User Guide

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ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 5.0
User Guide
Intelligent caching
When you view your work in the Composition window—either by scrubbing along the
timeline or using the RAM Preview option—After Effects stores, or caches, frames in mem-
ory. Cached frames are saved until you make an edit to the composition that renders them
obsolete, allowing for faster previews. For example, changing a single keyframe now causes
only cached frames between the keyframe you modified and adjacent ones to be invalidated.
A green bar beneath the time scale in the Timeline window indicates cached frames.
Resolution independence
You can mix file resolutions from tiny thumbnails up to 30,000-x-30,000-pixel frames
within a composition. For example, you could import a high-resolution Adobe Photoshop
image into a lower-resolution composition to create a panning background. When you’re
done, you can output files at any resolution—from the small sizes preferred for animated
GIF files to the high-resolution output required for film.
Render queue
Using the Render queue, you can prepare your files once and then output them to film,
video, multimedia, or the Web with equal ease. Perform multiple renders of a composition
in various sizes and formats simultaneously, or batch-render any number of different
compositions. You can even save render templates for future use.
In addition, the Collect Files command helps you gather files for rendering or archiving.
This command automatically copies a project and all of its associated source footage to a
single location, along with a report that lists the footage, effects, and fonts necessary to
render the project.
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