Hello and welcome to the fifth video in this Beginner's Guide to Adobe After Effects.
In this tutorial we are going to take a closer look at the project panel.
Now in After Effects every element that is brought into the program is placed
into the project panel, it may help to think of this as a kind of links panel.
As a beginner there are a few important things you will need to learn about this
panel before we move on. In this video I'm going to discuss the project panel
in a bit more depth and show you how media elements brought into the program
are managed and placed into your timeline panel ready for editing. So in
this video we are going to be covering the following topics: The project panel,
managing links, managing assets in the project panel and placing media elements
from the project panel into your compositions. After this video you will
get a better understanding of how all this works so you will feel more
comfortable moving forward. So let's get into it! So here I am where we left off
in the previous episode with an After Effects project open. If you're new to
this series and you wish to follow along with this tutorial you will need to open
this document I have prepared especially for this video. This can be found in the
introduction folder in the project folder and you can download this project
folder for a small fee the download link is in the description. The download
folder comes with lots of exercise documents we will be using on this
course that have been carefully developed to aid your learning
experience. The folder also comes with document resources such as videos,
graphics and images you can use to build your first video presentation from
scratch later on in this course. To get the full learning experience I recommend
you get the project folder. Download link with instructions is in the description.
So with the project folder open click into the S-1 introduction folder, into
the fourth folder compositions and open the Hyde Park After Effects file. So now
i want to draw your attention to the project panel which is located over on
the left hand side of the interface. As mentioned earlier
every element that exists in your project is stored here ready to be
placed into a composition. In this instance we can see we have a number of
folders. In the comps folder we can see all the compositions that make up this
project and above we have the assets folder. If we toggle down we can see more
folders where I have organized my media into various sections such as audio,
images, solids and video. Now if I click the drop-down button on these folders
you can see the media elements within. For this example I will put my mouse
cursor carefully over the top of the timeline panel until I see the mouse
cursor change to the arrows, then I'll click and drag down and this will give more
visibility to the project panel here. So as we scroll up and down in the project
panel we can see there are quite a few media elements in this project and I
have personally organized my files in this way so I know where everything is
and where to access it from. So next I what to draw your attention to the top
of the project panel. At the top of the project panel we have this media info
space, for example if I click into the video folder below and click on
flower_1.mp4 at the top of the project panel we can see the information
regarding this media item. In this instance it's telling me the name, how
many times it's been used in the project, the dimensions, its length, frames per
second and the video format. We can use this area of the project panel to check
any media item we have in the project. This time I will come up and click on an
image. So remember to use this feature if you want to check info about your media
items in After Effects. Now another quick way to see information at a glance is to
pull your project panel out. in After Effects the project panel is
neatly placed over on the left. Now if I carefully place my mouse cursor where
the project panel meets the visual compositions panel in the middle, we will
see the mouse cursor change to arrows. If I click and drag this out to the right
you can see information regarding each media item. If I move my mouse cursor to
the top next to their title names I can right click on this and choose which
property I want to see. So for now I'll click back onto the project panel
edge and drag it back in so I can clearly see the media item names and the
composition panel in the middle. Now it's important to mention that when we bring
media elements into an After Effects project they are not physically part of
the file. All media elements such as video, images and audio will exist on
your computer and when you bring them into After Effects they appear here as
links. It will help to think of this project panel like a links panel. If a
link is changed edited or deleted off your computer it will effectively change
or break the link. For example if I come into the project panel and come into the
video folder, then into the stills folder and come and select a video link, let's
go with landscape 3.mp4, if I right click and come and click on reveal in
finder, upon click a browser window will appear and we can see where on the
computer the media file is placed. Now if for example I change the name of the
link and I'll just put an X on the end of the file name. If I come back into
After Effects, we will get a message stating a file cannot be found. So if I
click OK we will now see that where the file was placed in the composition we
will now have this colored background. When a file is missing or changed in
After Effects you will always see this coloured image and this will be applied
to anything that is missing. Notice in the project panel we will see this
colored icon applied to the now missing link. Now if I come back to my browser
window and change the file name back and I'll take the X from the end of the file
name. Back in After Effects we can still see that image link is missing but now
if I come to the media link in the project panel right-click and select
reload footage, the media will appear back again. Now another example is if a
file is moved to a different place on your computer. Back in the browser window
I'm now going to move my file from this folder into another folder. If I come
back to After Effects we will get the message stating a file cannot be found
again. So if I click OK, again we will see the coloured background in our comp
and on the media link in the project panel. Now this is a common thing
that can happen, however what we can do is come to the broken media link in the
project panel, right-click and select replace footage and select file. Upon
click we can then navigate to the file on the computer, in this example I'll
just navigate to the new video location, select and click OK.
Upon click the media will appear back again. So what we have done there is
replace the footage. So now I'm going to come back to my folder and just put the
file back into the stills folder. Back into After Effects we will get the same
error message again, so again right click and select replace footage and
select file. I'll just navigate back to the folder it was originally in select
and click OK. Upon click the media will appear back
again, nice! So keep in mind you have to be really careful when working with
links in After Effects. If you make any changes to files or move them around on
your computer outside the program, it will have a knock-on effect inside your
After Effects document. If this happens you will typically need to reload the
footage or relink the footage. So next it's important to mention that when you
create a brand-new After Effects project you have no folders or anything in this
project panel. So how do we manage assets in the project panel? So let's start by
creating a new document. If you have the Hyde Park document open come up to file
and click close project. If it asks you to save, for now just click no. So after
closing your project you should now see a blank interface ready for a new
project. Now if I click the new composition button here in the middle to
start a new project or come up to composition in the top bar and click new
composition, up will pop the composition settings window. Now I'll make sure the
dimensions are set to 1920 by 1080 and the composition length is set to one
minute and I'll click OK and we will see a brand new composition open. Now if we
look over in the project panel we will see just one composition present and if
we look down in the timeline panel we will see no layers inside. so I want to
start to organize my media in the project panel. To begin I can come
to the bottom of the project panel and click the create new folder icon. Upon
click we will see a new folder in the project panel and I'm going to call this
comps and it's in this folder I'm going to place all my compositions made during
a project. Now if I accidentally click off the folder, I can select it and press
ENTER on the keyboard to change the name. With my comps folder created I'm now
going to click and drag my comps 1 composition into the comps folder. So now
it's time to bring some external media into my project. To do this is quite easy,
one way is to come into the project panel,
with the mouse cursor and double click into the blank space below the folders.
Upon click, up will pop a browser window, this is After Effects asking you what
file you would like to import. So in this instance I'm going to navigate to the
downloadable project folder, click into the project assets folder, then click
into the images folder, then into the jpg folder, then into the Hyde Park folder
and there we can see a few images. In this instance i'm going to select all
the images and click open. Upon click you will then see all the images appear in
the project panel. Now before I do anything else I'm quickly going to come
down to the bottom of the project panel and click the new folder icon, I'll name
this folder images, then I'll click the top image press the hold shift and
select the bottom image to select them all. With them selected I'll drag them
into the folder. So now I have two new folders in my project panel, a comps
folder and an images folder. So next I'm going to bring in some video files but
this time I'll show you another way you can bring it media. So I'll come back
into the project panel with the mouse cursor and double click into the blank
space. Upon double click, up will pop a browser window. In my browser window I'm
going to navigate to the downloadable project folder, click into the project
assets folder, then click into the video folder, then into the first folder Hyde
Park and here we can see a number of folders. Now if you click into these you
can see there are a number of video files. Now if we back up to the Hyde Park
video folder you can see in this instance I have organized them in folders
into various categories. OK so in this instance I want all the videos to be
placed into After Effects. So here I will click on the one Hyde Park folder and
click open. Upon click you will see the folders appear inside the project panel.
After Effects will interpret the folder structure from the browser and copy the
folders into After Effects and if I click to toggle down the folders we can
see the media items inside, great! So next I'm quickly going to organize
this, so I'll come to the bottom of the project panel, click on the new folder
icon and name the new folder, video, next I'll simply select the Hyde Park folder
and drag it into the video folder. So that's one way to place content into
your After Effects document. Now another way is to simply drag content from a
browser window into After Effects. So this time I'm first going to open a
browser window on my computer and I'm going to make sure I can clearly see the
After Effects interface behind it. So I'll navigate to the project folder,
click into the project assets folder, then click into the images folder, then
into the jpg folder, into the location folder and into the aquarium folder. In
this folder I can see some images. So here I can simply select one or multiple
images, then with them selected I will click and drag my mouse cursor from the
browser window and into After Effects, with my mouse cursor over the project
panel area I will release the mouse. Upon release the files will appear in my
project panel. So I'll quickly make a new folder called Aquarium, I'll select my
images and drag them into the new folder and then I'll drag this Aquarium folder
and place it into the images folder, perfect! So that's a few simple ways to
get media into your After Effects project and how to organize media into
neat folders in the project panel. OK so once you have media in your After
Effects project it's time to start working with it. So right now we have a
composition open we can see the black screen in the visual composition panel
and the timeline panel is blank. So now there are a few ways you can get content
into your composition. So I'll toggle down the video folder and toggle down
the folder so I can see the video files.
Inside here I can click and drag a video element down into the timeline at the
bottom. Upon release you will see the video
appear in the timeline panel as a layer, you will notice that the layer appears
as a bar from the beginning of the timeline. This bar will represent how
long the video footage is. In this instance the video is around 19 seconds
long and we know this by looking at where it ends compared to the time
indicator at the top of the timeline panel. So one way is to click and drag
elements from the project panel into the timeline panel, another way is to drag
elements from the project panel into the visual composition panel in the middle.
So let's try this with an image this time. So over in the project panel I'll
toggle down the image folder so we can see the contents. This time I'll click
and drag an image over and into the visual composition panel. Upon release it
will appear in the composition. Now I just placed in an image with a
resolution greater than the video, so right now the image will appear cropped
within the video frame. If I click and drag the image around in the composition
panel we can move it around like so. So when we placed in the image it appeared
on top of the video we previously placed in. If we look in the timeline panel we
will also see a new layer and it will be placed on top of the video layer. Now
when you drag media elements from the project panel into the composition panel
they will always be placed in the top of the layer stack by default. Now something
else you will notice, is that this time the layer goes all the way to the end.
Now this is because a still image has no time signature like the video. So when
you place a still image into your composition it will span the entire
length of time. To alter this you will need to change it down in the timeline
panel. and that brings us to the end of this video.
So to recap some key things to remember are: The project panel is where all your
media elements and compositions are located in your project. Organizing your
project panel with folders can make your workflow more efficient.
If you make any changes to files or move files around outside After Effects that
are linked it will have knock-on effects inside your After Effects document. and
elements must be placed into your compositions by dragging them from the
project panel either into the timeline panel or into the visual composition
panel. Ok so now we know how to bring media elements into After Effects and
manage them in the project panel, it's now time to start animating and adding
effects. Now to understand how to animate and add effects you will first need to
understand the animation principles and how they work in After Effects. In the
next video we are going to learn the key animation principles in After Effects and
how they are applied.
So I'll see you in the next video