Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 45

• 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.
• Lower a layer's display quality to Draft or Wireframe. See "Layer image quality" on page 154.
• 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
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 130.
• Hide layer controls, such as masks, 3D reference axes, and layer handles. See "Show or hide layer controls in the
Composition panel" on page 131.
• Lower the composition's magnification. When After Effects displays the Composition, Layer, and Footage panels
at magnifications of 100% or greater, screen redraw speed decreases.
Improve performance when using effects
Some effects, such as blurs and distortions, require large amounts of memory and processor resources. By being
selective about when and how you apply these effects, you can greatly improve overall performance.
• Apply memory-intensive and processor-intensive effects later. Animate your layers and do other work that
requires real-time previews before you apply memory-intensive or processor-intensive effects (such as glows and
blurs), which may make previews slower than real time.
• Temporarily turn off effects to increase the speed of previews. See "Delete or disable effects and animation presets"
on page 351.
• Limit the number of particles generated by the Particle Playground effect.
• Choose Stiff Elasticity for the Mesh Warp, Reshape, and Smear effects in the Distort effects category.
• Turn off linear blending. See "Linearize working space and enable linear blending" on page 244.
AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
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