Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 - Selecting and arranging layers

ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0
User Guide
147
Previewing on an external video monitor
You can preview the contents of your Layer, Footage, or Composition panel on an external video monitor. This
requires additional hardware, such as a video digitizing card or a FireWire port. If you’re using a video digitizing card
to connect an external video monitor, follow the directions that came with your video digitizing card to connect the
monitor for viewing previews. If you’re using a FireWire port, first connect a digital camcorder or VCR to the port,
then connect the video monitor to the camcorder or VCR. For more information on setting up FireWire previews,
see the documentation that came with your digital camcorder or VCR.
1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Video Preview (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Video Preview (Mac OS).
2 Choose an external device from the Output Device menu. (If a device is available, it’s automatically listed in this
menu.)
3 Choose a mode from the Output Mode menu. The choices listed depend on the device you are using. The Frame
Size value that appears under the Output Mode menu is dependent on the value that you select from the Output
Mode menu, and is not dependent on any other After Effects settings.
4 Set any of the following options, and click OK:
Previews Displays RAM previews or standard previews only on the external monitor.
Mirror On Computer Monitor DisplaysRAMpreviewsorstandardpreviewssimultaneouslyontheexternalmonitor
and on the computer screen. This may slow down the previews.
Interactions Displays interactive previews, such as scrubbing in the Timeline panel or dragging in the Composition
panel, on the computer screen and simultaneously on the external monitor.
Renders Displays each frame on the computer screen and simultaneously on the external monitor as the frames
render in the render queue.
5 Select Scale And Letterbox Output To Fit Video Monitor if you are working with image sizes that don’t match your
preview device frame size, and you want to see the entire image scaled to fit.
After choosing an output device in the Video Preview preferences, you can preview the current frame on the output
device by pressing the forward slash (/) key on the numeric keypad. Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac
OS) and the forward slash (/) key on the numeric keypad to toggle the preference to Desktop Only or to the output device
you specified.
To view progress while previewing
While you preview a composition in a Composition or Layer panel, the Info panel displays the actual frame rate of
thecurrentpreview.Whenthepreview’sactualframerateisdifferentfromtheCompositionsettings,theInfopanel
displays “(NOT realtime)” after the reported frame rate; when it matches the Composition settings, the frame rate is
followed by “(realtime)”.
When previewing in a Composition panel, you can set a preference to display additional information in the Info
panel, including the name of the item being rendered at a given frame, and a report of what After Effects is doing,
such as retrieving a frame. In addition, the Project Flowchart View panel highlights items being rendered at each
frame during the preview. Once a frame has been rendered, After Effects instantly displays each frame from the
image cache, so the Info panel and Project Flowchart View panel only display the frame rate.
1 Choose Edit > Preferences > Display (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Display (Mac OS).
2 Select Show Rendering In Progress In Info Panel & Flowchart.