Adobe AFTER EFFECTS CS3 PROFESSIONAL User Manual page 66

Import footage items using the Import dialog box
1 Choose File > Import > File or File > Import > Multiple Files, or double-click an empty area of the Project panel.
If you choose Import Multiple Files, then you can perform the next step more than once without needing to choose
an Import command multiple times.
To display only supported footage files (excluding project files), choose All Footage Files from the Files Of Type
(Windows) or Enable (Mac OS) menu.
Do one of the following:
2
• Select a file, and then click Open.
• Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) multiple files to select them, and then click Open.
• Click a file and then Shift-click another file to select a range of files, and then click Open.
• Select an entire folder, and then click Import Folder.
Note: If the Sequence option is selected, multiple files from the folder will be imported as a sequence of still images.
Import footage items by dragging
If you always want the layered footage that you drag into After Effects to be imported as a composition, choose Edit
> Preferences > Import (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > Import (Mac OS), and choose Comp from the
Default Drag Import As menu.
• To import the contents of a folder as a sequence of still images that appear in the Project panel as a single footage
item, drag a file or a folder from Windows Explorer (Windows) or the Finder (Mac OS) into the Project panel.
• To import the contents of the folder as individual footage items that appear in the Project panel in a folder, Alt-
drag a folder from Windows Explorer (Windows) or Option-drag a folder from the Finder (Mac OS) into the
Project panel.
Interpret footage items
After Effects uses a set of internal rules to interpret each footage item that you import according to its best guess for
the source file's pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, color profile, and alpha channel type. If After Effects guesses wrong, or
if you want to use the footage differently, you can modify these rules for all footage items of a particular kind by
editing the interpretation rules file (interpretation rules.txt), or you can modify the interpretation of a specific
footage item using the Interpret Footage dialog box.
The interpretation settings tell After Effects the following about each footage item:
• How to interpret the alpha channel's interaction with other channels. (See "Specify alpha channel interpretation"
on page 62.)
• What frame rate to assume for the footage item. (See "Change frame rate" on page 63.)
• Whether to separate fields and, if so, what field order to assume. (See "Separate video fields" on page 79 and
"Determine the original field order" on page 80.)
• Whether to remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown. (See "Remove 3:2 or 24Pa pulldown from video" on page 81.)
• The pixel aspect ratio of the footage item. (See "Change pixel aspect ratio" on page 64.)
• The color profile of the footage item. (See "Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile" on
page 244.)
AFTER EFFECTS CS3 60
User Guide