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Using the Viewer and its Mini Timeline

Grid mode in the Project Panel displays thumbnails of your project elements, but you can see them even more clearly in the Viewer panel.

Let's go over how to display these elements in the Viewer and use the Mini Timeline.

Displaying Elements in the Viewer

Opening Elements in the Viewer

  • To display an element in the Viewer, double-click on it in the Project Panel. This opens the element in the Viewer panel, which is in the center of the workspace by default.

  • If you have multiple Viewers in your workspace, this graphic source will open in the Viewer that was last used.

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  • When an item is displayed in the Viewer, a Mini Timeline appears at the bottom. For static images like PNG or JPEG the duration of these sources will be 1 image. It won't be useful for non-animated files, but each time you double-click on an item in the Project Panel, this Mini Timeline will be shown.

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Using the Timeline for Animations

  • If you double-click on an animated file, such as a QuickTime animation (like Net.mov), or a file sequence, the Mini Timeline allows you to scrub through each frame of the animation.

  • This feature is handy for previewing the full sequence directly in the Viewer.

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The shortcuts for panning and zooming in this Mini Timeline are the same as in the Timeline panel.

Managing Viewer Connections and Naming

Identifying the Displayed Element

  • After double-clicking on an element, it'll open in the Viewer and its name will appear at the top in a red frame. The color red is used when the Viewer displays something other than a composition.

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This will be useful later on in the tutorial when we'll see more clearly that the contents of the Viewer are not the same as those of the Timeline, so you don't have to wonder why a change made to a composition in the Timeline panel isn't reflected in the Viewer.

Alternative Method for Displaying Elements

  • You can also define in which Viewer you want a source to be displayed by right-clicking on this element in the Project Panel and selecting Show in > Viewer X Main View. Each Viewer has a secondary input to compare two graphics sources, but we'll go over this later on.

  • You can rename any panel by double-clicking on its title. For example, we can rename "Viewer 1" to "My Viewer". Now, right-clicking on an element will display "Send to My Viewer."

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Notes

To find out more about how to connect a secondary source to the Viewer, please refer to this section.

Disconnect a Source from the Viewer

  • When sending an element to the Viewer, you'll see its name at the top.

  • To disconnect an element, click on its name at the top of the Viewer. This list is initially empty, but will eventually include Compositions, which are containers in which you can combine multiple images.

  • You can then click on Disconnect to stop displaying your image in this Viewer.

  • You can reconnect any element by double-clicking on it again in the Project Panel.

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Working with the Mini Timeline

Showing and Hiding the Mini Timeline

  • To toggle the Mini Timeline, click on the clock icon at the bottom of the Viewer.

  • This option allows you to maximize space when working with static images or animations, depending on your needs.

|||IMAGE DE L'ICONE DE LA MINI-TIMELINE

Notes

If you want to know more about the Mini Timeline, please refer to this section.


Summary

In this section, we covered:

  • How to connect/disconnect elements to the Viewer and use the Mini Timeline for animations

  • Renaming panels for easier organization

  • Showing and hiding the Mini-Timeline to customize your workspace