I believe I just found a current problem related to the "Invalid Menu Operation" warning that has been discussed on this forum several times before.

I'm working on a project that has a lot of compositions.

If a composition is used more than 1168 times and I try to right-click it in the Project panel, I get an "After Effects Warning: Invalid Menu Operation" popup.

I tested it in CC 2020 and CC 2022 - same bug.

I had four different pre-comps used over 1168 times in other compositions. As a test, I just kept deleting the comps that used the pre-comps, and as soon as I deleted enough comps that the pre-comp was used 1168 times or less, the bug went away - no more pop-up and I could right-click the comp and use the menu. This happened for all four of the pre-comps that were used over 1168 times.

I searched, and haven't seen anyone else report this specific problem / cause / solution.

You used to be able to snap the anchor point to layers when using the Anchor Point tool (y) and pressing Shift or activating the snapping checkbox, now it doesn't work with the new gizmos.

Also... it's pretty useless defaulting to the same type of gizmo used for the SELECTION TOOL and not having any way to change it when you CAN'T rotate or scale an anchor point. Now you have to go to the select tool, select the POSITION gizmo and then come back to the Anchor Point tool again if you want to move an anchor point in XY space for example.

HI, I currently create a new layer for every curve(s) I apply. I thought I may be able to apply curves to masks so I could have multiple curves (colours) in one layer. Unfortunately I cannot do this and I am guessing it is about the 'paths'. Is there or could there be a way to turn masked sections into layers - although this may increase file size. I become limited to only changing one colour (applied curve(s)) a layer so if i have 5 masks they are all the one colour where I want say 5 masks of different colours. So to make a multicoloured work i have to do many layers. Also i have to start playing with opacity to see all the colours at once, which i don't always want to do. I also want to fade in/out my wished for multicoloured layers so each gets seen sequentially, if my layers masks are only one colour I don't get the desired flow of multicolour. It is hard to explain but it changes how I design and becomes less efficient, cumbersome and involved. Thanks for listening. I know there are limitations that could stop this problem being solved.

After Effects could dominate the market if the developers simply did this:

Rewrite the software so that you have the option to work with nodes in a dedicated window AND still use layers as default (Blender does this, so I know it's possible).
The key to making After Effects the industry dominating software it ought to be, is by keeping the easy to use and super clean UI that it already has, while optimizing its functionality.
For instance, if After Effects had it's standard "layer" timeline, but also gave users the ability to work 'under the hood' for more complex tasks, it would be a game changer!

As it is now, if I have 20 layers that I want to apply a mask to, I have to make 20 copies of that layer (or do some weird precomping setup).
But if AE had nodes, the workflow would be amazing.

Additionally, we already have multiple functions for the 'pick whip,' but if it could also be utilized to connect layers (without jumping into the node window) that would be a major convenience.
For instance, if I held down Shift and Alt, then the pick whip could connect a layer to another layer's properties, like masks or color, instead of just its transform value, like parenting layers work currently.

Just look at the way Blender functions and model AE from that model.

After Effects could be the perfect solution for hobbyists and pros alike with just a rewrite and some stability tweaks.

Also, as a random note: if you changed your subscription model to à la carte, our minds would be blown.
How this could work: for 2 programs of our choosing, $20/per month (or whatever).
For 4 programs of our choosing, $50.
For 5 or more, $84.99.

And as a final note, if anyone is still reading this far -- if there was some way that Adobe could either acquire existing plugins to make them part of the software itself, or write its own code independently to accomplish the same ends, that would be fantastic.

It just seems that AE has been riding on its old tricks for too long, and is reliant on plugins to do more of the heavy lifting -- for compositing, Red Giant has Supercomp. The question then, is why can't that either be licensed and incorporated into the software itself, or just rewrite the code to allow native compositing in AE to function more intuitively (better glows, a new version of 3d Camera Tracker that allows the user more control, clean track points and troubleshoot instead of just hitting a button and hoping for the best).

After Effects is the software I grew up on, its the software that still makes the most sense and has the easiest to use interface. But it needs to grow up and become the effects powerhouse that it always should have been.
DaVinci Resolve is fine enough but its workflow is overcomplicated and Nuke is way out of most people's price range.

If AE could evolve, it could absolutely dominate.
Please consider any of these changes.

Thank you.

I'd like to replace the embarrassing image import code (presumably knocked together by an intern in 1998?) with something that has functional parity with the rest of the Adobe CC apps. Why should a JPG that opens without issue in Photoshop/Illustrator etc. cause After Effects to soil itself? Why can AE still not deal with CMYK bitmaps? Why does AE still not give you actual useable info on which images were not imported, rather than having to dismiss 2, sometimes 3 individual error messages for each image and then having to manually sift through what did import and try to work out what did not?
Utterly moronic. Professional software my ****.