Datasheet

■ Setting Up a Composite 19
The AE Flowchart
After Effects can display compositions and their relationships as a flowchart (node
network). To display the flowchart, toggle on the Comp Flowchart View switch in the
Composition panel or choose Composi-
tion
→ Comp Flowchart View. The flow-
chart is opened in a new Flowchart panel.
You can display footage, solids, layers, and
effects nodes by toggling on the display
buttons at the bottom left of the Flowchart
panel. Connection lines show the flow of
information (see Figure 1.15). You can col-
lapse a composition node and thus hide its
inputs by clicking the + sign at the top of
the node icon. Note that the flowchart is
intended as reference. Connections cannot
be changed within the flowchart view.
Tips & Tricks: Composition Navigator
After Effects CS4 adds the Composition Navigator bar to the top of the Composition panel.
The bar displays node network information for nested compositions. The bar includes the
Composition Mini-Flowchart button. When clicked, the button displays the names of composi-
tions immediately upstream and downstream of the active composition. (Upstream nodes pro-
vide information while downstream nodes accept information.)
Previewing a Composition
To play back the timeline, use the playback controls in the Time Controls panel. As the
timeline is played, each frame is composited and stored in a cache. Once all the frames have
been composited, the timeline is able to achieve real-time playback speeds. The playback
speed is indicated by an Fps readout in the Info panel. The target frame rate is determined
by the Frame Rate parameter of the Project Settings dialog box. However, you can change
the rate through the Frame Rate menu of the Time Controls panel to achieve a different
playback rate temporarily.
Rendering a Composition
To render out a composition, select the composition name in the Project panel and choose
Composition
→ Add To Render Queue. A Render Queue tab is added to the Timeline panel
(see Figure 1.16). Each queued item in the Render Queue is divided into four sections:
Render Settings, Output Modules, Log, and Output To.
Render Settings controls the quality of the render. To adjust the quality, click the
words Best Settings. In the Render Settings dialog box, you can adjust the Quality prop-
erty (Best, Draft, or Wireframe), choose a custom frame range, and toggle on or off render
features such as Motion Blur or Frame Blending (see Figure 1.17). By default, Quality is set
to Best and the full frame range of the timeline is used. However, the Field Render and 3:2
Pulldown options are off by default (see the next section).
Footage node
Layer node with effects list
Nested composition node
Composition node
Figure 1.15 Flowchart view in the Viewer panel
52615c01.indd 19 10/20/09 12:34:18 PM