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Setting playback speed (PB only)


    The Playback Speed value in the Effect Controls window can change the timing at which painted strokes appear in previews and rendered compositions. Playback Speed affects the Vector Paint strokes only when you set the Playback Mode to Past Strokes, Hold Strokes, or Animate Strokes.

    When you create strokes on a layer, the stroke is tied to the location of the Time Marker in the Timeline when you start drawing. Vector Paint also records the amount of time you take to draw the stroke. For example, you might start painting a stroke with the Time Marker set to 0:00 and use 1.5 seconds to draw the stroke. Then, you might move the time marker to 2:00 and draw a second stroke (leaving 0.5 seconds between the completion of the first stroke and the beginning of the second one). For this example, let's say you use 1.0 second to draw the second stroke. The entire process covers 3.0 seconds on the Timeline.

    By changing the playback speed, you can change the timing for stroke appearances in previews and rendered compositions. The results that your changes produce depend on the Playback Mode setting that you select in the Effect Controls window:

    Animate Strokes

    With the Playback Speed at 1.0, each stroke appears as if drawn by an unseen hand, taking the same amount of time as you used to create it. When you increase the Playback Speed value, the amount of time used to draw each stroke is reduced. The gaps between strokes are also reduced. If you decrease Playback Speed, both the time taken to draw the strokes and the length of the gaps between strokes increases.

    Using the example described above in this topic, if you increase the Playback Speed value to 2.0 (double the speed), the first stroke would be drawn in 0.75 seconds, the gap between the two strokes would be shortened to 0.25 seconds, and the second stroke would be drawn in 0.5 seconds. The entire animation would be complete after 1.5 seconds of playback.

    Past Strokes

    At Playback Speed 1.0, each stroke appears in completed form at the frame in which you started drawing and remains visible for the duration of the layer playtime. When you increase Playback Speed, each stroke appears at an earlier point in time. If you decrease Playback Speed, strokes occur at later points in time.

    Hold Strokes

    Like Past Strokes mode, each stroke appears in completed form at the frame in which it was drawn. The difference between this and Past Strokes mode is that in Hold Strokes mode, each stroke disappears when the next stroke appears (without any gap between the disappearance of the first stroke and the appearance of the second). Otherwise, the results of changing Playback Speed are similar to those in Past Strokes mode.

To adjust the Playback Speed:

  1. In the Effect Controls window under Vector Paint, make sure that the Playback Mode option is one of the following: Past Strokes, Hold Strokes, or Animate Strokes.
  2. In the Effect Controls window, click the underlined Playback Speed value and type a new value, using a number between 0 and 100.
  3. You can also change the playback speed by dragging the value itself or the slider below it: left to decrease the speed, right to increase it.

    Tip iconFor animations, always begin painting strokes at the layer In point, especially when adjusting the Playback Speed. Doing this locks the In point (first stroke's start time) to the In point of the layer, making it easier to locate the beginning of the animation. Then, simply place the layer's In point where you want the animation to begin in the composition.