ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0
User Guide
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Note: The Flowchart panel shows you only the existing relationships. You cannot use it to change relationships between
project elements.
The elements included in the Flowchart panel depend on what is selected and on whether the compositions are
nested compositions (used by other compositions as the source for a layer) or root compositions (not nested). The
flowchart of a project displays only root compositions. Nested compositions and other elements that make up the
composition appear when you expand a composition tile.
To open the Flowchart panel
❖ Do one of the following:
• To open the Flowchart panel for a project, choose Window > Flowchart.
• To open the Flowchart panel for a composition, select the composition in the Project panel, and choose
Composition > Comp Flowchart View.
When you click a tile in the flowchart, that element becomes active (selected) in the Project panel. If the tile repre-
sents a layer, that layer also becomes active in the Timeline panel.
Note: Gray lines between tiles in the flowchart indicate that the Video or Audio switch for those items is turned off in
the Timeline panel. Black lines indicate that the switch is turned on.
Customizing flowcharts
You can customize flowcharts using the Flowchart menu. Specify the type of lines between elements (angled or
straight), justification, whether tiles appear with effects, and flow direction. The menu also includes a Cleanup
command to reorganize elements in aligned flowcharts.
You can also use the four buttons along the bottom of the Flowchart panel, which are shortcuts for many of these
menu commands.
For tool tips identifying the buttons in the Flowchart panel, let your pointer hover over a button until the tool tip
appears.
To make changes with the Flowchart panel
You can make some changes to your project from within the Flowchart panel.
• To delete elements, select them and press Delete. If the selected element is a footage item or composition, it is
deleted from the project and no longer appears in the Timeline and Project panels. If the selected element is a layer,
it is deleted from the composition in which it appears.
• To change the layer properties for a selected element, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the icon
to the left of the name in the element tile. The icons have various appearances, depending on the element type,
such as layers , compositions , and audio footage . For example, you can use the icon context menu to
work with masks and effects or to change switches, apply transformations, and adjust quality.
Note: When you change element properties in the Flowchart panel, be careful to click the icon in the tile, not the name
of the element. The context menu associated with the element icon is different from the one that opens from the element
name.
Organizing a project using nesting
When you nest compositions, you organize your project into a hierarchy. In its simplest form, nesting means that
you combine two or more compositions into one main composition from which you render the final movie. A
composition inside a parent composition becomes a layer within the parent composition.
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