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Using the Timeline window
You animate objects in a composition using the features available in the Timeline window. While the Composition window shows how the composition looks at any particular frame in the animation, the Timeline window lets you move the Composition window through time, displaying what the composition looks like at different points in the animation. You can have multiple compositions open, but there is only one Timeline window, which reflects the currently active document.
To open the Timeline window:
- Choose Timeline > Timeline/Composition Window.
- Choose Window > Timeline.
Do one of the following:
The Timeline window contains these major elements:
Current-time display
Indicates the location of the current-time marker in hours, minutes, seconds, and frames. It is located in the top left of the Timeline window.
Time intervals
Tick marks under the current-time marker represent seconds and frames in the animation. As you zoom in or out on the timeline, more or fewer tick marks become visible.
Time track
Displays the duration of objects (when they start and end in the animation) as well as the key frames at which changes in the animation occur. It is located below the time interval tick marks.
Current-time marker
Located at the top of the Timeline window (the triangular marker with the red vertical line running through the timeline display). You can drag the current-time marker left or right to move the animation backward or forward in time. By choosing what frame you are on, the current-time marker determines what appears in the Composition window. You must move the current-time marker to the desired point in time before adding a keyframe for an object property.
Duration bar
Represents an object's lifespan, or duration.
Objects and object properties
The left side of the timeline displays one row for each object or object property visible in the object hierarchy. Object rows contain the object's duration bar. Property rows display keyframes that you have added for that property.
Make movie clip button
Changes the object into a movie clip. (See Working with movie clips.)
Loop button
Makes the object repeat its animation. (See Looping animated movie clips and movie clip groups.)
Explicit/Implicit button
Switch between two types of duration for objects and the composition. (See Changing an object's duration between explicit and implicit.)
Make Group button
Changes the selection into a group.
Make Movie Clip Group button
Changes the selection into a movie clip group. (See Creating movie clip groups.)
Zoom controls
Let you magnify and shrink your view of the timeline. (See Zooming into and out of the timeline.)
Timeline
Most of the Timeline window is taken up by the timeline itself. The timeline shows the lifetime of the animation, starting at 0 seconds on the left and continuing to the end on the right.
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