Nick Dorn
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8 votesNick Dorn
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94 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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hello, to those who are subscribed or reading later, I would like to direct your attention to similar threads, in an attempt to boost these issues on the list. Adobe made bug fixing a popularity contest, so why don't we play along?~
I do admit a couple are mine- full disclosure there, and you'll notice, if you read my ignored response to the dev that was here last year that I no longer support the continued existence of AE. I support the idea of an all new one, so that the many issues plaguing this ancient third-of-a-century old program may die peacefully with it, and not be passed to a new version, made from scratch with updates, performance, and modularity in mind.
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/42413407-use-ram-more-efficiently
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44485305-terrible-performance
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/45089074-kill-after-effects-it-s-done-and-dying-and-no-co
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44227764-after-effects-2020-is-very-slow-please-help
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/34045903-improved-ui-responsiveness
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/45099103-reduce-after-effects-pricing-grievances-list-it
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/39667342-after-effects-ui-is-extremely-slow-mainly-on-pc
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/40996867-interface-is-slow-and-laggy
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44907952-my-after-effect-is-suddenly-extremely-slow-even-wi
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44829013-composition-view-jittery-scrubbing
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44776162-saving-is-slow-but-fast-when-clicking-outside-aft
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44756623-roto-performance-abysmal
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44690776-projects-from-previous-version-of-ae-opening-likeLet's make some noise! comments and votes both help it seems, so help us out!
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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Jess McMillan, the applications that cause the most pain are the ones its used with most, premiere and encoder. simply put, encoder isn't a very good idea, it's just one more place for the data to route through for actual output- that introduces slowdowns and bugs. It's far worse with premiere. as I said, the amount of data that needs to be processed and sent is inordinately large- and because we always push our hardware to the limit, linking footage is largely infeasible, if you mean to provide viewport previews at least- it causes redundancy- two programs needing to work at once, on the same thing, or two separate programs that need to have the same functionality to provide the same result from a single set of data. It would be far more helpful to link a filename in a folder, and occasionally check the file's last version and reload if it's been changed. None of this would be an issue if rendering and effect computing was faster in the first place, though!
It's an issue that most of the addons... shouldn't be addons. https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/after-effects-plugins pretty well states it. you need to know the basics before plugins will actually help, so not only is is hampering artists, but the learning community as well. Blender has a great way of handling this. Most plugins are turned off by default. it's easy to turn them on, but new users don't open effects and see an CVS receipt of proprietary and confusing names like lumetri, keylight, cineware, and so on. Many of the addons actually provide VERY IMPORTANT functionality. these should be merged with the program's main codebase, to facilitate optimization.
but the main concern here... is that it's just been developed too long. it's like league of legends' player say. "it's been patched so much and is so convoluted, you'd have better luck optimizing spaghetti- every bugfix adds an exploit or breaks something else" and while after effects... almost works... the fact of the matter is I can't actually make money with it any more, so I have to consider it a deprecated part of my workflow and offload the costs to my clients, so they can buy me a month or two of it. I have to tell people that "their prices are exorbitant, but because your files are already in this format, you don't have a choice. I'll do it from scratch in something else, and it'll cost less. and take less time, but then you might not be able to find another editor who uses these other tools, as they're not a monopoly."... and I'm not joking. people pay me by the day- and my cost is a minimum of 2 days: one to be paid, and the other to pay for the program.
another part of it is your obligation to your clients. The primary expectation clients have for the service's promised features (Access to well-working programs, with meaningful updates, new useful features, intuitive UI, and performance improvements) is not being provided in a satisfactory way, while prices for those unsatisfactory services and client dissatisfaction is mounting.
After effects is old, its most powerful tools have been deprecated and replaced with tools that are too sluggish to be worth the convenience. so- deprecate after effects, and make After Effects 2. I know it hurts to hear that as a dev. I'm a dev too. it breaks my soul a little every time I need to start a vfx scene from scratch, I learn a program I've been writing will never be feasibly efficient because of the library I built it on, that a game I've worked on for 3 years had to be scrapped.
it hurts. but in the end, the second try always ends up better than the first and easier to make, even if it's less nostalgic.
Nick Dorn
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284 votesNick Dorn
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170 votesNick Dorn
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4 votesNick Dorn
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154 votesNick Dorn
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2 votesNick Dorn
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26 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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@Bruno Quintin more like 15 seconds per frame! XD
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3 votesNick Dorn
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An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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Upvoted. I can confirm this is an issue. and even when I do get it to work...
I have an old 6k project with like 15 comps that used to run nearly at full speed. now it chugs along at maybe a frame every five seconds if I set it to 15% on the same computer I made it on. Absolutely abysmal, and I think just linked to ongoing issues. https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at feel free to look at my newer post and help upvote others' performance issues too. we need this program to not eat 256 gigs of RAM to play back footage at below industry standard speeds, and we need it to be a reasonable price. if it cannot do either, it needs to be replaced. that's what I firmly believe. the program is 30 years old almost. It was never made for today's hardware, let alone to take advantage of it.
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4 votesNick Dorn
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An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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hey, try minimizing, and maximizing, and playing around with that kinda stuff. I think the previews do weird things. roto and tracking on mine are really laggy and the interface hangs and becomes unusable during. https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at also check out other people's posts, see if any speak to you. we shall fill their ears with upvoted performance issues. because, let's face it. performance is money, which we use to pay them. they have every reason to want to listen.
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4 votesNick Dorn
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An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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I get the same thing too, but with tracking, rotobrush, and so on. I think, somehow, the preview is absolutely trashing performance. in any case, it's unacceptable. have my vote and a link to others so you can help us get things rolling and annoy adobe devs maybe a little about performance. https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at
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6 votesNick Dorn
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An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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I am too. it's super spotty, and I work with 4k, 6k anamorphic and the works, so ut's really punishing. I voted, but take this comment in the algo too, and don't forget to help out others that are having issues! https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at if we band together, maybe they'll need to cover their ears to ignore us!
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244 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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hey, I'm just gonna put this comment here. my input.
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at
a lot of people are having this issue too. on this issue, I posted a comment with a list of other issues that are basically all the same thing. I figure if we band together we can get these issues commented and voted up high enough that they might consider acting on it if we, like, blot out the sun with sheer votes. many of these issues don't even have 10 votes. let's change that, even if it means AE is trashed and we need AE2. things are always better when you start from scratch to try again with what you've learned. also don't forget to wish AE a 30th birthday next year!Nick Dorn
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11 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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hey, I voted a while back, but learned that comments boost popularity, so here you go! https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at also look here for some more links to similar issues. maybe if we get a few dozen of these on the top pages they'll listen.
Nick Dorn
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36 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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hey! I'm just gonna boost this with a comment. The issue is because AE was made before multi-core computers were really even popular, let alone GPU's. it was made in the time where there were even RNG (yes random number generator) cards.
also check out https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at for my latest post. lets get these performance issues addressed, even if it means trashing the program for an all new one.Nick Dorn
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5 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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I don't think... they CAN change it. at this point it seems built into the program. we just need a new program that's not 30 years old. it was never designed for modern computers or hardware.
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at
my newest post here includes some others who you can comment on to make these topics more popular. let's show adobe how to run a real popularity contest, if that means getting actual improvements.Nick Dorn
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3 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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you don't have enough RAM, they suggest 64 so you can get up to 20 seconds of 4k footage to playback at almost realtime.
that's it. there's GPU acceleration, but with my 1070 8gig, it hits 100% and then the UI and cursor stop responding because that's what happens when 100% of your GPU is used to render a 20 second preview for a minute- it makes the rest of the program worse by far.https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at my newer post here has some other links to similar people. you're on it too!
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4 votesNick Dorn
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An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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hey, I have almost the same specs, and almost the same usage! yeah, AE only scales linearly with RAM, clock speeds, and core count now that multiframe exists. unfortunately, those cards with many cores have slower clock speeds and smaller transistor counts at times. I only have 32 gigs of RAM, so that means I can playback a little more than half of what you can.
GPU does next to nothing. if you do use it it will be blisteringly fast, but hitch and make the UI unusable whenever the preview and AI are both showing (almost always.)
https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/44254728-stop-adding-new-features-till-the-program-works-at
I have a post with a number of others who have similar grievances. also commenting here to boost popularity because we're seeing the same thing with the same (almost) computer. -
34 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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asking for GPU updates to single effects isn't gonna work. don't get me wrong, I need this too, but let's be realistic here. They just released an untested and broken exporter for premiere, and It took them 8 years to multithread frame rendering, with billions in profits to fund development, and GPU code is like multithreading on steroids and a fasting diet at the same time. if you ask for every effect you need to be faster separately, you might be here till the 2100's. I don't think they could manage it without rewriting a significant portion of the API, and if everything is so separate and redundant that the code for rendering camera lens blur touches nothing else... I weep for the poor thing.
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278 votesUnder Review ·
AdminPatrick Palmer
(Director of Product Management, Pro Video and Motion Design, Adobe DVA)
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All,
first of all I wanted to thank everyone for making this a productive conversation over the last couple of days.
As several people responded to my comment about keeping the tone civilised, I need to dwell on that for a minute. Please hear me out, this is important to everyone on my crew and I hope it will be to you.
Saying that we shouldn't be surprised when things get heated is very problematic in my opinion. How do you expect a junior person on my team to respond to a technical question when it is combined with something that can easily be described as hate speech? How do you think we can actually come together on actual issues when there's already the assumption that we're a big faceless corporation, not even listening to our customers?
People on my team have received threats. I've been there over the years,…
An error occurred while saving the comment Nick Dorn
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I mean, I do VFX. I know what designs convey information in moments. they could just put out a contest with a reward for the top 5 designs, then make nonfunctional mockups of them and show them on a webpage page to be used, tried out, and voted on. it sounds like a lot of work, yes... but these programs are the bread and butter making them basically all their money so far as I know. it's like being a landlord and changing locks on doors or upgrading the appliances from time to time. it costs money but it's what keeps the product valuable and NOT FALLING APART AT THE SEAMS, ADOBE.
let's face it, they never use these programs anyway, they never test them, and they don't need them to be functional, let alone performant to put it up for sale and sit back to watch the money pour in because someone worked their rear off some 25 years ago and making clients happy and fulfilling the obligations of a service aren't as profitable as making a popup window that links to a less functional, smaller portion of same old API and calling it new like we're some poor sod waiting to be scammed blind deaf and dumb.
"I get it, change is hard, and this is a big change."
look at them, they're mocking us, treating the industry professionals their predecessors cultivated from indie roots like whining children, because we're upset they're removing functionality from programs we use to keep food on the table for actual children, WHILE PAYING ADOBE'S BILLS WITH IT TOO.for shame.
Nick Dorn
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@MrBeep
they also have an entire video explaining the situation and what they're doing about it too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVNCgmAsI8c
These are some of the guys who got me into the adobe ecosystem, and I've largely left, I'm about to start a new stage in my career, So it makes sense for me to follow along with them, as they're kinda where I'd like to be. Quite frankly, I do a lot of 3D and CGI, but AE has basically nothing but a single buggy, obscure legacy plugin to be able to interface with EXR files, and their support for that, let alone image sequences, is terrible at best, often nonexistent other times.
I simply cannot do my job with AE. it just does not have the capabilities to composite footage in an effective or reliable way that does not rely on hacks and volatile legacy workflows. Its tools boil down to photoshop filters for video, slow and inaccurate 2D point tracking, and manual rotoscoping for everything else.