Jacquelin Vanderwood
November 2004
Why take snapshots? A good reason to do so is if you are working on a complicated animation, taking a snapshot helps you to view where certain pieces are in relation to other parts of the animation. Here is how to take a snapshot in footage and layer windows. To go to the frame you want to take a snapshot begin by dragging the current time marker shown below as a blue arrow to the frame you want a picture taken of.
To take a picture in the composition window you start by clicking on the current time display shown below and then typing in the frame number you want to go to.
To take a snapshot, locate the Take-Snapshot button at the bottom of the composition. Click on it. Press F5 or use Shift+F5.
If you need to use multiple snapshots, the way you do that is to hold the Shift key down and then press F5, F6, F7, etc. To view the different snapshots, press only the F5 key and hold, or the F6 key and hold, etc.
You can also display a snapshot in a different type of window such as transferring snapshots between layers, compositions, and footage windows. The purpose for this is that you can check placement. First begin by clicking the snapshot in the first window, then go to the next window and use the Display-Snapshot button to show the last snapshot.
If a snapshot is captured in one window that is a different measurement than the previous window display, then the snapshot will automatically resize to fit the window.
Finally, when all the snapshots are finished and you have done everything you need to do with them, then the next step is to purge them from memory. This is done by selecting Purge in the Edit menu and selecting Snapshot. If you only want to delete one snapshot, then use the Ctrl+Shft keys and press the F5, etc. buttons.
Copyright (c) 2004, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved