Layer Visible During:
[√] Work
[_] Preview
[√] Render

Or howabout this? It's a hyper-Guide-Layer: if you drew butts on it, only you would ever know:

Layer Visible During:
[√] Work
[] Preview
[] Render

Or only visible during previews — ref, maybe? Again, the utility arises from our new options:

Layer Visible During:
[] Work
[√] Preview
[] Render

Or hey: ever wanted the opposite of a Guide Layer? Something visible only when rendered?

Layer Visible During:
[] Work
[] Preview
[√] Render

Boink. (The sound of progress.)

If the checkboxes are keyframeable — see also: expressable — we can get total render control.

What'd'ya think?

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Teague Chrystie shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

3 comments

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  • Felix Dames commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Great idea Duduf!

    I would like to expand this feature request to the "Audio on/off" icon of a layer:

    Additional Option would be:
    [x] Use and play audio syncronized in all nested precompositions and provide audio waveform as none editable guide layer

    This would make audio relevant animation work in a nested precomposition to the audio layer of the parent main composition much easier and would not require copying the audio layer to the nested precomposition just to hear it!

  • Duduf commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I think this could be a perfect replacement to the current visibility icon (the eye and the "fx" toggle too), and not just as an option for layers.

    It could continue to work as it currently does, but maybe an "Alt-Click" on it would display a small popup with these options. The eye icon could then change according to the boxes checked so one can easily see the visibility state of the layer/property.

    Of course, with this, there would not be any need for guide layers anymore.

    The "render only" option would be a great way to improve performance, like what's very often done in 3D softwares. Being able to disable stuff just for working but not when rendering would be an awesome improvement in terms of performance.

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