As motion designers, we all work with keyframes and markers inside of Adobe After Effects every day. There are times when it is helpful to know the exact duration of the two keyframes or markers in the After Effects timeline. Most of us work on tight deadlines and do not have the time to manually count the exact amount of frames between two keyframes or markers. Fortunately, there is a much better and faster way to do that. Let me show you how to do it. Let’s dive right in!
Alright, we are in After Effects. I have two keyframes in my timeline.
Duration Between Two Keyframes
Let’s find out how many frames are these two keyframes apart from each other. One way to do it is by snapping my time indicator right on the first keyframe.
Then press SHIFT+PAGE DOWN to go ten frames and then press PAGE DOWN to go frame by frame. So these two keyframes are exactly 15 frames apart. In other words, the duration of these two keyframes is 15 frames.
That’s great and all, but let me show you how to find the duration between the two keyframes much quicker. After all, time is money.
First, we have to make sure our info panel is visible.
If you do not see the info panel, go to Window on the top menu bar and make sure the info option is checked.
Once your Info option is checked, go back to your timeline, hold down ALT+LEFT CLICK on the PC/OPT+LEFT CLICK on a Mac, then LEFT CLICK at the same time on your first keyframe.
Next, press ALT+LEFT CLICK on the PC/OPT+LEFT CLICK on a Mac on the second keyframe in your After Effects timeline.
As you do that, you should see the exact duration between keyframes displayed inside of the info panel at the right top corner of your screen. It should say, the duration between keyframes is 00015 frames.
Duration Between Two Markers
We can do the same thing to the markers. For example, I can ALT+LEFT CLICK on the PC/OPT+LEFT CLICK on a Mac on the first marker in our After Effects Timeline.
Next, I’ll ALT+LEFT CLICK on the PC/OPT+LEFT CLICK on a Mac on the second marker. When I do that, you should see the duration between markers printed in the Info panel. It should say the duration between keyframes is 00040, which means 40 frames.
We can test it to make sure it is 40 frames. To do that, I’m going to move my time indicator over the first marker and press SHIFT+PAGE DOWN to go ten frames at a time. Then press RIGHT ARROW key on the keyboard four times, which is 40 frames.
That’s very useful. Unfortunately, we cannot use the same method to find the duration between two composition markers. That’s the only limitation.
I hope you found this Duration Between Keyframes & Markers After Effects Tip useful. You can check out all of our Tips on our website. Also, make sure to subscribe to our email list!
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