First, you are going to leave them where they are for just one second because we are now going to use them to position and trim layers that already exist on the timeline. Now, you may have wondered why we put markers in there because all we seem to be doing is adding them and then dragging the time indicator around.
The real beauty of having them is because they were created using numbers. If you now hit number one of the keyboard without the shift key, without the any other key held down. Hitting number would move the time indicator immediately to marker number one. Two will go two, three will go to three; so, it is really quick way to mark out these points and jump to them immediately without dragging the time indicator around.
Now, we are going to go to marking number one just by hitting number one again because we now want to use it to adjust the timing and link of clips that exist in our timeline. We are going to work specifically on the three silhouette layers that we have already got isolated over here and nicely inside the composition window. And the first thing we want to is make sure that the main entire layer does not begin until mark number one, i.e., ten frames into the animation.
Well, as you already saw with the audio clips, you can click on any layer and then drag it to move it. So, its in point will start in the different location. Now, you can see that the in point for this layer is now at exactly ten frames. If you were to scrub back in the timeline, you will see that he does not now actually animate on screen until marker number one.
Now, this is not again the quickest way to do things. If you have multiple markers and multiple layers, you do not want to be dragging them around. What we can do is undo this, as long as the layer is selected and your time indicator is at the point where you wish the layer to begin. Simply hit the left square bracket key on your keyboard.
Now, this is the same shortcut we use with the audio earlier on. But I am just showing it to you again because it actually has many more functions than simply moving a layer’s in point to that particular point in time. On the other side of things, if you hit the right square bracket instead, what After Effects does is it has taken the outpoint of the layer to this point and shifted all of the rest of the layer content off the left hand side of the timeline. So, it is effectively done the same as if you drag it manually from one side over here to the other side over here. But as you can see left square bracket, right square bracket is a much faster way to do it.
Now, we are going to settle on the in point there. So, just hit left square bracket at marker number one. Let us press “2” on the keyboard to jump to marker two, select the next layer down, left square bracket will move that now into place. Hit “3” on the keyboard to take us to marker number three, select the final silhouette layer and hit the left square bracket to also move that layer into place. What we have now done is if we hit the home key and go back to the start and hit the spacebar to play, we do have the layers up here, it almost as if we have animated them ourselves, ten frames apart. So, they almost ripple on the screen. So, you almost produce your own first piece of animation right there simply by adjusting when a layer appears.
However, if we hit the spacebar and just keep playing, you will notice that it goes all the way to the end of the timeline and the layers in fact play for the entire duration. And then we get back to the beginning and they start all over again. But what if we do not want this? We actually want the layers to play for a shorter amount of time. Maybe only a second, they all ripple off again. So, if we change this layer to a second. This layer to a second in length, we are actually going to have them animate on and animate off with the ten frame difference.
Now, dragging the in point on an out point of the layer can also allow you to trim it. Now, because these layers have been shifted, their in point is already off the timeline. So, we are going to
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