Adobe After Effects CS3 - Manual (Page 482)

AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
477
By changing the playback speed, you can change the timing for stroke appearances in previews and rendered compo-
sitions.
1 In the Effect Controls panel under Vector Paint, make sure that Playback Mode is set to Past Strokes, Hold Strokes,
or Animate Strokes.
2 In the Effect Controls panel, click the underlined Playback Speed value and type a new value, using a number
between 0 and 100.
You can also change the playback speed by dragging the value itself or the slider below it: drag left to decrease the
speed; drag right to increase it.
For animations, always begin painting strokes at the layer In point, especially when adjusting Playback Speed. This
workflow locks the In point (first stroke’s start time) to the In point of the layer, making it easier to locate the
beginning of the animation. Then, simply place the layer’s In point where you want the animation to begin in the compo-
sition.
The results that your changes produce depend on the Playback Mode setting:
Animate Strokes With the Playback Speed at 1.0, each stroke appears as if drawn by an unseen hand, taking the same
amount of time as you used to create it. When you increase the Playback Speed value, you reduce the time it takes to
draw each stroke and the gaps between strokes. If you decrease Playback Speed, both the time taken to draw the
strokes and the length of the gaps between strokes increase. Using the example above, if you increase the Playback
Speed value to 2.0 (double the speed), the first stroke would be drawn in 0.75 seconds, the gap between the two
strokes would be shortened to 0.25 seconds, and the second stroke would be drawn in 0.5 seconds. The entire
animation would be complete after 1.5 seconds of playback.
Past Strokes With the Playback Speed at 1.0, each stroke appears in completed form at the frame in which you
started drawing and remains visible for the duration of the layer playtime. When you increase Playback Speed, each
stroke appears at an earlier point in time. If you decrease Playback Speed, strokes occur at later points in time.
Hold Strokes Like Past Strokes mode, each stroke appears in completed form at the frame in which it was drawn.
However, in Hold Strokes mode, each stroke disappears when the next stroke appears (without any gap between
them). Otherwise, the results of changing Playback Speed are similar to those in Past Strokes mode.
Change playback time with the Vector Paint Re-timer
The results from using the Re-timer or changing the Playback Speed value are similar but have important differences:
• You apply the Re-timer to individual strokes you select before choosing the Re-timer option. In comparison,
changes in Playback Speed apply to all paint strokes on the layer.
• The Re-timer affects only playbacks that use Animate Strokes mode. Playback Speed changes can also influence
Hold Strokes and Past Strokes modes.
• The Re-timer does not affect the start times of strokes. Changing the Re-timer value shortens or lengthens the
amount of time previews and rendered versions take to draw the stroke. The strokes begin to appear at the same
points in time as before, but they are drawn more quickly or more slowly.
• The values for Re-timer are percentages of the original time required to draw the stroke. The default value is 100%.
A higher value causes the drawing time to increase, so that a setting of 200% uses twice the time to draw the
selected strokes. A lower value draws the selected strokes more quickly.
1 Using the Vector Paint Selection tool , click or drag to select the strokes.
2 From the Vector Paint options menu, choose Re-timer.
3 In the Set Value dialog box, type a value for Relative Duration (%), and click OK.