Something that you have only notice is it is we have two timelines down here relating to two open compositions that up here at the top we are only seeing one tab. And this is the way that After Effects 7 works. It is slightly different to all previous versions of the program and you can actually jump between compositions by coming up to the pop up menu here at the top.
Now, we have already gone to close an option here. You can close all open projects or you can close all open compositions or close the one that you are currently working but you could come down here and just select “Streets” and that will switch you across to that composition. So, this gives you a very easy way to bounce back and forth between the two. But on the other side of that, you could come over here to the timeline and actually click on the timeline name and that will bring that composition to the foreground.
Now, there are times when you would not actually want this change to happen. You might be editing the timeline of one item that you would not be able to see another item and how that is effected by what you are doing in this timeline. We will take a look at that in just a short while because there is a way to keep control on that.
Now, once we are on the subject of the new composition panel here inside of After Effects, there is one very important thing to point out. There is a small close dialog box here, just to the side of the comp name and there is also a similar one down here in the timeline. But up here in the comp window, this use to be a good way to actually close a composition and then maybe switch to the one behind it or go ahead and work on a new one. This has a completely different function now inside of After Effects 7.
If you go ahead and close that, you will notice that the interface all of a sudden changes and you have not actually close the composition. You can tell because the timeline is still open the content is still there. What you have actually done is close a frame. Now, each one of these yellow areas that you see is effectively a panel inside a frame. So in the timeline, we have two timelines switching back and forth but they are contained in one continuous frame and each timeline is a panel. Well, by closing down this option, you can close down the panel. But if there are no more panels left, you actually close the frame.
Now, it is going to take a bit of getting use to but there are some really good reasons behind this. Now, if you have gone to this point and you do need to very quickly switch back to the composition, all you have got to do is come over here to the lower right side of the timeline and this small multi-shaped icon here will bring back the composition window. Now another thing you can do, is go up to the window menu and you do have access down here to the composition window as well. But I sometimes find the icon on the right hand side a little bit faster to get to.
Now, the composition has come up and we still have access here. If you go to the popup menu to either Streets or Americons, the two compositions we have open at this time. But if you do wish to close something, you can close the current one as we already seen just by selecting it here. This is not what you do by using the close icon. Remember that closes the panel. So, closing the Streets or closing all of the compositions, will shutdown all of the comps and leave us again just with blanks frames ready to be populated again with the new compositions that we open.
So, let us come over to the project window and do that. We are going to select the intro clip. We will hold down the Command key or the Control key on the PC and select intro backdrop composite and we will also go ahead and open the “Streets composition” as well. So, with the three of them selected, go ahead and double click, three timelines will open up at the bottom but we are still using one composition view. That is the official name for this particular window that we are seeing here. But again, you have the ability to switch between all of the open comps here.
Now, you are probably
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