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Layers jump around in the timeline when opening attributes with twirlys
With all the new features inside things like shape layers and text tricks, it seems the twirlys just get deeper and more numerous. And that’s fine – if you want lots of functionality that naturally breeds complexity.
But why, when you have lots of these depths twirled open and you close one or open another, does the layer list jump all over place, so the one that was under your mouse when you twirled is now 2, 3, 4 …10 lines higher than it was when you clicked? And with each shape having the same kinds of attribute groupings inside, it starts to all look the same; its often hard to tell where you are. It becomes very easy to start manipulating the wrong one when you’re in the zone and working fast.Why can’t a twirly unfold with the twirly staying where it is and the attributes unfolding/expanding below. Things are a bit better closer to the top of the screen, but get more than halfway down and it’s just a jumping mess. I realize that it may be AE trying to bring that attribute up to you if it’s gone offscreen in the unfold, but it’s very inconsistent.
Does this issue tie into the ever present and since Cosa days of the scroll being excruciatingly slow (and slow to catch up). It it just bad list placement management and list refresh? Would a different graphics card help the the slow scroll?
Are either of these issues any different on the Mac? (I’m on PC). Jobs made sure the scroller was more elegant on the Mac side of things so perhaps the experience is better? -
2 Replies
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[Steve Bentley] “Why can’t a twirly unfold with the twirly staying where it is and the attributes unfolding/expanding below.”
Short answer is because Adobe ain’t Maxon, and they mend/add functionality poorly. Though to give them credit, I’m not sure I’ve experienced that behaviour as of now. But I feel I’m familiar with that feeling of getting lost during layer’s properties unfolding.
[Steve Bentley] “Would a different graphics card help the the slow scroll?”
My answer to that would be both yes and no. I’ve had some odd behaviours happening in my previous instalation of AE. Like, everytime I applied Colorista IV to a layer, the whole UI would get slow to a crawl, selecting layers and dragging keyframes were a pain. Also, masks transformations using viewport transform tool never worked (everytime it snapped to some invisible keypress) both this things seem to be related to UI/graphics.
I use a bunch of extensions/UIscripts/plugins and so to debug all that stuff would take my ages. But thanks to a SDD dieing on me, I’ve had to reinstall everything. Zero issues after the windows fresh install.
It could be hardware, but I’ll advise to a fresh start prior to an upgrade.
Cassius Marques
http://www.zapfilmes.com -
Thanks CM.
You’re right, it could be legacy stuff in the nooks and crannies. We have to keep old versions of AE (and associated plug ins and scripts) live for legacy projects that continue to change. It was easier than rebuilding the pipeline every time AE or a plug-in changed. Particular had a lot to do with that as the conversion it does from old to new Revs creates very different looks in subtle things like smoke and clouds and high density aux systems.But even on new installs on new machines, with just one Rev of AE, I’ve never been a fan of how fast the vertical scrolling is in the time line – to be fair we often have hundreds of layers in the outer most comp, but I can spin the mouse wheel and go have coffee waiting for the layers to settle down (ok, its not that bad but certainly not digitally proportional).
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