Importing, Organizing, and Managing Assets
Import options
Importing a file offers several interpretations: as footage (merged, one item), as a composition retaining layers, and as composition cropped layers. Photoshop and Illustrator documents benefit most: import as a composition to keep layers or artboards editable, as footage to flatten. Premiere Pro projects can be imported directly, bringing sequences in as compositions.
Interpretation
Interpret Footage tells After Effects what the pixels mean: frame rate, alpha channel type (straight versus premultiplied), field order, 3:2 pulldown removal, and, under More Options, a color/bit-depth override. The critical trap: interpretation applies to every instance of that footage item across the whole project, so candidates who expect a local, per-layer change are wrong.
Organizing
Use folders, labels, and Project panel search to keep large jobs navigable. Proxies substitute lightweight stand-ins for heavy footage and are toggled with the Draft/Proxies switch. Collect Files gathers a comp's dependencies into one folder for handoff; it does not transcode, and it has a separate option governing proxy usage. Consolidate trims unused source frames. Missing footage appears as a placeholder - repair with Replace Footage > File, not by re-importing duplicates.
Traps
- Image sequences need contiguous, correctly numbered files and the right frame rate.
- Forgetting the sequence option imports only the first frame.
- A merged PSD import permanently loses layer-level control for that item.
Worked example
A 25 fps clip inside a 29.97 fps comp stutters. Rather than time-stretching the layer, open Interpret Footage > Main, set Assume Frame Rate to 25, then decide whether to conform the composition or enable frame blending. Interpretation corrects metadata; it never retimes the recorded pixels by itself.