The Monitor panel and associated controls
The Monitor panel provides a preview of your chosen FX and options. The preview is generated on the fly as you make changes. A number of controls are provided to adjust the preview itself.
The Monitor panel: 1) Choose from single view to quad view to see your FX from all angles for editing; 2) Click these to select proxy images, still image or moving sequences of your video; 3) Use this slider to move back and forth through the frames of the preview; 4) Click this button to play the entire preview one time; 5) Click this button to start and stop looping playback of the preview; 6) Use Skip and Step buttons to jump to start or end of the preview and single frame step.
Looping Playback button
The looping playback button starts and stops looping playback of the preview. When the button is pressed in, the preview will playback continuously. You can continue to change options or select a different transition while the preview is playing.
Reverse Effect button
The Reverse Effect button is a real time saver. It allows you to reverse all flight directions with one click. So now your video window will fly on, instead of flying off..
Single Playback button
Click the single playback button to play the entire transition one time. This is useful when you’ve made some changes and want to see the entire effect quickly.
Step buttons
Step forward one frame or step backward one frame.
Skip buttons
Jump to the beginning frame of the effect or to the last frame in the effect.
The Timeline slider
The preview slider lets you manually move to any frame of the preview. Simply move the slider back and forth to see different frames of the preview. If the preview is playing (either the looping playback is selected, or the single playback was just pressed), you will not be able to use the preview slider.
Layout buttons
Normally, the preview shows the view from the camera in the FX. The camera view is what is used for rendering the actual FX. Sometimes, particularly when editing an object’s flight path, you will want to see the other views of the FX from at different angles. These buttons allow you to see multiple views, such as side, top and perspective.
View sources
These buttons allow you to switch between Proxy, Still and Actual. Actual shows and update of the video from the timeline, but will slow down performance.
Layout control buttons
These buttons allow you to change the way the multiple views display. You can change a side view and rotate it to a perspective angle, then zoom out or move it off center to gain a better editing view.
The Timecode counter
The timecode counter shows the current position of the FX in conjunction with its Host’s timeline.
Select button
Use the Select button to click in the various areas you want to edit.
Flight Rotation button
The Flight Rotation button is a quick way to rotate the flight path of the transition object.
Light Direction button
The Light Direction button is a quick way to change the FX scene is lighted. You can easily create a creepy FX by simply changing the light direction to shine upward from below.
Green light
This means that the FX will preview in Real-Time and Final Render will be considerably fast.
Red light
This means that the FX is more complex than the hardware can handle. It will have to render its Preview and Final Render time will be slower.