Work Areas

Each composition embeds one or more time ranges called Work Areas. By default, a single Work Area is assigned to a composition when it's created, with a duration equal to the length of the composition.
It is visible in the Timeline when the composition is connected to it:

Purpose

Work Areas serve several purposes. You can use Work Areas to:

• Define one or more playback areas shorter than the total duration of the composition
• Truncate the composition and assign it a new duration according to this area
• Render specific sections of the Timeline, possibly to overwrite certain images in a sequence

By reducing the range of the initial Work Area, you can play a short part of the Timeline in a loop:

Bound by the Composition Duration

If a Work Area hasn't been modified manually by dragging its In and Out points, it will always be equal to the composition duration, even if you shorten or extend its length.

• If you shorten the composition duration, the Work Area Out point will automatically move to match this end.
• If you extend the composition duration, the Work Area Out point won't move.
• If you increase the compositon Start Time, the Work Area In point will automatically move to match this Start.
• If you decrease the compositon Start Time, the Work Area In point won't move.

Work Area Parameters

Above the layer stack, there is a button on the right representing a list enclosed in brackets that allows you to manage a list of Work Areas associated with the current composition.

Each line represents a specific Work Area. As mentioned above, the default duration of a Work Area created at the time of the composition is the same as its duration.
Here are the options and parameters from left to right:

• Disable/enable the Work Area which will be ignored while playing
• Set the Work Area color
• Name the Work Area, which will only be displayed if two or more Work Areas exist
• Start Timecode
• End Timecode
• Remove the Work Area

Quickly Create and Edit Work Areas

Clicking on the button with a "+" sign at the top of this menu will create a new Work Area at the current time, that lasts 2 seconds - one second before the pixel that was clicked on, and one second after.
You can also double-click next to an existing Work Area to add a new one on the same horizontal line where it stands.

Note that when two or more Work Areas are added, their names are displayed.

Combined Playback of Several Work Areas

When there are several Work Areas in a Timeline, playing the animation by pressing the play button, space bar, or using the j/k/l keys will jump from one Work Area to another when the playhead reaches its boundaries.

This can be very useful when you want to visualize the beginning and end of an animation in a loop, but it also allows you to render only those specific parts of the Timeline in a Render Instance.