Adobe After Effects CS3 - Manual (Page 28)

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Chapter 3: Planning and managing
projects
Project basics
About project files
An After Effects project is a single file that stores compositions and references to all of the footage items that you use
in that project. Compositions are collections of layers. Many layers use footage items 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 file-name extension .aep. The name of the current project appears at the top of the application window.
A template project is a file with the file-name extension .aet. You can use the many template projects included with
After Effects—including DVD menu templates—as the basis for your own projects, and you can create new
templates based on your projects.
A great way to see how advanced users use After Effects is to open one of the template projects included with After
Effects, select all of its layers, and press
U or UU to reveal only the animated or modified properties. This shows you
what changes the designer of the template project made to create the template. You may need to unlock some layers to
select them.
Create and open projects
Only one project can be open at a time. If you create or open another project file while a project is open, After Effects
prompts you to save changes in the open project, and then closes it. After you create a project, you can import footage
into the project.
• To create a project, choose File > New > New Project.
• To open a project, choose File > Open Project, locate the project, and then click Open.
• To open the most recently opened project, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift+P
(Mac OS).
See also
“Import an After Effects project” on page 63
Work with template projects
When you open a template project, After Effects creates a new, untitled project based on the template. This means
that saving changes to the project does not affect the template project.
Often, the creator of a template project will lock layers that should be left unmodified, and leave layers that should
be modified unlocked. This is a convenient way to reuse material and prevent accidental or inappropriate modifica-
tions.