There are several ways to zoom in or out in After Effects. However, not all of them serve the same purpose. It's not the same as wanting to enlarge the screen of your composition to improve the look of a shape, as it is wanting to stretch your timeline to find a specific fragment of your sequence. They are different actions.
This time we will focus on the second case. That means we are going to show you how to zoom in or out on the Timeline in After Effects to find a specific fragment.
After Effects has a default tool for you to pan your sequence quickly. To use it:
In addition to this option, the program also lets you use a second tool for a closer look at the frames of a composition, which may even be more convenient to manipulate for some users. To locate it, go to the Timeline and follow the steps:
If what you want is to know how to zoom your canvas to better control your layers and effects, remember that you can modify the 'Magnification Ratio Popup percentage' value at the bottom of the Composition Panel.
Increase the value to zoom in, and decrease it if you want to zoom out and see your project from a wider perspective.
Tip: Another quick technique to zoom in and out of a frame preview is to scroll the mouse wheel after pressing Z.
