Testing Your App with the Preview Tool
The Preview Tool provides several functions to test your AE design, including:
- Animations: View the behavior of various timelines. See Preview Animation Menu Options.
- Content: View the effects of changing images, altering backgrounds, randomizing text strings, or viewing outlines. See Preview Content Menu Options.
- Screen appearance: The Preview Tool has various device resolutions built in so that you can effectively test the look-and-feel of your designs with the appropriate screen sizes. See Preview Screen Menu Options.
To see a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, press the h or F1 key once the Preview tool is open.
To access the Preview tool:
- Open the After Effects Composition menu.
- Select You.i: Preview Current Composition to preview the currently active composition.
What is displayed by the Preview tool for a particular screen varies depending on the composition that is in focus in After Effects. If a particular button is in focus, the Preview tool displays a view of that button in isolation. To preview the entire screen, ensure that the Main composition is in focus and start the Preview tool, using the Preview Current Composition menu item.
To see an accurate rendering of a component, preview the parent of the component. For example, to preview a button, preview the button’s parent composition.
The AE Composition menu also offers the following items:
- You.i: Re-Preview Last Composition: This menu item offers a quick way to preview compositions with components that may change frequently; for example, the parent composition of a button you are currently working with.
- You.i: View Preview App Log: This menu item displays the logs of events that happened each time the Preview tool runs.