Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 141

• To show or hide safe zones, grids, guides, or rulers, click the Grid And Guides Options button
appropriate menu item, or use a menu command or keyboard shortcut in the View menu.
• To make layer edges and mask edges snap to grids or guides, choose View > Snap To Grid or View > Snap To
Guides.
• To create a guide line, drag from either ruler.
• To delete a guide line, drag it to a ruler using the Selection tool.
• To delete all guide lines, choose View > Clear Guides.
• To move a guide line, drag it using the Selection tool.
• To lock or unlock guides, choose View > Lock Guides. Locking a guide prevents it from being accidentally moved.
• To set the zero point for the rulers, drag the crosshair from the intersection of the two rulers (in the upper-left
corner) into the image area. Reset the zero point by double-clicking the intersection of the rulers.
Dragging the zero point crosshair
See also
"Shortcuts for using and modifying views" on page 637
Change time display units
Many quantities in After Effects are either points in time or spans of time, including current time, layer In and Out
points, and durations of layers, footage items, and compositions.
By default, After Effects displays time in Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) timecode:
hours, minutes, seconds, and frames. You can change to another system of time display, such as frames, or feet and
frames of 16mm or 35mm film.
Video-editing workstations often use SMPTE timecode that is recorded onto videotape for reference. If you are
creating video that will be synchronized with video that uses SMPTE timecode, use the default timecode display
style.
You may want to see time values in a feet plus frames format, for example, if you are preparing a movie for eventual
output to film, or in simple frame numbers if you plan to use your movie in an animation program such as Flash.
The format you choose applies to the current project only.
Important: Changing the time display format does not alter the frame rate of your assets or output—it changes only how
frames are numbered for display in After Effects.
The current-time display appears in the upper-left corner of the Timeline panel and at the bottom of the Layer,
Composition, and Footage panels.
• To cycle through Timecode Base, Frames, and Feet + Frames, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS)
the current-time display at the bottom of the Composition, Layer, or Footage panel, or at the top of the Timeline
panel.
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 135
User Guide
and choose the