Adobe 12040118 - After Effects Standard Tutorial page 80

Timecode and time display units
Change time-display units in After Effects CS5
Change time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later
Options for time-display units in After Effects CS5
Options for time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later
Source timecode (CS5.5 and later)
Online resources about timecode
Many quantities in After Effects are either points in time or spans of time, including the 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.
You may want to see time values in 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.
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.
In After Effects CS5.5 and later, timecode from source files can be displayed from a variety of file formats. Source timecode is found in several
areas of the interface including the Project panel, Project Settings dialog box, Composition Settings dialog box and Preferences dialog box. See
Source timecode (CS5.5 and later) for more information.
For details, tutorials, and resources about source timecode and Timecode effect changes in After Effects CS5.5,
Region of Interest blog.
Change time-display units in After Effects CS5
To cycle through Timecode Base, Frames, and Feet + Frames, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the current-time display.
The current-time display is in the upper-left corner of the Timeline panel and at the bottom of the Layer, Composition, and Footage panels.
(See Timeline panel.)
To change time display units, choose File > Project Settings, and choose from the options in the Display Style section.
Change time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later
To cycle through Timecode Base, or Frames / Feet + Frames (depending if you have the "Use Feet + Frames" option checked in the Project
Settings), Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the current-time display. The current-time display is in the upper-left corner of
the Timeline panel and at the bottom of the Layer, Composition, and Footage panels. (See Timeline panel.) The option that is not selected in
Project Settings will be displayed as smaller text underneath.
To change time display units, choose File > Project Settings, and choose from the options in the Time Display Style section.
Options for time-display units in After Effects CS5
Timecode Base Displays time as timecode, using the frame rate that you specify as the timecode base. Auto uses the rounded frame rate of the
footage item or composition. If an item doesn't have timecode (such as an audio file), After Effects uses a default value (30 fps for English,
Japanese, and Korean versions of After Effects, or 25 fps for French, German, Spanish, and Italian versions) or the last non-auto value you
specified in the Project Settings dialog box. You can also specify that After Effects use a specific frame rate.
Note: You can specify specific frame rates for display in the Timecode Base menu; however, in most cases, you should leave the timecode base
set to Auto.
Drop Frame versus Non-Drop Frame Two of the more commonly used combinations of time display settings are 30 fps drop-frame timecode
and 30 fps non-drop-frame timecode. When the frame rate is a non-integer number—as is the case with the NTSC frame rate of 29.97 frames per
second—a compromise of one sort or another must be made in displaying time. Either the time display can accurately show clock time (after one
hour, the time display shows 1:00:00:00) or the time display can be continuously numbered (frame n is always followed by frame n + 1, modulo the
number of frames per second). Drop-frame timecode does the former; non-drop-frame timecode does the latter. In the case of NTSC 30 fps drop-
frame timecode, two frame numbers are skipped for each minute, except for every tenth minute. Drop-frame timecode is conventionally indicated
by separating the time units with semicolons. The most common case for which drop-frame versus non-drop-frame timecode is relevant is 29.97
see this post on the After Effects
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