Working with footage items

Compositions and footage items are listed in the Project panel. Unlike items in the Timeline and Effect Controls panels, the order of items in the Project panel does not influence the appearance of the movies you create. You can organize footage items and compositions however you like, including organizing them using folders. Solid-color footage items are automatically placed in the Solids folder.

Folders you create in the Project panel exist only in the Project panel. You can expand a folder to reveal its contents and put folders inside other folders. To move a file or folder to the top level of the Project panel, drag it to the gray information area at the top of the panel.

You can use the search field in the Project panel to find footage items that meet various criteria, such as those with missing source files.

Trim footage items in the Footage panel

You can use the Set In Point  , Set Out Point , Ripple Insert Edit, and Overlay Edit controls in the Footage panel to trim a footage item and insert it into a composition. Trimming in the Footage panel can be more convenient than adding the footage item to a composition and then trimming its layer in the Timeline panel.

Show information for items

• To show information about a footage item or composition, select it in the Project panel. Information is displayed at the top of the Project panel next to the thumbnail image.
• To show the file creator ID for a footage item, Alt+click (Windows) or Option+click (macOS) it in the Project panel.

Create a folder

Rename and sort items

• To rename a composition, footage item, or folder, do one of the following:

  • Select the item in the Project panel, press Enter (Windows) or Return (macOS), and enter the new name.

  • Right-click (Windows) or Control+click (macOS) the item, choose Rename and enter the new name.

• To rename the Comment column, right-click (Windows) or Control+click (macOS) the column heading and select Rename This.

• To sort items by entries in any column, select the column name in the Project panel.

Copy items

• To duplicate or copy an item in the Project panel, select it and select Edit > Duplicate or Edit > Copy.
• To copy a footage item to Windows Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (macOS), drag the footage item from the Project panel to the desktop.

Reveal footage items

• To reveal where a footage item is used in a composition, right-click (Windows) or Control+click (macOS) the footage item in the Project panel and choose Reveal In Composition. Then, select the specific instance you want to reveal (composition name, layer name).
• To reveal the source footage item for a layer in the Project panel, right-click (Windows) or Control+click (macOS) the layer in the Timeline panel, and then choose Reveal Layer Source In Project.
• To reveal the location of a footage item in Adobe Bridge, Windows Explorer, or the Finder, right-click (Windows) or Control+click (macOS) the footage item in the Project panel and choose Reveal In Bridge, Reveal In Windows Explorer, or Reveal In Finder.

Refresh footage items

View footage items in the Footage panel or media player assigned by the operating system

When items are previewed in the Footage panel, they show the results of the footage interpretation operations. 

• To open a footage item in a Footage panel, double-click the footage item in the Project panel.
• To open selected footage items in the Footage panel, press Enter on the numeric keypad when the Project panel is active.

Enhanced solids folder organization

You can organize your solids, adjustments layers, and nulls better with enhanced solids folder organization. You can perform the following tasks:

• Rename the solids folder: You can rename the existing solids folder, and every new solid is created in the renamed folder instead of a separate folder named Solids. To rename the folder, do any of the following options: 

Rename the solids folder

You can rename the existing solids folder, and every new solid is created in the renamed folder instead of a separate folder named Solids. To rename the folder, do any of the following options: 

Option 1

Option 2

Set a default name for the solids folder

You can change the default name for the solids folder you create in your new projects. To change the name, follow these steps:

Nest the solids folder in other folders

You can nest the Solids folder within other folders. Drag the solids folder inside another folder in your current project to nest. Once the folders are nested, new solids continue to be created in the nested folder.

Set any folder as the solids folder

You can set a folder as a solids folder. To set a folder as a solids folder, follow the steps:

Edit footage in its original application

You can open and edit a footage item in the application in which it was created directly from an After Effects project. The original application must be installed on the computer that you are using, which must have enough available RAM for it to run. When you edit and save changes to the footage in the original application, the changes are applied to all instances of the footage when After Effects becomes the active application.

When you edit a still-image sequence selected in the Timeline or Composition panel, the individual image that is currently displayed opens. When you edit a still-image sequence selected in the Project panel, the first image in the sequence opens.

Remove items from a project

Before reducing your project, removing unused footage, or consolidating footage, consider making a backup by incrementing and saving your project first.

• To remove an item from a project, select the item in the Project panel and press Delete.
• To remove all unused footage items from a project, select File > Remove Unused Footage.
• To remove all duplicate footage items from a project, select File > Consolidate All Footage. After Effects considers footage items duplicates only if they use the same Interpret Footage settings. When a duplicate item is removed, layers that refer to the duplicate item are updated to refer to the remaining copy.
• To remove unselected compositions and unused footage items from selected compositions in the Project panel, select File > Reduce Project. This command is available only when the Project panel is active.

This command removes unused footage items and all other compositions not included in a selected composition as nested (subordinate).

If the selected composition includes items turned off (that is, the Video or Audio switch is deselected in the Timeline panel), the Reduce Project command does not remove those items.

If an expression in a selected composition refers to an element in a nonsubordinate composition, Reduce Project removes the nonsubordinate composition and the applied expression. A message appears after you choose Reduce Project to remind you of this possibility so you can undo the command if needed. To avoid removing the expressions from a nonsubordinate composition, drag the nonsubordinate composition into the composition that refers to it. Then, deselect the Audio and Video switches for the composition that you added.

Placeholders and proxies

When you want to temporarily use a substitute for a footage item, use either a placeholder or a proxy.

A still image of color bars is used to temporarily take the place of a missing footage item. Use a placeholder when you are building a composition and want to try out ideas for a footage item that isn't yet available. After Effects generates placeholders automatically, so you don't have to provide a placeholder footage item.

Any file used to temporarily replace a footage item, but most often a lower-resolution or still version of an existing footage item used to replace the original. Often, storyboard images are used as proxies. You can use a proxy either before you have the final footage or when you have the actual footage item, but you want to speed up the previewing or rendering of test movies. You must have a file available to use as a proxy.

Any masks, attributes, expressions, effects, and keyframes you apply to the layer are retained when you replace its placeholder or proxy with the final footage item.

In the Project panel, After Effects marks the footage name to indicate whether the actual footage item or its proxy is currently in use:

• A filled box indicates that a proxy item is currently in use throughout the project. The name of the proxy appears in bold type at the top of the Project panel when the footage item is selected.

• An empty box indicates that the footage item is in use throughout the project, though a proxy has been assigned.

• No box indicates that no proxy is assigned to the footage item.
  

Work with placeholders and missing footage items

For best results, set the placeholder to the same size, duration, and frame rate as the actual footage.

If After Effects cannot find source footage when you open a project, the footage item appears in the Project panel labeled Missing, and the name of the missing footage appears in italics. Any composition using that item replaces it with a placeholder. You can still work with the missing item in the project, and any effects you applied to the original footage remain intact. When you replace the placeholder with the source footage, After Effects places the footage in its correct location in all the compositions that use it.

• To use a placeholder, select File > Import > Placeholder.
• To replace the selected footage item with a placeholder, select File > Replace Footage > Placeholder.
• To replace a placeholder with the actual footage item, select the placeholder you want to replace in the Project panel, select File > Replace Footage > File and locate the actual footage.

Work with proxies for footage items

When you use a proxy, After Effects replaces the actual footage with the proxy in all compositions that use the actual footage item. When you finish working, you can switch back to the actual footage item in the project list. After Effects then replaces the proxy with the actual footage item in any composition.

When you render your composition as a movie, you may choose to use either all the actual high-resolution footage items or their proxies. You may want to use the proxies for a rendered movie if, for example, you simply want to test motion using a rough movie that renders quickly.

For best results, set a proxy so that it has the same frame aspect ratio as the actual footage item. For example, if the actual footage item is a 640x480-pixel movie, create and use a 160x120-pixel proxy. When a proxy item is imported, After Effects scales the item to the same size and duration as the actual footage. If you create a proxy with a frame aspect ratio that is different from the frame aspect ratio of the actual footage item, scaling takes longer.

Create a proxy

Use the Create Proxy command to create a proxy from footage or compositions selected in the Project or Timeline panel. This command adds the selected footage to the Render Queue panel and sets the Post-Render Action option to Set Proxy.

Create placeholders for output

You can create placeholder files that can be used in different compositions. For example, you can create a placeholder for an item in the render queue that will create a 24-fps movie and then drag that placeholder into a 30-fps composition. Then, when you render the 30-fps composition, After Effects first renders the placeholder at 24 fps and uses this rendered version as it renders the 30-fps composition.

Loop a footage item

If you intend to loop a visual footage item continuously in your project, you only need to create one cycle of the footage item in After Effects.

Freeze on last frame

You can now freeze the last frame of a layer until the end of the composition. After Effects sets time remapping keyframes in the layer and extends the layer duration until the end of the composition. 

To freeze the composition on the last frame of your footage, select Layer > Time > Freeze on Last Frame.