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Visualizing organization with Flowchart View


    After Effects provides a separate Flowchart View for each composition and for the overall project to help you keep a "big picture" perspective on complex projects. In Flowchart View, individual boxes (or tiles) represent each composition, layer, and footage item, including any applied effects. Directional arrows represent the relationships between components.

    Note: Flowchart View only shows you the existing relationships. You cannot use this view to change relationships between project elements.

    The elements included in Flowchart View depend on what is selected and on whether the compositions are nested (used inside another composition as a layer) or root compositions (not nested). In Flowchart View of a project, all root compositions appear. Nested compositions and other elements that make up the composition appear when you expand a composition tile.

    The expansion button [+] for a composition in Flowchart View reveals any nested compositions, source footage, and applied effects.
    The expansion button [+] for a composition in Flowchart View reveals any nested compositions, source footage, and applied effects.

To open Flowchart Views:

    Do one of the following:

    • To open Flowchart View for a project, choose Window > Project Flowchart View.
    • To open Flowchart View for a composition, select the composition in the Project window, and choose Composition > Comp Flowchart View.

    When you click a tile in Flowchart View, that element becomes active (selected) in the Project window. If the tile represents a layer, that layer also becomes active in the Timeline window.

    Note: Gray lines between tiles in Flowchart View indicate that the Video or Audio switch for those items are turned off in the Timeline window. Black lines indicate the switch is turned on.

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