hi,
as Animate Pro 3 surely is in the pipeline not too far off i thought i post some feature requests/tweaks/bugfix requests for it 
Maybe some of them can still be integrated…or ARE already 
Some are just little things which would improve efficiency greatly - at least for me ^^
Maybe to a “normal” user some seem too minimal to mention, but i have a pretty high throughput of scenes, so even these little things where it just saves some mousemovement from one screen to the other make a huge difference for my workflow.
in no particular order:
-color coding from the timeline should be somehow represented in the network view (if not the whole nodes, maybe a section of each node could be colored)
-when selecting multiple layers in the timeline it should behave like any other list in windows (shift click selects alle between clicks, which it does now, BUT ctrl-click should also be possible to leave gaps/skip layers in the selection!)
-in the render dialog it should be possible to render ranges of frames like 1-5; 10; 14; 20-100 - not just ONE range
-vector ai, eps output
-ability to drag-n-drop assets from explorer/finder to scene/network/library
-in the velocity editor it should be possible to set ranges of different stepsizes, right now you can only set ONE stepsize for ONE range.
-newly created nodes should be created in the CENTER of the current network view! at least as an option. pegs either in the center or directly above their child node/layer.
-multilayer psd files should import as just that - right now you need to group each layer in photoshop which is a hassle
-when importing multilayer psd files the layers should NOT be on top of each other in the network-view but rather spread out so you can see right away all layers/layernames.
-AVI import/export with support for all installed codecs!
-better multi monitor support on windows, windows should STAY maximized when set. the mouse focus should work across all monitors!
-something is strange with the png4 export (in ae the alpha channel seems to be broken/has some strange halo) tga4/tif4 work.
-option for dark UI
-option to clone a node via the right click context menu in the network view (right now you have to go to the timeline to clone a node)
-shortcut for “clone selected layers”
-inverted cutter as extra module in module-library (rather than having to set it each time by hand)
-autosave
-native ai import with layers and transparency and layernames imported (the script-workaround renames each layer, transparency is lost)
-in network view sometimes you have many lines crossing/overlapping. it would be helpful if lines had different colors as an option. maybe randomly generated so every line is unique, or every other line a different color, just to make it easier to follow one line from one node to the next.
-auto layout option in the network view (self-updating, preferably “live” - think: ios icons)
-when importing drawings for vectorization, after selecting the drawings the cursor should be in the “create single layer named:”-box, so you can type in the layername DIRECTLY after selecting the images for import. right now the cursor “seems” to be there, but when you type it types into the filename box ← this is beyond annoying and makes no sense imho! (just in case this is os-specific…i’m using vista64 business)
-it would be nice to be able to set default import settings for different formats (psd, tiff, etc). for example: i NEVER want to vectorize psd files and i ALWAYS want to import psd files with layers and straight alpha. it would be nice if i could set it once and then set a checkbox or something (which stays on) to make this the default until changed.
-shortcut for “protect colour”
-when you are in render view and the switch it to drawing view it should intelligently disable rendering of the (non visible!) camerawindow, until you switch back. this of course only if there is no further camera view visible. right now it renders the camera view regardless if it`s visible on screen or not, which needlessly slows things down.
-better multicore utilization
-gpu rendering
-gpu realtime fx in camera view (blurs for example)
-locked layers should STAY locked until unlocked (now: you reload the scene and all locks are gone)
-batch rendering or commandline rendering (poor man’s batch render:)
-noise fx node, ideally animatable (to create random patterns to use as displacement map for water fx, smoke, clouds, etc)
-vector based matte resize
xsheet:
-faster x-sheet view (slow redraw/scrolling, sluggish selection when window not highlighted)
-when zoomed out 2+ times the framenumbers get crammed/partially covered instead of scaled to fit the row
-optional color coding of cloned layers.
-optional markings on set intervals, like a line every 10 frames / 25 frames etc. similar to timeline view. preferably user configurable.
-option to always highlight the row the cursor/pointer is currently in/over.
-option to retain selection AFTER dragging
-the set exposure function acts “strange”-> if you have some drawings spaced on 2s and want to space them on 4s, right now when you select them and call up the set exposure via shortcut and enter 4 it sets them on 1s (!!!) at first. you have to repeat the set exposure to actually set it on 4s! it only works on the first try if the drawings are on 1s to begin with.
Not to appear unappreciative
I LOVE Animate Pro 2 ^^
but there is always space for improvement 8)
Cheers,
j
HI, I ran into that problem with setting exposures. perhaps the answer is to go to the exposure menu in the x-sheet view menu and set the “hold” feature which is at the bottom of the list. It is strange that this is not available in the timeline equivalent menu. Presuming you are working with drawings.
hi mroot,
thanks for the tip.
I tried that, but besides of it being far more complicated than using the shortcut - and thus defeating the purpose of using the shortcut in the first place, it exhibits exactly the same behaviour, unfortunately.
It would be a great improvement if one could set the holds up to 9 like it was handled in CAS Animo, by just pressing ctrl + 1 through 9 on the keyboard. ctrl + 0 would call up the hold window which is right now called by ctrl + 4.
Right now only three hold values can be set via direct shortcuts (ctrl + 1 through 3). I believe the rest of 5 through 0 aren`t used by anything else anyway…
Thanks
J
I’d like to second this feature addition, if it doesn’t already exist-- this is a very common feature in most applications, including Flash.
Typically it’s called Add/Subtract Selection, and while usually ‘Ctrl’ or ‘Cmd’ is used, (Like Flash) I’ve sometimes seen ‘Alt’ used for this as well.
For me, I’d love to be able to get more surgical whenever I use the “Set Ease for Multiple Parameters” option-- selecting the layers/columns I want affected, while keeping out the unwanted layers in-between, as you would get with ‘Shift + Select’.
Attempting ‘Shift + Select’ on an existing selection of layers will either extend or truncate the current selection from wherever your initial selection was.
It’s odd because evidence of this functionality exists in the Camera and Drawing views with ‘Shift + Select’-- you can keep adding items to the current selection unless you click one of said items again, which removes the item from the selection.
Having become very efficient over the years utilizing this basic shortcut w/ Flash’s graph editor, its becoming a pretty major obstacle in learning to keep that same pace in Harmony-- even though it seems like the most mundane of functions the software could have.
Of course if this already exists-- and despite my best efforts have glossed over it somehow, I’d love to hear a solution.
Thanks for listening!
I can’t promise anything but I just wanted to pin a quick note here to let you know that I’ve put this one in for evaluation.
~Lilly