Choose a viewer to always preview – Adobe After Effects CS4 User Manual
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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Views and previews
Last updated 12/21/2009
The time ruler visually represents the time dimension of a composition, a layer, or a footage item. In a Layer or Footage
panel, the time ruler appears near the bottom of the panel. For a Composition panel, the time ruler appears in the
corresponding Timeline panel. The time rulers in different panels represent different durations. The time ruler in a
Layer or Footage panel represents the duration of the contents of that panel; the time ruler in the Timeline panel
represents the duration of the entire composition.
On a time ruler, the current-time indicator indicates the frame you are viewing or modifying.
Current-time indicator in the time ruler in the Timeline panel (left) and in the Layer panel (right)
•
To go forward or backward one frame, click the Next Frame
or Previous Frame
button in the Preview panel,
or press Page Down or Page Up.
•
To go forward or backward ten frames, Shift-click the Next Frame or Previous Frame button, or press Shift+Page
Down or Shift+Page Up.
•
To go forward a specific period of time or number of frames, click the current-time display, and then enter the plus
sign (+) followed by the timecode or number of frames to advance. For example, enter +20 to go forward 20 frames
or 1:00 to go forward one second. Precede the value by the minus sign (-) to go backward. For example, enter +-20
to go backward 20 frames or +-1:00 to go backward one second.
•
To go to the first or last frame, click the First Frame
or Last Frame
button in the Preview panel, or press Home
or End.
•
To go to the first or last frame of the work area, press Shift+Home or Shift+End.
•
To go to a specific frame, click in the time ruler; click the current-time display in the Footage, Layer, Composition,
or Timeline panel; or press Alt+Shift+J (Windows) or Option+Shift+J (Mac OS).
•
Shift-drag the current-time indicator to snap to keyframes, markers, In and Out points, the beginning or end of the
composition, or the beginning or end of the work area.
Jeff Almasol provides a script that creates a panel with controls for moving the current-time indicator to different times
in the composition. The panel provides buttons for jumping a specific number of frames forward or back from the
current time, as well as buttons for capturing different times and jumping to them easily. For more information, go to
.
More Help topics
Time navigation (keyboard shortcuts)
Choose a viewer to always preview
Designating a viewer as the default panel to preview is especially useful when you have a Composition viewer that
represents your final output and you always want to preview that viewer even when you’re changing settings in other
panels.
The panel that’s set to always preview appears frontmost for the duration of the preview.
❖
Click the Always Preview This View button
in the lower-left corner of the panel.