User Guide

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ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 5.0
User Guide
Setting and animating a layer property in the Timeline
window
You can change a keyframe attribute in the Timeline window either by dragging the corre-
sponding underlined transform value or by typing new values in a dialog box. After setting
an initial keyframe, changing layer values creates animated layers. Follow the guidelines
below to set and animate any layer property in the Timeline and Composition windows.
To set a layer property by dragging in the Timeline window:
1 Select a layer.
2 Expand the layer outline to display the layer Transform properties.
3 Place the cursor over the underlined value and drag to the left or right to change the value.
To change a layer value numerically in the Timeline window:
1 In the Timeline window, select the layer you want to modify.
2 Display the layer property that you want to change. See the previous section for infor-
mation on displaying layer properties.
3 Do one of the following:
• Click the underlined value that you want to change, type a new value, then press Enter
(Windows) or Return (Mac OS).
• Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the underlined value you want to
change and choose Edit Value. Type new values and click OK.
Note: If you are changing Anchor Point values, note that the anchor point’s coordinates are
relative to the Layer window, not the Composition window. For information on layer coordi-
nates, see “Info palette” on page 62.
To animate a layer property:
1 Display the Timeline and Composition windows for a composition.
2 In the Timeline window, select the layer that you want to animate.
3 Move the current-time marker to the time where you want to begin the animation.
4 Display the layer property that you want to change.
UG.book Page 187 Wednesday, February 21, 2001 12:05 PM