Timeline panel – Adobe After Effects CS4 User Manual
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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Projects and compositions
Last updated 12/21/2009
A Preview composition is also created. The Preview composition consists of a grid of device-specific compositions so
that you can preview your master composition in the context of several mobile devices simultaneously.
After you render and export the compositions, you can preview and test the resulting movies on the simulated devices
within Adobe Device Central.
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Basics of rendering and exporting
Timeline panel
Each composition has its own Timeline panel. You use the Timeline panel to perform many tasks, such as animating
layer properties, arranging layers in time, and setting blending modes. The layers at the bottom of the layer stacking
order in the Timeline panel are rendered first and—in the case of 2D image layers— appear farthest back in the
Composition panel and in the final composite.
To cycle forward through Timeline panels, press Alt+Shift+period (.) (Windows) or Option+Shift+period (.) (Mac
OS). To cycle backward through Timeline panels, press Alt+Shift+comma (,) (Windows) or Option+Shift+comma (,)
(Mac OS).
The current time for a composition is indicated by the current-time indicator (CTI), the vertical red line in the time
graph. The current time for a composition also appears in the current time display in the upper-left corner of the
Timeline panel. For more information on moving the current-time indicator, see “
Move the current-time indicator
A. Current-time display B. Current-time indicator (CTI) C. Time ruler D. Layer switches E. Time graph
The left side of the Timeline panel consists of columns of controls for layers. The right side of the Timeline panel—the
time graph—contains a time ruler, markers, keyframes, expressions, duration bars for layers (in layer bar mode), and
the Graph Editor (in Graph Editor mode).
Press the backslash (\) key to switch activation between the Composition panel and Timeline panel for the current
composition.
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Show and hide layers in the Timeline panel
Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel
A
B
C
E
D