Adobe After Effects CS3 - Manual (Page 67)

AFTER EFFECTS CS3
User Guide
62
Work with placeholders and missing footage items
For best results, set the placeholder to exactly the same size, duration, and frame rate as the actual footage.
If After Effects cannot find source footage when you open a project, the footage item appears in the Project panel
labeled Missing, and the name of the missing footage appears in italics. Any composition using that item replaces it
with a placeholder. You can still work with the missing item in the project, and any effects you applied to the original
footage remain intact. When you replace the placeholder with the source footage, After Effects places the footage in
its correct location in all the compositions that use it.
• To use a placeholder, choose File > Import > Placeholder.
• To replace the selected footage item with a placeholder, choose File > Replace Footage > Placeholder.
• To replace a placeholder with the actual footage item, select the placeholder you want to replace in the Project
panel, choose File > Replace Footage > File, and locate the actual footage.
Work with proxies for footage items
When you use a proxy, After Effects replaces the actual footage with the proxy in all compositions that use the actual
footage item. When you finish working, you can switch back to the actual footage item in the project list. After Effects
then replaces the proxy with the actual footage item in any composition.
When you render your composition as a movie, you may choose to use either all the actual high-resolution footage
items or their proxies. You might want to use the proxies for a rendered movie if, for example, you simply want to
test motion using a rough movie that renders quickly.
For best results, set a proxy so that it has the same aspect ratio as the actual footage item. For example, if the actual
footage item is a 640 x 480-pixel movie, create and use a 160 x 120-pixel proxy. When a proxy item is imported, After
Effects scales the item to the same size and duration as the actual footage. If you create a proxy with an aspect ratio
that is different from that of the actual footage item, scaling will take longer.
❖ In the Project panel, do any of the following:
• To locate and use a proxy, select a footage item, choose File > Set Proxy > File, locate and select the file you want
to use as a proxy, and click Open.
• To toggle between using the original footage and its proxy, click the proxy indicator to the left of the footage name.
• To stop using a proxy, select the original footage item, and choose File > Set Proxy > None.
Create a proxy
Use the Create Proxy command to create a proxy from footage or compositions selected in the Project panel or the
Timeline panel. This command adds the selected footage to the Render Queue panel and sets the Post-Render Action
option to Set Proxy.
1 Select a footage item or composition in the Project or Timeline panel.
2 Choose one of the following commands:
• File > Create Proxy > Still to create a still image proxy.
• File > Create Proxy > Movie to create a moving image proxy.
3 Specify a name and output destination for the proxy.
4 In the Render Queue panel, specify render settings, and click Render.
Note: To create a still image proxy from a movie or sequence footage item, open the footage item in the Footage panel
and set as the poster frame the frame that you want to use as the proxy.