Project Panel Basics in After Effects

The Project Panel is where all files are imported, where all objects are listed, and gives designers a "bird's eye view" of their projects. Learn how to use the Project Panel in Adobe After Effects with this tutorial from Noble Desktop!

#aetuts #mograph #aeforbeginners #aftereffects #aftereffectstutorials #nobledesktop

Creating a New Composition

1. Locate the Project panel on the left side of the AE interface.
2. Create a new Composition by either clicking on the small rectangular icon at the bottom of the panel or going up to Layer > New > Composition.
3. A new window will pop up. Different resolutions will be available within the dropdown menu in the window, each for a different footage purpose. It is possible to modify the background color of a Composition here as well.
4. Note: Unless a Solid is present, the background color of a Composition will not render out as part of the final project.
5. Delete the new Composition from within the Project panel.

Using Photoshop/Illustrator Files

1. After importing either a PS or an AI file, locate it within the Project panel.
2. Double-click the file to go inside it.
3. Within the Project panel, toggle open the PS/AI file folder.
4. Locate any of the PS/AI file layers.
5. Drag and drop the layer into the new Composition window.
6. Drag the desired file to the Create New Composition icon at the bottom to duplicate any file within the Project panel.

Organization Tips

1. To search for specific layers and objects within the Project panel, type the object’s name in the search bar located near the top of the panel.
2. Color code assets within the Project panel by clicking on the colored square next to their name and selecting a new color.
3. Organize files into folders by clicking on the folder icon located at the bottom of the panel. Drag and drop any assets into the folders.
4. Rename assets and folders by selecting any name and hitting Return (Mac) / Enter (PC).

Video Transcription

Hey, guys, let's talk about the project panel on Adobe After Effects. That's this panel over here, this section. If you're making anything in After Effects, you're basically using the product panel. It's what it's where all your assets are imported into. First is reorganize your files is read new solids and pre comps which are explained at another tutorial are created.

I'm using my own assets here, but you can use this tutorial with any project that you've got at home. We do have a tutorial on how to import files, how to bring files into after effects, if you'd like to watch that first. So the project penalty's a lot with assets and compositions. If you're not familiar with a composition that's basically like your canvas, it's what like all the paint and pieces go on.

It's what's displayed as the final product after you hit Render It, which turns it into a video file you could send to places. So when you import a Photoshop or Illustrator file over here, it'll bring in like the final file, like the complete file like this. And one of these little icons, it'll say composition next to it, and it'll also import the layers.

Again, this has to do with how you import things. Check out that tutorial, but it'll bring in the layers that go with that particular asset. You can see all the individual pieces of my little work over here. Now, to make a composition, here's a couple of different ways to do it. Either go to composition, new composition. This is how you can customize the size of your composition.

You can name it anything you want. You can choose a different preset size. These are all meant for like different aspect ratios depending on like, is it going to be in a laptop, a phone, you know, a TV? So whatever project you're making, you want to understand what the best size aspect ratio is for that project. I'm going to just pick a random one here.

If you hit lock aspect ratio, when you move with height goes along with it. If you don't click it, then you could just change one of these values on its own and it has things like frame rate. You know, how many frames per second will be displayed, start time code, you want to start at 000, all the zeros it'll last for like about 30 seconds are here.

You know, background of the background color of a composition doesn't matter too much because what really what what's going to be output and rendered for everyone to see when the file is done is really all the assets and like the paint that you put on top of it. The background for all intents and purposes is typically invisible unless you put something on top of it.

So you hit okay and a new composition is born. I'm actually going to delete this one, but before I do, check it out over here on the product panel. A new comp exists and if I want, I can grab this comp, I can drag it down to this thing and it says it's a duplicate composition icon. It's also creating a composition you can hit create that icon and I'll get you those settings from before.

But yeah, it basically duplicates that composition. I'm going to like I said, I'm going to delete these because it's another technique I want to show you. By the way, if you hear weird sounds, that is my cat and he's trying to come visit me. So you saw before that if I dragged one of these assets down to this icon over here, it'll duplicate it and then we'll, like, go inside of it.

Right now, what I'm actually going to do, I'm going to grab this asset over here. And again, it already says composition next to it. This is like my Photoshop file all put together, so I'm going to double click on it and now I'm inside of it. This is now my composition and it comes with all my individual assets over here, all my individual layers.

That was my cat. And speaking of, there's a way to pull out the layers from all the what's a word? Oh, yeah, the all the files that you've imported into after effect. So your illustrator file, your Photoshop file, it'll come in with these layers, you know, depending on which option you picked and I'm going to grab one of these and, you know, I'm going to be like, I don't want all of these layers for whatever reason.

I'm just going to grab one of these. I'm actually going to drag it right onto my composition window. And there we go. Now you can see that I've got a new layer here. That's the cat layer that I just pulled out from this folder. And again, just to recap, I toggle, I find the file that has the acid that I want.

I toggle it open. I go through these little frames, it'll give me a preview up here. I grab whichever one I want and I drag it on to my composition window. And now it's a part of my new composition. If I want to find a specific frame or you know, a specific asset, this is the search bar. And if you're working with a lot of files, this really come in handy and you could type in laptop and it will show me all the layers that have the word laptop in them.

And now for organizational purposes, it's a good idea to try and color code. The types of files that you've got in here, like all your folders, can be one kind of color, all your compositions can be another kind of color unless maybe you want, you know, you have a bunch of background assets, you're like, okay, all the background assets should be fuchsia.

And you do that as you've seen, as you seen. We do here. You click this little colored box over here, and then you just pick a caller from the list. And also there's folders. So these come in with their own folders. Like, you know, you could see the file has here is a put together file and then it comes in with all the layers in a folder.

But you can organize it further by hitting this little icon over there, create new folder, and I'm naming it Cat for some reason, and then I'm selecting all my cat layers and dragging it in. And if I want to find anything, I would just toggle open that big folder and toggle it open again and I'll find all my other assets right over here.

So yeah, definitely. Remember to keep your products organized in the project panel after effects projects can become quite full, a lot of assets and layers, so keeping all of that straight is important. Use a project panel for you to duplicate or make new compositions, or to just check out what assets or any project.