Chapter 29: The Project Tab
The Project tab in the Media panel lists everything your template is made of, the way the Project panel does in After Effects: its scenes, its AE comps, the scenes it imported, and every media file it uses — with how often each is used. From here you can replace a file everywhere it is used at once, or put a footage placeholder in for a file you do not have yet.
Opening it
- Open the Media tab in the left sidebar.
- Click Project, the fourth tab after Files, Scenes and AE Comps.
What it shows
The table has two columns, Name and Usage, and groups its rows:
| Group | Rows | Usage | Double-click |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scenes | Every scene of the template | — | Opens the scene |
| AE Comps | Every comp imported from After Effects (Chapter 28) | How many Comp Layers place it; 0 means unused | Opens the comp |
| Imported Scenes | Scenes imported from other templates (Chapter 16), when there are any | — | — |
| Media | Every image, video and audio file a layer, a scene background, a layout or a sound uses | How many places use it — hover the number to see them | Selects the layer that uses it (below) |
Click a column header to sort by it; click it again to reverse. Click a group’s name to collapse it. Both are remembered in this browser.
A file appears once, however many places use it. A file inside an AE comp is counted once for every Comp Layer that places the comp; a comp nobody places adds nothing to the Media list.
Not listed: voiceover and TTS takes (they are generated, not footage), subtitle files, and the media inside imported scenes (it belongs to the template it came from).
Markers
- Italic name with a warning sign — the file is missing from storage. An After Effects import always arrives like this: an
.aepnever carries the footage itself. - Color bars and “placeholder” — a footage placeholder (below).
{Media_1}— the file is that variable’s default value: the layer shows{Media_1}, and a render that does not set the variable uses this file.- A row named by a
{variable}pattern, or a web address, cannot be replaced from here: it names no single file of the template.
Finding where a file is used
Double-click a media row to select the layer that uses it. The editor opens that layer’s scene and selects it. If the layer is inside an AE comp, the editor also opens the comp, and any comps around it, the way double-clicking the Comp Layers would, so the breadcrumb reads, for example, Intro › Lower third › Flag. A comp placed by several Comp Layers opens through the one this usage comes from.
- Several usages: double-click again to go to the next one; after the last, it starts over.
- Off screen at the playhead: if the layer is not on screen at the current time, the playhead moves to where the layer starts.
- Inside a group: the group is selected.
- Backgrounds, layouts and sounds: the scene opens and nothing is selected.
- Background music: it belongs to no scene, so double-clicking does nothing.
To go straight to one usage, right-click the row and choose it under Reveal Layer. Preview, in the same menu, shows an image or video that is in storage.
Replace Footage
Right-click a media row and choose Replace Footage…. The Files tab opens to pick the new file and offers only files of the same kind (image, video or audio). The file you pick replaces the old one everywhere it is used, in one step — Edit ▸ Undo puts everything back.
- A layer keeps its position, size, timing and trims; a video or audio layer reads the new file’s length again.
- Where the file is a variable’s default value, the default changes and the layer keeps its
{variable}, so it stays personalisable. - A scene sound keeps the length it was added with; add it again in the scene’s sound settings if the new file is longer or shorter.
Footage placeholders
Right-click a media row and choose Replace with Placeholder to stand in for a file you do not have yet. Nothing is uploaded: the footage placeholder lives only in the template.
- In the editor it shows as color bars with the file’s name.
- When you publish, it renders as a plain gray frame the size of the layer, for the layer’s timing; an audio footage placeholder plays as silence. Publishing reports how many footage placeholders the template has.
- It keeps the name of the file it replaced, so the Project tab still tells you what to supply. When you have the file, choose Replace Footage… on the footage placeholder’s row.
- A video footage placeholder cannot be motion-tracked.
- If a variable’s default value becomes a footage placeholder, a render that does not set that variable has no file to fall back on and fails. Publishing warns about it.