Adobe After Effects CS3 - Manual (Page 48)

AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
43
• Deselect the Continuously Rasterize switch for a vector layer until you need to view or render it in detail. This
prevents After Effects from rasterizing the entire layer after each change. See “Continuously rasterize a layer
containing vector graphics” on page 151.
Improve performance by modifying screen output
You can improve performance in many ways that don’t affect how After Effects treats your project data, only how
output is drawn to the screen as you work. Although it is often useful to see certain items and information as you
work, After Effects uses memory and processor resources to update this information, so be selective in what you
choose to display as you work. You will likely need to see different aspects of your project at different points in your
workflow, so you may apply the following suggestions in various combinations at various stages.
• Turn off display color management and output simulation when not needed. See “Simulate how colors will appear
on a different output device” on page 248.
• Enable hardware acceleration of previews, which uses the GPU to assist in drawing previews to the screen. Choose
Edit > Preferences > Display (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Display (Mac OS), and select Hardware
Accelerate Composition, Layer, And Footage Panels.
• Close unneeded panels. After Effects must use memory and processor resources to update open panels, which
may slow the work that you are doing in another panel.
• Create a region of interest. If you are working on a small part of your composition, limit which portion of the
composition is rendered to the screen during previews. See “Work with the region of interest” on page 111.
• Deselect Show Cache Indicators in the Timeline panel menu to prevent After Effects from displaying green and
blue bars in the time ruler to indicate cached frames.
• Deselect the Show Rendering Progress In Info Panel & Flowchart preference (in Display preferences) to prevent
the details of each render operation for each frame from being written to the screen.
• Hide Current Render Details in the Render Queue panel by clicking the triangle beside Current Render Details in
the Render Queue panel.
• Press the Caps Lock key to prevent After Effects from updating Footage, Layer, or Composition panels. When you
make a change that would otherwise appear in a panel, After Effects adds a red bar with a text reminder at the
bottom of the panel. After Effects continues to update panel controls such as motion paths, anchor points, and
mask outlines as you move them. To resume panel updates and display all changes, press Caps Lock again.
Note: Pressing the Caps Lock key suspends updates (disables refresh) of previews in viewers during rendering for final
output, too, although no red reminder bar appears.
• Lower a layer’s display quality to Draft or Wireframe. See “Layer image quality” on page 150.
• Select Draft 3D in the Timeline panel menu, which disables all lights and shadows that fall on 3D layers. It also
disables the camera’s depth-of-field blur.
• Deselect Live Update in the Timeline panel menu to prevent After Effects from updating compositions dynami-
cally.
• Display audio waveforms in the Timeline panel only when necessary.
• Disable pixel aspect ratio correction by clicking the Toggle Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction button at the bottom
of a Composition, Layer, or Footage panel.
• Deselect Mirror On Computer Monitor when previewing video on an external video monitor. See “Preview on an
external video monitor” on page 126.
• Hide layer controls, such as masks, 3D reference axes, and layer handles. See “Show or hide layer controls in the
Composition panel” on page 127.