User Guide

CHAPTER 4
132
Managing Layers
2 Choose Window > Align & Distribute.
3 In the Align palette, click the icon representing the type of alignment or distribution
you want.
Positioning a layer in time
Move a layer in time by changing its In or Out point in the Timeline window. After Effects
provides two ways to view and change the In and Out points of a layer in the Timeline
window:
• The In and Out panels represent the layer duration numerically.
• The duration bar represents the layer duration visually.
To change the In and Out points of a layer numerically:
1 If the In and Out panels are not visible in the Timeline window for the composition
layer you want to change, open the Timeline menu (click the right arrow above the vertical
scroll bar) and choose Panels > In. On the same menu, choose Panels > Out.
2 Click the number in the In or Out panel of the layer you want to change.
3 In the Layer In Time or Layer Out Time dialog box, type a new time and click OK.
Note: Do not use this method to adjust the In and Out points in the Timeline window if
your aim is to trim, speed up, slow down, or distort time within layer footage. For infor-
mation, see “Understanding trimming” on page 139 and “About time-remapping” on
page 226.
To move a layer in time by dragging:
In the Timeline window, drag the layer duration bar to the left or right. To snap the layer
duration bar to significant points in time (such as markers, or the start or end of the
composition), press Shift as you drag.
Before and after moving the duration bar
UG.book Page 132 Wednesday, February 21, 2001 12:05 PM