Working with Cue Marks

Cue marks are time-based points of interest with annotations. They function as high-level keyframe controls that let you associate a keyframe with a mark. Instead of viewing a clip over and over again in order to evaluate and record (usually on paper) important timing points, you can view footage and add cue marks.

Once you've set a cue mark, you can go back to the animation timeline and tweak the positions of the cue marks, give them names, and even add notes to them.

You can also set keyframes based on these marks by navigating from one mark to another using the Next Cue Mark and Previous Cue Mark buttons.

Setting keys links the temporal position of the keyframe to the cue mark at that time; as you move the cue marks, the keyframes follow. If you move a keyframe in time, the link to the cue mark is broken. However, by moving a keyframe to the exact time of a cue mark, you link the keyframe to that cue mark.

To add a cue mark:

1. Select the Set Cue Mark button in the Player controls.

(a) Cue marks in Animation Editor  

To set a cue mark to a specific frame of a film clip:

1. Do one of the following:
   • Drag the time cursor in the Player navigation bar (or type in the frame number) to the frame on which you want to set a cue mark.
   • Play the composition, so that you can add cue marks during playback.
2. Select the Set Cue Mark button in the Player navigation controls (left side) or set the cue mark while the footage is playing by pressing the U key. Play-and-set is a more interactive method of adding cue marks.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to add more cue marks.

To delete a cue mark:

1. Select the Cue Marks tab in the tool UI.
2. Select a cue mark.
3. Right-click and select Delete.

To delete a cue mark using the contextual menu in any Animation Editor:

1. Select the cue mark you want to delete by selecting the top of it (it will turn from black to yellow when selected).
2. Right-click and select Delete (or Delete All) from the Cue Marks sub-menu.