User Guide

65
Chapter 2: Preparing and
Importing Footage
footage item is the basic unit in an After Effects project. Before you begin animating,
you need to import footage into After Effects. You can import moving image
files, still-image files, still-image sequences, audio files, layered files from Adobe
Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, and other After Effects projects and projects created in
Adobe Premiere. As you build a project, you can import footage items at any time.
How After Effects works with imported files
When you import files, After Effects does not copy the footage item itself into your project
but creates a reference link in the Project window to the footage item. This saves disk space.
If you delete, rename, or move an imported source file, you break the reference link to that
file. When a link is broken, the name of the source file appears in italics in the Project
window, and the File Path column lists it as missing. If the footage item is available, you
can reestablish the link—usually just by double-clicking the item and selecting the file
again. See “Replacing and substituting footage” on page 97.
If you use another application to modify footage that is used in a project, the changes
appear in After Effects the next time you open the project. See “Opening footage in its
original application” on page 95.
When you add a footage item to an After Effects composition, you create a new layer, and
the footage item becomes the source for the new layer. You can replace the source without
affecting any edits you make to the layer properties.
Preparing a still-image file for import into After Effects
Before you import a still image into After Effects, prepare the file as completely as possible.
It is usually easier and faster to prepare a file in its original application; this also reduces
rendering time in After Effects. Consider doing the following before you import still-
image files into After Effects:
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UG.book Page 65 Wednesday, February 21, 2001 12:05 PM