Would be nice if there was something that gave us a HUD so we can control active layers or "always on" layers properties. I posted this below on aescripts.com to see what could come of it.
Cinema 4d has a feature that many of us love. It's a functional HUD that can be displayed over objects to give information or to provide controls for an object with out taking your eyes off the editor window. This, as we all know, is a great feature for accessing properties that get animated alot. (especially useful when animating Characters). But the HUD in Cinema is completely customizable and the user can display any information he or she needs to properly monitor events with out moving his or her eyes away to much.
I could see the HUD acting much like the info window, but with more features. A selected layer will have it's properties accessible from the info displayed. Or you could option-click it "off" if you don't want it displayed. You could move it over objects and fine tune things without losing your spot. It would never scale or repo with the comp and could be visible during playback.
I could see how a HUD type feature would eliminate a lot of need for some pallets as well. (Effects controls, Character, brush, etc)
I put the thought to all of us here at aenhancers because the tools created here are much more forward thinking than what Adobe puts out each year.
Jason Hearne
HUD over Comp (not an "Ironman-esq" design hud)
Moderator: byronnash
I don't think there's any good way to implement this in the way you'd like without altering AE itself, in which case Adobe feature request is where you'd want to take it.
That said, if you wanted to see property values of an object, you could create a text layer and tie it to that property with an expression. Then set the layer to guide and lock it. That would give you an overlay, although I don't see it being that terribly useful.
That said, if you wanted to see property values of an object, you could create a text layer and tie it to that property with an expression. Then set the layer to guide and lock it. That would give you an overlay, although I don't see it being that terribly useful.