Remove items from a project, Placeholders and proxies – Adobe After Effects User Manual
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Note:
Placeholder
footage in the original application, the changes are applied to all instances of the footage when After Effects becomes the active application.
If you’re editing footage that has an alpha channel, make sure that you’re viewing and editing all of the channels, including the alpha
channel, in the other application. Otherwise, changes you make may not be applied to the alpha channel, and it may become misaligned with the
color channels.
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.
1. In the Project panel, Composition panel, or Timeline panel, select the footage item or a layer that uses the footage item as its source. If you
selected a still-image sequence from the Composition or Timeline panel, move the current-time indicator to the frame displaying the still
image you want to edit.
2. Choose Edit > Edit Original.
3. Edit the footage in its original application, and save the changes.
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. (See Save and back up projects in After Effects CS5.)
Carl Larsen demonstrates the use of the Collect Files command and the Consolidate All Footage command in a video tutorial on the
shows how to organize, consolidate, and archive project files and footage.
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, choose File > Remove Unused Footage.
To remove all duplicate footage items from a project, Choose File > Consolidate All Footage. After Effects considers footage items to be
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, choose File > Reduce
Project. This command is available only when the Project panel is active.
This command removes both unused footage items and all other compositions that are not included within a selected composition as nested
(subordinate) compositions.
If the selected composition includes items that are 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.
selected compositions as individual projects.
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 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 is not yet available. After Effects generates placeholders automatically, so you do not
have to provide a placeholder footage item.
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