Move layers by dragging in the composition panel, Move layers with arrow keys, Animate each component of position separately – Adobe After Effects CS4 User Manual
Page 152: Individually, Added separate dimensions. see, Separate dimensions of position, To animate components individually
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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Layers and properties
Last updated 12/21/2009
Effects and animation presets overview
Modifying layer properties (keyboard shortcuts)
Move layers by dragging in the Composition panel
To snap the edges of a layer to grids or guides as you drag, choose View
> Snap To Grid or View
> Snap To Guides.
•
Select one or more layers, and then drag a selected layer using the Selection tool .
When you move a layer by dragging it in the Composition panel, the Info panel shows the change in the Position
property as you drag.
Move layers by directly modifying the Position property
1
Select one or more layers.
2
Press P to show the Position property in the Timeline panel.
3
Modify the Position property in the Timeline panel.
Move layers with arrow keys
1
Select one or more layers.
2
To move selected layers one pixel left, right, up, or down, press an arrow key. To move 10 pixels, hold Shift as you
press the arrow key.
Separate dimensions of Position to animate components individually
By default, each Position property has two or three components, with each holding the value for one of the spatial
dimensions (axes). You can separate the components of a Position property into individual properties—X Position, Y
Position, and (for 3D layers) Z Position. Separating dimensions allows you to modify or animate the position of a layer
along the x axis, y axis, and z axis independently.
For a video tutorial about using the Separate Dimensions command, go to the Adobe website at
To decompose selected Position properties into individual X Position, Y Position, and (for 3D layers) Z Position
properties, do one of the following:
•
Choose Animation > Separate Dimensions.
•
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) a Position property and choose Separate Dimensions from the
context menu.
•
Click the Separate Dimensions
button at the bottom of the Graph Editor.
To recompose a set of individual Position properties into a single Position property with multiple components, use the
same commands that you use to separate dimensions.
Important: When you recompose separate Position properties into a single Position property, some information about
the motion path and speed is lost, because the multiple Bezier curves used to represent the individual components are
collapsed into a single Bezier curve at each keyframe. When you separate dimensions, some information about speed is
lost, but the motion path does not change. You should work with separate dimensions or without separate dimensions for
each property for an entire project, rather than toggling back and forth.