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JUNE 09, 2003 Marking the Spot
The Layer Markers are the ones that have a lot of power behind them. Like Comp Markers, you can use a Layer Marker to align other layers in the Timeline. You can even use Layer Markers to drop beat markers into your audio track. Here’s how: Select your audio layer in the Composition.[an error occurred while processing this directive]In the Time Control Panel make sure the Audio button is highlighted, and then make a RAM Preview. Note: For some systems you may need to make sure Full Screen is turned OFF.  Providing your system is fast enough, you should hear a pretty good preview of your audio and at each beat or change point press the * key on the NUMERIC keypad. This will drop a Layer Marker on the audio track.  Now that we have the Layer Markers created, it is time to do stuff with them. By double clicking on a Layer Marker, the Marker Window will open for you to enter information. The most basic bit of information in a Layer Marker is a comment. This can literally be anything you like.  After pressing the OK button, the comment will display as part of the Layer in the Composition Timeline.  Web Markers can also be added to a layer. By adding a URL (make sure you put the http:// command) a link to a site can be embedded in the final movie. You can even target a specific frame on a site with Frame Target. You will know a Layer Marker has a Web link because a black dot appears in the Layer Marker triangle.   Of course these web links only work in formats that supported embedded links like QuickTime, Flash, etc. Instead of having a clickable link, Web Markers automatically tell the application playing the movie (QuickTime for example) to launch the browser and go to that particular site. The only thing that needs to be pointed out is that the movie file needs to be embedded in a web page. The links will not work from a stand-alone player. So a Web Marker might be most useful at the end of a composition to trigger the viewer to go to the next page or to a main site. If you were doing a show like DMNTV, you could even embed Web Markers so at the end of an each story, a related site would automatically launch for the viewer to read more information. Finally, Chapter Markers may be added by entering the chapter name and/or number. Again you would need an authoring program that can read those chapters for them to work correctly. Of the three types of Layer Markers, probably the most useful for your work will be Comment markers. These will give your team a way of easily communicating with one another much like the comment elements that you can add to Photoshop files. So there you have it… a brief look at Markers in After Effects. When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicher Prev 1 2 Related sites: • Animation Artist • Animation Supplement • AV Video • Corporate Media News • Creative Mac • Design Supplement • Digital Animators • Digital Post Production • Digital Producer • Digital Video Editing • Digital Webcast • DV Format • Mac Supplement • Production Supplement • Siggraph News • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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