From 9fff619e25594879f84d3c39e1e5dd00d94bcb85 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Brandon Thomas Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2026 08:08:07 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] M0.11: parity audit (docs/parity.md) and effort estimate in ROADMAP MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit ≈64% weighted feature parity, 257/298 effects, ≈167 agent-hours remaining (≈42–50 h wall clock with five parallel agents). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 --- ROADMAP.md | 10 ++++++ docs/parity.md | 87 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 97 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/parity.md diff --git a/ROADMAP.md b/ROADMAP.md index dc12d39f..18fd03c7 100644 --- a/ROADMAP.md +++ b/ROADMAP.md @@ -23,4 +23,14 @@ once. | M15 | The web app (WebAssembly, WebGPU) | Done, single-threaded | | M14 | Built for agents: MCP server, command-line tool, control channel | Done | +## How far from full parity + +Measured feature by feature in [docs/parity.md](docs/parity.md) (2 October 2026): + +- **≈ 64% of After Effects' features, weighted by importance** (75% of the essentials, 38% of + professional daily-use features, 17% of the long tail); 257 of 298 effects. +- **≈ 167 agent-hours of work remain**, about **42–50 hours of wall-clock time** with five Claude + Opus 5.5 agents working in parallel (≈ 31–35 hours for the essentials and daily-use features). +- Hardest remaining pieces: on-canvas text editing, GPU rendering, tracking and roto, Advanced 3D. + Come tell us what matters most to you on [Discord](https://discord.gg/artcraft). diff --git a/docs/parity.md b/docs/parity.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b08ef9c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/parity.md @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ +# Parity with After Effects + +How close EffectCraft is to After Effects 2026, feature by feature, and how much work is left. +Audited against the code at commit `5273f1b` (2 October 2026). Every feature in our catalog was +graded from the code itself: a disabled menu entry, or a setting that is stored but never +rendered, does not count as done. + +## Summary + +| Measure | Value | +|---|---| +| **Feature parity, weighted by tier** (P0 ×3, P1 ×2, P2 ×1) | **≈ 64%** | +| Feature parity, unweighted | ≈ 58% | +| P0 (it isn't After Effects without it) | ≈ 75% | +| P1 (professional daily use) | ≈ 38% | +| P2 (long tail) | ≈ 17% | +| Features done / partial / missing | 18 / 60 / 14 of 92 | +| **Effects** | **257 of 298** After Effects 2026 effects by name (86%); ≈ 70% allowing for simplified implementations | +| Remaining work | ≈ **167 agent-hours** (139 h of features + ≈ 20% for 1:1 polish against After Effects) | +| Wall-clock estimate | ≈ **42–50 hours** with five agents working in parallel and one integrating; ≈ 31–35 h for P0 + P1 only | + +"Agent-hours" are hours of one autonomous coding agent (Claude Opus 5.5) working in its own git +worktree with tests. The estimate is calibrated on this repository's own history: Classic 3D +(cameras, lights, shadows, depth of field, views, tools) took one agent about 2.7 h; timeline +depth (graph editor, keyframe dialogs, time remapping, pen and masks) about 2.3 h; 85 effects +about 1.2 h; the After Effects menu bar about 1.3 h; layer styles about 0.6 h; the web build +about 0.8 h. What is left is harder on average (tracking, roto, puppet, GPU, Advanced 3D), and +sequential chains (tracker → mask tracking → Warp Stabilizer → 3D camera tracker; GPU +compositor → GPU effects) limit how much can run in parallel. + +Work in progress at the time of the audit, not yet counted: motion tracking, preferences and the +keyboard shortcut editor, auto-save and crash recovery, paint and puppet tools, Lottie import and +export. + +## By area + +| Area | Weighted parity | Remaining (agent-hours) | Biggest gaps | +|---|---|---|---| +| Layers | 88% | 4.8 | frame blending, collapse transformations, slip edit | +| Output | 85% | 4.2 | multiple output modules, pre-render, WebM, audio-only | +| Audio | 85% | 0.5 | audio to keyframes | +| Import | 78% | 4.5 | PSD, SVG as shapes, Lottie | +| Automation | 76% | 3.3 | a JavaScript scripting object model | +| Shapes | 68% | 3.9 | pen tool for shape paths, vertex editing, taper and wave strokes | +| Compositions | 67% | 7.4 | marker dialog, flowchart, Essential Graphics | +| Animation | 65% | 10.4 | motion-path handles in the viewer, graph editor transform box, puppet, Wiggler/Smoother/Motion Sketch | +| Text | 63% | 5.8 | on-canvas editing with a cursor, per-character styles, paragraph spacing and indents | +| Web | 60% | 2.5 | threads, browser storage, audio | +| 3D | 58% | 20.5 | Advanced 3D (models, PBR, image-based light), 3D camera tracker, multi-view layouts | +| Effects | 56% | 14.6 | Effect Controls widgets (angle dial, point crosshair, eyedropper, curves), GPU effects, 41 missing effects | +| Interface | 55% | 10.4 | drag-to-dock and floating panels, viewer rulers/snapping/channels/snapshots, preferences, native macOS menus | +| Project | 53% | 8.1 | 8/16/32-bit pipeline and colour management, auto-save, proxies, folder moves | +| Masks & roto | 44% | 13.0 | mask tracking, Roto Brush, free transform and RotoBezier | +| Preview | 43% | 8.1 | GPU compositor, disk cache, region of interest, snapshots and exposure | +| Tracking | 0% | 13.0 | point tracker, Warp Stabilizer, mask and face tracking | +| Paint | 0% | 4.0 | Brush, Clone Stamp, Eraser | + +## Effects still missing + +Immersive Video (all 12), 3D Channel (all 8, including Cryptomatte), Color Stabilizer and the five +OCIO transforms, CC Flo Motion, Liquify, Rolling Shutter Repair, Warp Stabilizer, Compressor, +Distortion and Gate (audio), Camera-Shake Deblur, CC Radial Blur, CC Hair, Particle Playground, +Keylight (our Screen Key stands in), Color Profile Converter and the 3D Camera Tracker. Boris FX +Mocha and Cineware are third-party and not counted. + +## Highest-value gaps, in order + +1. On-canvas text editing and per-character styles. +2. Effect Controls widgets: angle dial, point crosshair, eyedropper, curves and levels editors. +3. Viewer basics: snapping, rulers, channel view, snapshots, exposure, a drawable region of interest. +4. A GPU (wgpu) compositor, then GPU effects. +5. Pen tool for shape paths, shape vertex editing, the Layer viewer, free transform and RotoBezier. +6. Motion-path handles in the viewer; graph editor transform box and snapping. +7. Point tracking and stabilization (in progress). +8. Frame blending, collapse transformations, slip edit. +9. A real 8/16/32-bit pipeline with linear blending and colour management. +10. Drag-to-dock and floating panels, saved workspaces, native macOS menus. +11. Auto-save, crash recovery, recent projects (in progress). +12. Expression gaps: `sampleImage`, the `sourceText` style API, `footage()`. +13. Lottie (in progress), WebM, SVG and PSD import. +14. Puppet and paint tools (in progress). +15. Preferences and a shortcut editor that can rebind (in progress); real Wiggler, Smoother and Motion Sketch; the marker dialog. + +The engine underneath (keyframes, expressions, shape operators, text animators, Classic 3D, all +38 blend modes, the render queue) is deep. Most of what is missing is interactive tooling in the +viewer, settings that are stored but not yet rendered, about 69 menu entries that are still +disabled, and the large systems: tracking, puppet, paint, roto, Advanced 3D and GPU rendering.