Timeline panel overview – Adobe After Effects CS3 User Manual

Page 114

AFTER EFFECTS CS3

User Guide

109

Create multiple composition from multiple footage items

Select footage items in the Project panel.

Drag the selected footage items to the Create A New Composition button

at the bottom of the Project panel,

or choose File > New Comp From Selection.

Select Multiple Compositions and other settings in the New Composition From Selection dialog box:

Still Duration

The duration of the compositions created from still images.

Add To Render Queue

Add the new compositions to the render queue.

Duplicate a composition

Select the composition in the Project panel.

Choose Edit > Duplicate or press Control+D (Windows) or Command+D (Mac OS).

Timeline panel overview

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.

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).

A composition’s current time is indicated by the current-time indicator, the vertical red line in the time graph. A
composition’s current time 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” on page 123.

A. Current-time display B. Current-time indicator 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.

“Layer switches and columns in the Timeline panel” on page 147

“Work with the Graph Editor” on page 184