Home > Zoom, pan, play, pause

Luisa Winters

Instructor and consultant for Adobe products

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Zoom, pan, play, pause

Learn to use non-visible design tools in the interface to aid in controlling and working with the timeline and media.

This summary is AI generated

Learning Outcomes:

  • Navigate the timeline effectively using shortcuts
  • Control playback and preview settings in After Effects

Level: Intermediate

Skills you'll gain:

After Effects, Timeline, Playback, Shortcuts

Key Insights

  • Use the space bar for play and pause functionality.
  • Adjust the start time code in composition settings.
  • Utilize keyboard shortcuts for zooming in and out.
  • Employ the hand tool for panning the timeline.
  • Scrub through the timeline by dragging the playhead.
  • Set work area by marking start and end points.
  • Loop playback by adjusting the preview panel settings.
  • Navigate the composition panel with mouse and keyboard.

Learning outcomes

  • Navigate the timeline effectively using shortcuts
  • Control playback and preview settings in After Effects

Key insights

  • Use the space bar for play and pause functionality.
  • Adjust the start time code in composition settings.
  • Utilize keyboard shortcuts for zooming in and out.
  • Employ the hand tool for panning the timeline.
  • Scrub through the timeline by dragging the playhead.
  • Set work area by marking start and end points.
  • Loop playback by adjusting the preview panel settings.
  • Navigate the composition panel with mouse and keyboard.

Skills

After Effects, Timeline, Playback, Shortcuts

Transcript

[00:00:00] [Music]

[00:00:11] thank you

[00:00:13] [Music]

[00:00:15] hello and welcome to this after effects

[00:00:18] certification preparation series of

[00:00:20] videos I'm Louisa Winters in this video

[00:00:23] I want to discuss objective

[00:00:26] 2.3 a which is controlling and working

[00:00:29] with the timeline and media so we're

[00:00:32] going to talk about panning zooming

[00:00:34] playing passing some keyboard shortcuts

[00:00:36] time codes and of course the CTI or

[00:00:40] current time indicator which really is

[00:00:42] the playhead and other things so without

[00:00:46] any further Ado let's get to it so in

[00:00:50] the after effects project you hopefully

[00:00:52] downloaded there are some compositions

[00:00:55] here open any of them it doesn't really

[00:00:58] matter I'm going to open the one that

[00:01:01] says track matte only because again it

[00:01:04] doesn't really matter which one we open

[00:01:08] and in the timeline we have our playhead

[00:01:11] right used to be called at current time

[00:01:14] indicate cater or CTI so you're still

[00:01:18] going to see some manuals and some

[00:01:19] tutorials that refer to this playhead as

[00:01:22] a CTI if I want to go to a particular

[00:01:25] point in time say I want to go five

[00:01:28] seconds from here but you see how it

[00:01:30] starts it's it's not starting at zero

[00:01:33] it's starting at 04 54 13 well I can

[00:01:37] just click here then press the plus sign

[00:01:40] and type a five zero zero and that moves

[00:01:44] my playhead exactly five seconds to the

[00:01:47] right

[00:01:48] and if I want to zero the time code

[00:01:52] number so of when this starts like see

[00:01:55] how this starts I just move the playhead

[00:01:57] here starts at 04 5413 I can go to

[00:02:00] composition composition settings and I

[00:02:03] can change the start time code to zero

[00:02:06] and there you go that's start time code

[00:02:08] is now zero so these are things that we

[00:02:11] covered before

[00:02:13] if I want to zoom in into here right I

[00:02:17] can just use my mouse scroll wheel see

[00:02:19] it and if I want to make the text

[00:02:22] invisible I just click on the eyeball

[00:02:24] here and there you go and now say I'm

[00:02:28] watching a lot of New Jersey and I want

[00:02:30] to watch more of Manhattan I can press

[00:02:32] and hold the space bar and I can click

[00:02:36] and drag and this is now the hand tool

[00:02:41] if I want to zoom in and out the

[00:02:43] timeline there are there is this slider

[00:02:46] here at the bottom in the timeline

[00:02:48] there's also the little Mountains and

[00:02:50] the big mountains as I call them that

[00:02:51] you can just click in there's also this

[00:02:54] bar that you can move to go to different

[00:02:57] times of the timeline and of course the

[00:03:00] best shortcut at least the one that I

[00:03:01] use the most is the plus key and the

[00:03:05] minus key on your main keyboard on your

[00:03:09] main keyboard all right so you can

[00:03:12] navigate the timeline fairly easily and

[00:03:15] you can also navigate the the comp panel

[00:03:19] or this monitor fairly easily zooming in

[00:03:22] using these keyboard shortcuts to play

[00:03:25] this timeline we could go to the preview

[00:03:28] panel and uh it helps if the timeline is

[00:03:31] selected remember in one of the movies I

[00:03:33] said hey if it's grayed out it's because

[00:03:35] what you want to do is not selected well

[00:03:37] in this case I went to the preview panel

[00:03:39] without selecting the timeline and of

[00:03:41] course everything was grayed out so if I

[00:03:44] want to play this I can just click on

[00:03:46] play I can click on pause I can go one

[00:03:49] frame back one frame forward I can go to

[00:03:52] the first frame and the last frame by

[00:03:55] clicking here but really the keyboard

[00:03:57] shortcuts that I like are the space bar

[00:04:00] for play pause I can also click and drag

[00:04:05] the playhead and this is known as

[00:04:07] scrubbing because I'm just scrubbing the

[00:04:09] timeline see it

[00:04:11] so scrubbing scrubbing and we already

[00:04:14] went over the preview panel so I'm not

[00:04:16] going to go over that uh I again but

[00:04:19] just know that you can change the work

[00:04:21] area bar place the playhead where you

[00:04:24] want to begin press the letter B place

[00:04:27] the playhead where you want it to end

[00:04:28] press the letter n and now see the range

[00:04:32] here is just the work area if we press

[00:04:35] the space bar only the work area

[00:04:37] previews and by default it will Loop if

[00:04:41] you don't want it to Loop click here on

[00:04:44] this icon

[00:04:45] and tell it to just play once and if

[00:04:49] that is selected then that's exactly

[00:04:51] what it's going to do just play once I

[00:04:54] like it to Loop so I'm gonna go back to

[00:04:56] looping all right so we have covered uh

[00:05:00] zooming in and out of the timeline

[00:05:01] zooming in aloud in the comp panel we

[00:05:04] have covered navigating uh the timeline

[00:05:06] and navigating the composition panel

[00:05:08] like if I'm zoomed in a lot I can have

[00:05:11] the space bar and it's the same here if

[00:05:13] I'm zoomed in a lot and I want to

[00:05:15] navigate to other places I can use this

[00:05:18] bar here and I can navigate to different

[00:05:21] places without moving the playhead

[00:05:25] we also covered a preview and a little

[00:05:29] bit of a reiteration of the preview

[00:05:32] panel and this brings me to the end of

[00:05:35] this video thank you for watching and

[00:05:37] I'll see you on the next video

[00:05:39] [Music]

[00:05:48] thank you

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