Project Basics; To Create And Open Projects; About Timecode And Duration; Timecode Display - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

Project basics

To create and open projects

You can have only one project open at a time. If you try to open another project or create a new one while a project
is open, After Effects prompts you to save changes in the first project (and then closes it).
You can create a new project from a preconfigured project template: choose File > Browse Project Templates. See
"Working with Adobe Bridge" on page 56.
•
To create a new project, choose File > New > New Project. After you create a new project, you import footage into
the project.
•
To open a project, choose File > Open Project, locate the project, and then click Open.
•
To open the most recently opened project, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P (Windows), or Shift+Option+Command+P
(Mac OS).
See also
"To import footage into a Project panel" on page 71

About timecode and duration

The primary concept related to time is duration, or length. Each footage item, layer, and composition in a project has
its own duration, which is reflected in the beginning and ending times displayed in the timelines in the Composition,
Layer, and Timeline panels.
The way you view and specify time in After Effects depends on the display style, or unit of measure, that you use to
describe time. 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 film
frames, or feet and frames of 16mm or 35mm film. (See "To change timecode display" on page 55.)
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.

Timecode display

You can choose the format your project uses to display time. You may want to see the project's timecode in a film
format, for example, if you are preparing a movie for eventual output to film, or in simple frame numbers if you plan
to edit it further in an animation program. The format you choose applies to the current project only. Changing the
display format does not alter the frame rate of your assets or output—it changes only how frames are numbered. You
can choose from among several timecode-display options:
Uses the rounded frame rate of the footage item or composition. If an item doesn't have timecode (such as an
Auto
audio file), After Effects uses a default value (30 fps for English and Japanese 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 uses a specific frame rate.
30 fps drop-frame timecode
Drop-frame timecode skips some numbers by design: To accommodate the NTSC actual frame rate of 29.97 fps
Reports time in hours, minutes, seconds, and frames, separating units with semicolons.
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 54
User Guide