Adobe After Effects CS4 - Manual (Page 55)

49 Last updated 12/21/2009
Chapter 4: Projects and compositions
Projects
About projects
An After Effects project is a single file that stores compositions and references to all of the source files used by footage
items in that project. Compositions are collections of layers. Many layers use footage items (such as movies or still
images) as a source, though some layers—such as shape layers and text layers—contain graphics that you create within
After Effects.
A project file has the filename extension .aep or .aepx. A project file with the .aep filename extension is a binary project
file. A project file with the .aepx filename extension is a text-based XML project file.
The name of the current project appears at the top of the application window.
A template project file has the filename extension .aet. (See “ Template projects and example projects ” on page 51.)
More Help topics
“ Automation ” on page 645
XML project files
Text-based XML project files contain some project information as hexadecimal-encoded binary data, but much of the
information is exposed as human-readable text in
string elements. You can open an XML project file in a text editor
and edit some details of the project without opening the project in After Effects. You can even write scripts that modify
project information in XML project files as part of an automated workflow.
For a video tutorial about the XML project file format, go to the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4065_ae .
Elements of a project that you can modify in an XML project file:
• Marker attributes, including comments, chapter point parameters, and cue point parameters
• File paths of source footage items, including proxies
• Composition, footage item, layer, and folder names and comments
Note: Footage item names are exposed in
string elements in XML project files only if the names have been
customized. Footage item names derived automatically from the names of source files and solid color names are not
exposed in
string elements
Some strings, such as workspace and view names, are exposed as human-readable strings, but modifications made to
these strings are not respected when After Effects opens the project file.
Important: Do not use the XML project file format as your primary file format. The primary project file format for After
Effects CS4 is the binary project file (.aep) format. Use the XML project file format to save a copy of a project and as an
intermediate format for automation workflows.
To save an XML project (.aepx) file as a binary project (.aep) file, choose File > Save As and enter a file name ending
with .aep, without the x. (See “
Save and back up projects ” on page 50.)