Learn how to use timecode and time display units in Adobe After Effects to view, navigate, and align your compositions with precise, standards‑based timing.
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 time display system, such as frames or feet and frames for 16mm or 35mm film.
You might choose Feet + Frames when preparing a project for film output, or frame numbers when working with animation‑based workflows. The time display format you select affects only the current project.
Changing the time display format does not alter the frame rate of your assets or output; it only changes how frames are numbered for display in After Effects.
Video-editing workstations often use SMPTE timecode recorded on videotape for reference. If you are creating a video that will be synchronized with a video that uses SMPTE timecode, use the default timecode display style.
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.
Change time-display units
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 (macOS) 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.
The option that is not selected in Project Settings will be displayed as smaller text underneath. To display only the option selected in Project Settings (Timecode or Frames), do the following:
- Select After Effects > Settings > Appearance (macOS) or Edit > Preferences > Appearance (Windows).
- Deselect the Show Both Timecode and Frames in Timeline Panel option (this option is selected by default).
- Select After Effects > Settings > Appearance (macOS) or Edit > Preferences > Appearance (Windows).
To change the time display units, choose File > Project Settings, then select from the options in the Time Display Style section.
Options for time-display units
- 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 for the Footage Start Time. Select the Timecode option to use timecode instead of Frames. There are no options for choosing frame rate or drop-frame/non-drop-frame, as source timecode is detected and used instead.
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 integrating work with a frame-based application or format, such as Flash or SWF. To use frames, select Frames and deselect Use Feet + Frames.
- Feet + Frames: Displays the number of feet of film, plus frames for fractional feet, for 16mm or 35mm film. To use feet and frames, select Frames and then select Use Feet + Frames.
- Frame Count: Determines the starting number for the time display style for Frames.
- Timecode Conversion: The item's timecode value is used as 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.
The Start at 0 and Start at 1 options let you specify different frame-counting schemes for the Frames and Timecode. For example, you might choose to honor the source timecode of footage items but count frames from zero or one.
Source timecode
- 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. There are columns for In Point, Out Point, and Duration, which reflect the In and Out points set by the user in the Footage panel for a footage item, or the work area for compositions.
- Project Settings: The Project Settings dialog box contains the source timecode feature set.
- Composition Settings: The Composition Settings dialog box contains the source timecode feature set.
- Preferences: The Import panel Preferences dialog box supports source timecode features.
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