- Displaying Information in the Project Panel
- Finding Items in a Project
- Sorting Footage in the Project Panel
- Organizing Footage in Folders
- Renaming and Removing Items
- Proxies and Placeholders
- Viewing Footage
- Opening Footage in the Original Application
- The Footage Panel
- Cueing Motion Footage
- Magnifying an Image
- Viewing Safe Zones and Grids
- Rulers and Guides
- Snapshots
- Channels
- Viewing Transparency
- Correcting for Pixel Aspect Ratios
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Renaming and Removing Items
You can't rename a footage item in the Project panel or even give it a temporary alias. Don't worry: You can rename it when it becomes a layer in a composition. (In later chapters, you'll see how this naming scheme allows you to give unique names to each layer while still tracing their lineage back to a single footage file.) You can, of course, name folders and compositions in the Project panel.
Just as important as organizing the elements you need is disposing of the elements you don't need. You can remove individual items or have After Effects automatically discard the items that haven't been used in a composition.
To rename folders or compositions in the Project panel:
- In the Project panel, select a folder or composition.
- Press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows).
The name of the item appears highlighted (
Figure 3.22
).
Figure 3.22 Select a folder or composition, press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) to highlight its name…
- Enter a name for the folder or composition (
Figure 3.23
).
Figure 3.23 …and then type a new name in the text box. Press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) again to apply the new name.
- Press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows). The new name of the item is no longer highlighted and becomes the current name.
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To remove items from a project:
- In the Project panel, select one or more items.
-
Do one of the following:
- Press Delete.
- Click the Delete button
at the bottom of the Project panel (
Figure 3.24
). - Drag the items to the Delete button
at the bottom of the Project panel.
If any of the items are compositions or are being used in a composition, After Effects asks you to confirm that you want to delete the items ( Figure 3.25 ).
Figure 3.24 Click the Delete button at the bottom of the Project panel to delete selected items.
Figure 3.25 After Effects warns you if you attempt to delete an item that is in use.
- If After Effects prompts you to confirm your choice, click Delete to remove the footage from the project or Cancel to cancel the command and retain the footage in the project. The footage is removed from the project and all compositions in the project.
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To remove unused footage from a project:
-
Choose File > Remove Unused Footage ( Figure 3.26 ).
All footage items that aren't currently used in a composition are removed from the project.
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Figure 3.26 Choose File > Remove Unused Footage to remove items that aren't used in a composition.
To remove duplicate footage from a project:
-
Choose File > Consolidate All Footage ( Figure 3.27 ).
All duplicate footage items are removed from the project. Footage items imported from the same source file that use different Interpret Footage settings are treated as different items.
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Figure 3.27 Choose File > Consolidate All Footage to remove duplicate items from the Project panel.
To remove unselected comps and unused footage from a project:
- In the Project panel, select the compositions.
- Choose File > Reduce Project (
Figure 3.28
).
Unselected comps and unused footage are removed. Comps nested in selected comps are preserved.
Figure 3.28 Choose File > Reduce Project to remove unselected comps (except comps nested in selected comps) and unused footage.
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