Many quantities in After Effects are either points in time or spans of time, including the current time, layer In and Out points, and durations of layers, footage items, and compositions.
By default, After Effects displays time in Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) timecode: hours, minutes, seconds, and frames. You can change to another system of time display, such as frames, or feet and frames of 16mm or 35mm film.
You may want to see time values in feet plus frames format, for example, if you are preparing a movie for eventual output to film; or in simple frame numbers if you plan to use your movie in an animation program such as Flash. The format you choose applies to the current project only.
Video-editing workstations often use SMPTE timecode that is recorded onto videotape for reference. If you are creating video that will be synchronized with video that uses SMPTE timecode, use the default timecode display style.
In After Effects CS5.5 and later, timecode from source files can be displayed from a variety of file formats. Source timecode is found in several areas of the interface including the Project panel, Project Settings dialog box, Composition Settings dialog box and Preferences dialog box. See Source timecode (CS5.5 and later) for more information.
For details, tutorials, and resources about source timecode and Timecode effect changes in After Effects CS5.5, see this post on the After Effects Region of Interest blog.
Change time-display units in After Effects CS5
To cycle through Timecode Base, Frames, and Feet + Frames, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the current-time display. The current-time display is in the upper-left corner of the Timeline panel and at the bottom of the Layer, Composition, and Footage panels. (See Timeline panel.)
To change time display units, choose File > Project Settings, and choose from the options in the Display Style section.
Change time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later
To cycle through Timecode Base, or Frames / Feet + Frames (depending if you have the “Use Feet + Frames” option checked in the Project Settings), Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the current-time display. The current-time display is in the upper-left corner of the Timeline panel and at the bottom of the Layer, Composition, and Footage panels. (See Timeline panel.) The option that is not selected in Project Settings will be displayed as smaller text underneath.
To change time display units, choose File > Project Settings, and choose from the options in the Time Display Style section.
Options for time-display units in After Effects CS5
- Timecode Base
- Displays time as timecode, using the frame rate that you
specify as the timecode base. Auto uses the rounded frame rate of
the footage item or composition. If an item doesn’t have timecode
(such as an audio file), After Effects uses a default value (30
fps for English, Japanese, and Korean versions of After Effects,
or 25 fps for French, German, Spanish, and Italian versions) or
the last non-auto value you specified in the Project Settings dialog
box. You can also specify that After Effects use a specific frame
rate.Note: You can specify specific frame rates for display in the Timecode Base menu; however, in most cases, you should leave the timecode base set to Auto.
- Drop Frame versus Non-Drop Frame
- Two of the more commonly used combinations of time display
settings are 30 fps drop-frame timecode and 30 fps non-drop-frame
timecode. When the frame rate is a non-integer number—as is the case
with the NTSC frame rate of 29.97 frames per second—a compromise
of one sort or another must be made in displaying time. Either the
time display can accurately show clock time (after one hour, the
time display shows 1:00:00:00) or the time display can be continuously
numbered (frame n is always followed by frame n +
1, modulo the number of frames per second). Drop-frame timecode does
the former; non-drop-frame timecode does the latter. In the case
of NTSC 30 fps drop-frame timecode, two frame numbers are skipped
for each minute, except for every tenth minute. Drop-frame timecode
is conventionally indicated by separating the time units with semicolons.
The most common case for which drop-frame versus non-drop-frame
timecode is relevant is 29.97 fps NTSC, but it also applies to 23.976
fps (which After Effects treats as non-drop-frame timecode) and
59.94 fps.
Timecode for 59.94 fps compositions and footage items matches that in Premiere Pro: When the timecode base is 30 fps, each timecode value repeats twice. When the timecode base is 60 fps drop-frame, frame numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 are dropped in the same places as where 0 and 1 are dropped for drop-frame timecode with a timecode base of 30 fps.
- Frames
- Displays frame number instead of time. Use this setting for convenience when doing work that you are integrating with a frame-based application or format, like Flash or SWF.
- Feet + Frames
- Displays number of feet of film, plus frames for fractional feet, for 16mm or 35mm film. Numbering starts at the frame number that you specify with the Start Numbering Frames At value.
Options for time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later
- Timecode
- Displays time as timecode in the time rulers of the Timeline,
Layer and Footage panels, using either Use Media Source (source
timecode) or starting at 00:00:00:00. Select the Timecode option
to use timecode instead of Frames. Note that there are no options
for choosing frame rate or drop-frame / non-drop-frame, as source
timecode is detected and used instead.Note: In After Effects CS5.5 and later, timecode is no longer a global setting for projects. You may have both drop-frame and non-drop-frame timecode in any composition within a project.
- Frames
- Displays frame number instead of time. Use this setting for convenience when doing work that you are integrating with a frame-based application or format, like Flash or SWF. To use Frames, select Frames and deselect Feet + Frames.
- Feet + Frames
- Displays the number of feet of film, plus frames for fractional feet, for 16mm or 35mm film. To use Feet + Frames, select Frames and select Feet + Frames.
- Frame Count
- Determines the starting number for the time display style
for Frames.
- Timecode Conversion
- Timecode value of the item is used for the starting number (if the item has source timecode). If there is no timecode value, counting begins with zero. Timecode Conversion causes After Effects to behave as it has in previous versions, where the frame count and the timecode count of all assets are mathematically equivalent.
- Start at 0
- The counting for frames begins at zero.
- Start at 1
- The counting for frames begins at one.Note: The new options of “Start at 0” and “Start at 1” allow you to specify different frame counting schemes between the “Frames” and “Timecode.” For example, you might choose to honor the source timecode of footage items, but count frames beginning at zero or one.
Source timecode (CS5.5 and later)
Source timecode support file formats After Effects can read and use timecode for most formats including: QuickTime, DV, AVI, P2, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, h.264, AVCHD, RED, XDCAM EX, XDCAM HD, WAV and DPX image sequence importers.
- Project panel
- Source timecode is displayed in columns in the Project panel: Media Start, Media End, Media Duration and Tape Name. These refer to the source’s start, end and total duration. In addition, columns have been added for In, Out, and Duration, which reflect the In and Out points set by the user in the Footage panel for footage item, or the work area for compositions.
- Project Settings
- The Project Settings dialog box has been substantially reworked to accommodate the source timecode feature set. For details, see Options for time-display units in After Effects CS5.5 and later.
- Composition Settings dialog box
- The Composition Settings dialog box has been changed to accomodate the source timecode feature set. For details, see Frame rate.
- Preferences dialog box
- The Preferences dialog box’s Import pane has been changed to support source timecode features. See Import preferences.
For details, tutorials, and resources about source timecode and Timecode effect changes in After Effects CS5.5, see this post on the After Effects Region of Interest blog.
Online resources about timecode
Trish and Chris Meyer provide an article on the ProVideo Coalition website that describes the difference between drop-frame and non-drop-frame timecode.
Chris Pirazzi provides technical details about timecode on his Lurker's Guide to Video website.
