To Work With Placeholders And Missing Footage; To Work With Low-Resolution Proxies For Footage - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

To work with placeholders and missing footage

In After Effects, a placeholder appears as a still image of color bars. You can apply attributes, expressions, effects, and
keyframes to a placeholder. When the actual footage item becomes available, you can replace the placeholder with
it, and the applied attributes are transferred to the actual footage.
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 as a layer
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.
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Do any of the following:
•
To use a placeholder, choose File > Import > Placeholder or File > Replace Footage > Placeholder, specify the
placeholder's name, size, frame rate, and duration, and then click OK.
•
To replace a placeholder with actual footage, in the Project panel, double-click the placeholder you want to replace,
or choose File > Replace Footage > File, locate and select the actual footage, and then click OK (Windows) or
Import (Mac OS).

To work with low-resolution proxies for footage

Movies, images, and compositions used as layers can take up significant amounts of RAM and disk space when used
in compositions, and can slow down working and rendering in elaborate projects. Using low-resolution proxy items
in place of actual items is a way to lighten the burden on your computer and speed your work. Effects, masks, and
properties applied to the proxy are applied to the actual footage item when you replace the proxy with the actual
footage.
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.
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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.
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