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Tutorial: Working with the Work Area in Your Composition

In this tutorial, we will explore how to use the Work Area feature to manage your animation effectively. Follow the steps below to define, create, and manipulate work areas within your composition.

Understanding the Composition Settings

  • Duration and Framerate

  • Our composition has a duration of ###30 seconds### and a framerate of 30 frames per second.

Setting Up the Work Area

  • Zoom Out

    • Zoom out to get a better view of the entire composition.
  • Focus on Animation

    • To observe the ball falling with constant velocity before stabilizing, we will define a Work Area.
  • Creating the Work Area

    • The Work Area is defined by two points, which allows you to loop a specific section of the animation.

    • To create a Work Area:

      • Click and drag the right limit of the Work Area to the left.

      • Start the animation It will now play in a loop within this defined area.

  • Adjusting Timecodes

    • A menu at the top of the stack enables you to set the starting and ending timecodes for the Work Area.

    • Hover over the Work Area to click and drag it from left to right, adjusting its position as needed.

    • Check the menu to confirm that the In and Out timecodes have been updated.

Creating Multiple Work Areas

Autograph allows you to create multiple Work Areas, not just one.

  • Add Another Work Area

    • After moving the playhead, return to the menu and click Create Work Area.

    • A second Work Area will appear, and the names of these areas will now be displayed.

  • Playback Between Work Areas

    • During playback, Autograph will automatically jump between the defined Work Areas, playing only the selected sections.

    • When rendering, these Work Areas can be utilized to render specific images.

  • Naming Work Areas

    • Go back to the menu to name these Work Areas, such as Second Part. The name will appear in the Dopesheet for easy identification.
  • Deleting Work Areas

    • To remove Work Areas, click the crosses in the menu. The name of any remaining Work Area will no longer be displayed.

Quick Creation and Management of Work Areas

  • Quickly Add a Work Area

    • To quickly add a Work Area to the Dopesheet, double-click in the area of interest. The default duration for this Work Area will be 3 seconds.
  • Intersecting Work Areas

    • You can create multiple Work Areas, even intersecting them to accumulate their durations.

    • During playback, the combination of Work Areas determines which images are played or saved.

  • Audio Trimming

    • If using audio files, they will be trimmed based on the defined Work Areas.

Returning to the Initial Setup

  • Let's revert to our initial setup by keeping only one Work Area for clarity.

Summary

We learned how to:

  • Define the In and Out points of a Work Area.

  • Create multiple Work Areas and manage their durations.

  • Use Work Areas to control playback and rendering.