Using the Page Down / Page Up key for frame advancement in After Effects

Question

Got a real easy one today, so easy, I couldn't find the answer....

Page Down and Page Up advances the frame one by one...

But... when I hold down either one, it plays in slow mo. (forward or backwards)

Question: Is it ok to hold down those keys to preview the comp in slo mo ?

I only found info that it's for 'one frame at a time'

or maybe there is a better safer way to play the comp in slo mo?

Thanks,

Letty

David Arbor · Accepted Answer

If it works for you, then yes, it's perfectly ok to hold the keys down; you're not going to cause any issues or mess up your comp. I think the wording in what you found really just meant "in order to advance your timeline by one frame a time, tap the Page Up/Down keys."

On more complex comps you'll find that this won't actually preview your comp in slo-mo because After Effects still has to cache each frame, so if the timeline is advancing faster than frames can be cached, then it will skip those. But if it's working for you in your current comp, go bananas!

OussK · Answer

Mainly it's possible, Change the preview frame rate to half, e.g: if your composition frame rate is 30 set your preview frame rate to 15 and you will get a 50% slower preview, and the same if you increase it to 60 your preview will run faster

and even to switch quickly between slow-motion preview and normal preview, you can set the frame rate for slow motion on the shift+spacebar shortcut so when you hit spacebar you will run the normal speed and when you click the shift+spacebar you will run the slow-motion speed

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