CC composite is great for compositing its own layer over itself again, the track mattes is good for tracking an alpha/luma of a layer above itself.
However, many times I'd like to composite, say an icon, over a circle shape - then animate each one independently (perhaps the circle scales up and the icon slides down to the centre of the circle), then, have the icon track the circles alpha channel so you only ever see the icon inside the circle.
Set matte doesnt often work as you are manipulating transform properties, and set matte seems to only work when both layers are the same dimensions or their default transform properties otherwise the matte is out of alignment.

The track matte works but you have to duplicate the circle layer and put it above the icon, then alterations to the circle animation would have to be replicated (barring fiddly pick whipping).

So, the feature would be like a track matte for any layer, essentially (could remove the track matte switch).
I think it could be a setting or check box in the "Set matte" effect, simply "track matte" which would track any layers matte/luma etc, as it appears in the composition, like it has been pre-composed but without having to pre-compose.

I hope this makes sense.

since 2018, Ae has not been updated in relation to VR/360 workflows. Ae has limited VR effects and the VR Comp Editor workflow which is also very limited and delicate script and expression heavy process.

Ae should have a spherical camera, mono and stereo. this would obsolete the stiching workflow of VR Comp Editor and it's limitations. 3d plugins like trapcode or stardust are very breakable, also all the 2d effects won't work properly without the use of 3rd party tools and even then it's very limited.

these new technologies should not be left behind, there are great things motion graphics wise you could create in Ae for 360/VR, and also for compositing video.

here are a few for the features I am looking for in Ae, please write anything else in the comments:
1. spherical camera (mono and stereo, 360 or 180) with all the perks as regular camera (depth of field, not a script to connect cameras, no stitching issues)
2. more VR effects or a native tool for integrating 2d effects for VR/360

I'd like to propose an effect that can take a result from further up the effects chain and recomposite it back over the final result. Similar to how CC Composite can put the original image back over the final result.

Even if behind the scenes this means rendering the same thing twice, it would be convenient to have this functionality on a single layer. I often find myself making copies of a layer and using the Calculations effect to blend layers together, or create more intricate mattes.

It could have controls like transfer mode, opacity, preserve transparency, etc. Maybe similar to the Calculations effect controls.

The effect could be called ReComposite or Rebuffer, something like that.

Maybe selecting from an effect stack could be integrated with the layer selector + mask and effects toggle. That'd probably be quite a large change though.

Hope this sounds useful to others!

Hello

Have any Mac users experienced problems with the Element 3D plugin in the latest After Effects release?
After Effects: 18.2
macOS: 10.15.7
GPU: Radeon Pro Vega 48 8 GB
Element 3D: 2.2.2

After Effects renders black objects in the Element plugin when using a timeline layer as a custom texture. It's an 8K layer, but the project has worked without problems before the latest updates.
Full render and Preview render modes show empty black texture. The Draft render mode shows a correct texture, and inside the plugin's Scene Setup, everything works fine.
Have to restart Mac to be able to render.

Maybe this is some broken GPU thing between Apple - Adobe because Photoshop has some severe problems with Mac GPUs at the moment.

As novas formas de dividir a "compostion window" para trabalhar com 3d são horríveis.

Tela dividida em 2 na vertical.
A maior parte do trabalho ainda é com resoluções horizontais, e dividir a tela na vertical não ajuda. O ideal é voltar com a opção de dividir a tela em 2 na horizontal.

tela dividia em 4
Eu particularmente gosto muito mais de dividir a tela em 1 grande (a visão da câmera resultado final) e 3 pequenas para me ajudar a posicionar elementos.
4 telas do mesmo tamanho são desnecessárias e acabam prejudicando a ver a imagem principal, que muitas vezes não é em uma resolução quadrada.

Por favor, voltem com mais opções de como dividir a "composition window"

My Prores 4444 Footage w Alpha that is premultiplied on Black, only acts normal when I am in Half resolution preview. As soon as I switch to Full Res or Render, the Alpha is treated as Straight/Unmatted.

Interestingly… if I select the interpret footage option "invert Alpha", the Alpha is only inverted when previewed at Full Resolution, not at reduced resolutions.

When I employ the workaround of adding the effect "Remove Color Matting" (Black) myself manualy, I also get very weird halos and artefacts when previawing at half resolution, which are not a side-effect of simply downscaling.

This occurs in CC2020 and CC2021 (not in Beta 18.2)
Footage is included here:https://we.tl/t-UUxC1SQe4S

If you resize the composition using the "Crop Comp to Region of Interest" feature in version 17.5.1, there will be a difference in the display between 2D and 3D layers with the same X and Y numbers.
It didn't happen in versions prior to 17.1.4.

The following reproduction procedure
1, Creating a composition
2, Create a new layer
3, Resize the composition using "Crop Comp to Region of Interest"
4, Check the 3D layer.

Other than "Crop Comp to Region of Interest", the same phenomenon occurs when resizing with "Composition Settings / Advanced / Anchor" selected other than the center.
Also, if you open a project file saved in version 17.5 or later in version 17.1.4 or earlier, the displayed position will change.

The workaround I've found is to place the camera layer to restore the display.

Thank you.