Time Remap

Time Remap

Time Remap defi nitely trumps Time Stretch. The philosophy
is elusively simple: Time has a value, just like any
other property, so you can keyframe it, ease in and out of
it, loop and ping-pong it—basically treat it like any other
animation data. All true, but the concept of animating and
bending time can become complex.
Ctrl+Alt+T/Cmd+Option+T or Layer > Time > Enable
Time Remapping sets two Time Remap keyframes: at the
beginning and one frame beyond the end of the layer.
Time remapped layers have a theoretically infi nite duration,
so the fi nal Time Remap frame effectively becomes a
Hold keyframe; you can then freely scale the layer length
beyond that last frame.
Beware when applying Time Remap to a layer whose
fi rst or last frame extends beyond Comp duration; you
may not be able to see those keyframes. In such a case, I
tend to add keyframes at the comp start and end points,
click Time Remap to select all keyframes, Shift-deselect
the ones I can see in the Timeline, and delete to get rid
of the ones I can’t see.
There is also a Freeze Frame option in After Effects;
context-click a layer, or from the Layer menu choose
Time > Freeze Frame, which sets Time Remap (if not
already set) with a single hold keyframe.