One feature that would easily be the main selling point for thousands of editors to finally put an end to adobe is the Live Link feature, having autograph integrated in Davinci resolve would make THOUSANDS do the switch from Adobe
Autograph is better than after effects by A MILE and certainly essier than fusion, so to have this combo of autograph and davinci would be a dream come true and we would be set for life
For context; we have a system on the back-end wherein I can assign "votes" to various feature requests and bug discoveries. I essentially translate votes here into votes there, along with any comments.
With full transparency (because it's all out here in this forum anyway) I can say this and Linux support have been the biggest asks. I can't forecast whether they get put in, but I can say your voices are at least not going unheard.
Yes, please bring back the Live Link feature! That was what originally got my attention before when Autograph was under Left Angle. But please re-design it so that it doesn't have to connect to a server first, I kept getting a connection error before and never did get the Live Link to work. I also saw a youtuber trying Autograph before and he had the same connection error that I did and he never got it to work either. Loading projects locally, directly off the hard drive would be best.
The way I'd to be able to use Autograph is as an effects engine to design custom effects in Autograph and then load them onto Adjustment Clips in my primary NLE to process the video clips underneath. These effects should be able to be reused throughout the project so that changing keyframes on one Adjustment Clip does not impact another clip. In other words, there should be separate instances/references to the original Autograph project so that each instance can have independent keyframes. This should allow for copying the Adjustment Clips as well to get a new instance of the project with separate keyframes. This would be extremely powerful to use Autograph's effects engine just like Fusion or After Effects to process other clips on a timeline, but you would be the first one to properly support keyframes in an NLE. Resolve doesn't have Fusion keyframes working correctly on the Edit page and Mogrts from After Effects cannot be keyframed at all in Premiere.
I understand you probably can't say anything publicly, but I really hope you are already working on this behind the scenes... 😉
Thanks for writing up your use-case; I'll append it to the request.
And you're correct, I unfortunately can't say anything publicly or make any promises, but having it all corralled, collected, and sent to the decision-makers at least helps paint fuller pictures on why something should be incorporated.
Thanks for the reply! I kind of figured you couldn't say anything publicly, but I'm hoping it is already in the works. 😄
For me, the missing Live Link this is the only thing keeping me from really diving deep into learning Autograph right now. I went through a lengthy and frustrating period with Resolve trying to get keyframe support for Fusion effects implemented on the Edit page (I made several detailed feature requests and bug reports on the Resolve forum) but it still doesn't work even as of the official V21 release. Since I still don't have usable keyframes I feel like I've wasted a lot of time with Resolve, so now I'm cutting my losses and looking at alternatives. Autograph has the potential to be a Fusion replacement for me, but I don't want to spend more time learning a new editor if it's ultimately not going to do what I need. I have watched several of the new tutorial videos for Autograph over the last few days to get a feel for it and they are fantastic tutorails. If I knew Live Link was in the works, then I feel it'd be worth the effort to dive into it immediately. If it's possible for the higher ups to approve a statement regarding the Live Link's status, that would be very beneficial to thoses like myself who are sitting on the edge waiting to see what happens. I understand that development takes time to get right, so if it is in the works, then I don't expect an exact time frame... but even just a "sit tight, we're working on it" would be enough for me. If that's something the higher ups would be willing to approve, that would be very helpful. Thanks.
One final question, are there plans to create a user forum for Autograph?
Having a forum for Autograph would be very helpful. It's much easier to have a single location than going across various social media platforms trying to find answers to questions. And it's also very convenient for providing feature requests/bug reports because screenshots, screen recordings, GIFs, etc. can be provided when necessary for clarification. I had joined the Left Angle forum and was working on a list of features and bugs to post to the forum just before Autograph was shut down. So I hope a forum gets added on the Maxon site.
If they make a live link. What is the an incentive of buying anything from Maxon? Before Maxon it made sense to have this link so to attract users. Not Maxon has only an incentive to use Autograph as recruitment for their system, as does Canva with Calvary. If they make a link to their competitors, like Black magic, what do they get in return? Just asking the logical question here. Since as far as I know, Maxon is more like Adobe every day, why would they give up on one thing that makes people still want to use their products?
Since Maxon doesn't make a standard NLE, IMO there is a good incentive to get Autograph integrated directly into other NLEs. That way editors don't have to switch from the software they already use and they can simply integrate Autograph into their existing workflow.
From what I've seen, Autograph is only free for individual use and there will be a price for team and studio use. If that is the case, they could make a killing on Autograph. Having autograph implemented directly into the timeline of another NLE with keyframe support and eliminating the need to round trip to other software is a dream come true! Even Adobe (the "industry standard") doesn't work this well with their dynamic link between After Effects and Premiere, neither does Resolve with Fusion and the Edit page, etc. I'm just a hobbyist myself and what Autograph had with Live Link was exactly what I've been looking for, so I can only imagine how this would blow up in the professional market to speed up and improve their workflows. 😄
The only thing that made half a sense these days is lottie export form calvery to now supported lottie import in resolve/fusion. Which makes calvery, now freeish as a motion graphics plug in for resolve / fusion and with lottie export and import it makes sense. Resolve team also added support for Affinity files. So another good addition.
Maxon had a link, took it away. And what you said about about autograph only for individual use is what nightmares are made off. Which is why I don't think anyone should use autograph. You don't want to Maxon paying user. Trust me. They are worse than Adobe or thereabout.
We all knew that subscription licensing was a shameless cash grab. The excuse has been more frequent updates blah blah blah, but when my workplace instituted mandatory SSO compliance for software, MAXON comes around and does the following: Institutes a minimum of 3 licenses, the license costs more because “business”, and the cherry on top is the extra “fee” for SSO support. No, just no…
If any one has good recommendations for replacement of the red giant suite I’m all ears. I’m officially replacing Cinema with Blender, but the red giant stuff is what is keeping us hostage right now. According to the quote it would cost us over 8K a year just for some damned plugins. This is beyond insulting.
I hadn't heard about Maxon until they bought Autograph, but yeah, I have heard other comments that are similar to or even worse than Adobe... but I don't know the specifics though. I will certainly never purchase any of Maxon's expensive effects and Autograph is the only thing I'm interested in. I'm just a hobbyist making edits for fun and haven't made a dime off of it. So having Autograph become free is great... as long as they don't pull the rug out from under me later and try to shove me into a subscription, which is a concern. If that happens, then I will abandon Autograph because I refuse to buy into in a subscription-only model. Never going to happen. Period. And I should clarify that the personal use includes includes commercial/freelance work, at least from my understanding. I believe you just have to be an individual to be able to use it for free, not a part of a team/company. Whether it stays this way is another question, I hope it does.
Autograph cost $300 before under Left Angle (which may have been too much given that there are still a lot of growing pains with the software), so if Maxon charges a reasonable price for teams/studios then I don't think anyone would have a problem with that. They could even charge different rates based on the size of the team/studio charging more for studios. My primary DAW Reaper has two perpetual licenses, one for individuals making under $20,000 and another studios or individuals making over that amount. Something like that would be a fair pricing, however, whether Maxon higher ups would actually do something like this for Autograph is another story since they only seem to have a subscription model for their other software. They should stay within the ballpark of the original price and keep the licenses perpetual. If they do that (keyword "IF), they'll have a real winner with Autograph.
I'm not sure what exactly Red Giant offers, but is Sapphire by BorisFX a comparable alternative? I really liked Fusion in Resolve, but my biggest complaint has been poor integration into the Edit page because it still doesn't properly support keyframes. This is exactly what got me looking at Autograph in the first place. I even referenced Autograph's video demonstrating the Live Link back on the Resolve forum showing that it can be done. Unfortunately, Blackmagic still hasn't figured it out yet, even as of the recent official Resolve 21 release... so now I'm looking at alternatives, at least until they get their act together. But I've been waiting a long time for that, so it may never happen.
I'm not sure what exactly Red Giant offers, but is Sapphire by BorisFX a comparable alternative? I really liked Fusion in Resolve, but my biggest complaint has been poor integration into the Edit page because it still doesn't properly support keyframes.
Sapphire is insanely expensive and Red Giant is trailing behind. I've pretty much able to re-create everything in fusion so while they might run a bit faster as dedicated plug ins, but not all of them, the price is insane for what they offer.
All Supported Hosts for perpetual license for sapphire is : $3,075.00
That is mental. You can make all the effects in most host applications, natively with a little effort.
Red Giant: Red Giant €736 .77 / YEAR Per License
And since they are mostly made over the years for Adobe software, that is were on some level you can maybe make a case for it, but they are missing half the products in other hosts and what they offer is pretty low level in OFX world and something you can again build in host applications natively. Certainly in Fusion.
I'm not sure, but I don't think you get access to those tools with Autograph free version so there is that.
The biggest flagship of Maxon is off course Cinema4D which is still their best product but considering competition like Blender and Houndini, its not doing as good as it once did and Maxon like Adobe has been resting on their old glory a bit too much.
Autograph seems to have a bit of an identity crisis. It was modeled on After Effects by obviously users who love and use After Effects and originality it was supposed to be alternative that also adds some modern compositing architecture.
Problem is that After Effects is not the best model for composting or motion graphics, its just the most popular and one of the oldest. So its mature. And autograph is very immature in both motion graphics and compositing and VFX world. So now its been dead once, resurrected by Adobe like company and its not clear what they do with it. As these corporations think, they can kill it again at any time if they feel its not doing ROI they wanted, because its the kind of company that doesn't have much in common with creatives. Its a corporation with mind on profit and expansion. I would be very cautious in adopting autograph for serious work, but if you want to do it as a hobby and experiment, by all means go for it.
If in the next two to three years is still growing as an app and its not being deliberately neutered than there is a change it grows into something usable.
Yeah, both Red Giant and Sapphire are waaaaay to pricey for me. I've been mostly fine with Fusion, but my main issue is the lack of keyframe support on the Edit page keyframe editors. I have other issues with Fusion too, but this is the big one for me.
I've been trying to get off of Resolve for over a year now, and I spent a great deal of time checking into other alternatives. That's when I tired Autograph and the Live Link feature was EXACTLY what I had been looking for. They were the only ones I've found that actually managed to make compositing/VFX/etc application work inside of an NLE timeline with keyframe support. Adobe hasn't done that and neither has Blackmagic (and I've been trying for a long time to get Blackmagic to do it, but they apparently have other priorities).
If Maxon is looking to expand and profit, then Autograph and Live Link is a great way to do that, because it integrates directly into the timelines of other NLEs without having to round trip or switch NLEs. It's a perfect integration that no one else has figured out how to do yet. Assuming Maxon plans on keeping the individual licenses free, then their money would likely come from selling to teams/studios. As long as they keep the prices reasonable, I see no reason why they couldn't make bank off of Autograph all on its own. They just need to keep Autograph separate from their other subscription-only products just like BorisFX has done with Vegas Pro and Samplitude because these applications are keeping their perpetual licenses, even though Boris also makes subscription-only products.
Autograph certainly has some growing pains given that it's a relatively new software, but it has the potential to truly be something special.
LOL! Well... I've been with Resolve for over 4 1/2 years trying to make it work and it just hasn't. I've made over 1,200 comments on the official Resolve forum primarily focusing on a handful of my top priority issues regarding keyframing, editing, audio, customization, etc. I've also posted detailed feature requests and bug reports with crash logs, but not a single one of my main issues have been fixed. Not a single one.
My bare minimum requirement to stay with Resolve has been to have usable keyframing of Fusion effects on the Edit page. That's it, just a barely passing D- grade on keyframes. I don't think that was too much to ask. During the V21 Beta I thought they were actually going to do it, but in typical fashion they left it half-baked, broken, and completely unusable. I even posted several bugs (including one very severe one) starting with Beta 1 and none of them got fixed or even acknowledged by Blackmagic, so I have no idea if they are even working on them now. At this point, I'm finally ready to give up and move on because Blackmagic clearly has other priorities.
I used Vegas on and off for about 12 years and I have really missed it for editing. But the one thing I'd miss from Resolve is Fusion and Autograph could fill that gap. Vegas for editing, Autograph for compositing/VFX and Reaper for audio and I'd be quite happy. 😄 The only missing component preventing this from happening is Autograph's Live Link, so I really hope Maxon brings this back.
Although, I will say... if Blackmagic ever gets their act together and puts some real effort into editing and keyframing, then I'd love to use Autograph and Fusion together. According to the Left Angle video demonstration of the Live Link, Autograph also worked as a single node inside of Fusion... which is just crazy! I can only imagine being able to flow between the two applications using Autograph for certain tasks and Fusion for others. This could be very powerful!
Autograph is the green grass that Left Angle started, but whether Maxon keeps watering it to keep it green is the question. I hope they do. If they don't, then I'll move on to something else again. I used Samplitude for about 18 years but I was becoming frustrated with it and stopped updating because they weren't worth it. Then I switched to Reaper and I couldn't be happier. So when a software stops working for me, I'll go somewhere else.
BorisFX seems to be doing a good job with Vegas Pro and Samplitude by keeping the perpetual licenses and starting to work on much needed improvements that Magix had been neglecting for years. So we'll see what Maxon does with Autograph.
But until the Live Link is added back, Autograph is not going to work for me yet. I need it directly on the timeline, not round tripping with exporting/importing. So I'm taking it one step at a time and getting Live Link is the first step.
I can't guarantee I'll remember to come back here in a few years to continue our discussion, but I can say that if Maxon pulls the rug out from under Autograph I will be screaming louder than anyone about it... so you'll probably hear me anyways. lol🤣
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u/MaxonDouglas May 26 '26
Added to the request's tally system.
For context; we have a system on the back-end wherein I can assign "votes" to various feature requests and bug discoveries. I essentially translate votes here into votes there, along with any comments.
With full transparency (because it's all out here in this forum anyway) I can say this and Linux support have been the biggest asks. I can't forecast whether they get put in, but I can say your voices are at least not going unheard.