Create layers from footage items or change layer source



You can create a layer from any footage item in the Project panel, including another composition. After you add a footage item to a composition, you can modify and animate the resulting layer.

When you add a composition to another composition, you create a layer that uses the composition that you added as its source. (See Precomposing, nesting, and pre-rendering.)

The Still Footage preference setting (Preferences > Import) controls the default duration of layers that use still footage items as their sources. By default, when you create a layer with a still image as its source, the duration of the layer is the duration of the composition. You can change the duration of the layer after it’s created by trimming the layer.

Note: By default, new layers begin at the beginning of the composition duration. You can instead choose to have new layers begin at the current time by deselecting the Create Layers At Composition Start Time preference (Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS)).

Often, the next step after adding a layer to a composition is scaling and positioning the layer to fit in the frame. (See Scale or flip a layer.)

Create layers from one or more footage items

When you create layers from multiple footage items, the layers appear in the layer stacking order in the Timeline panel in the order in which they were selected in the Project panel.

  1. Select one or more footage items and folders in the Project panel.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Drag the selected footage items to the Composition panel.
      Hold Shift while dragging to snap the layer to the center or edges of the composition.
    • Drag the selected footage items to the Timeline panel. When you drag the item into the layer outline, a highlight bar indicates where the layer will appear when you release the mouse button. If you drag the item over the time graph area, a time marker indicates where the In point of the layer will be when you release the mouse button.
      Hold Shift while dragging to snap the In point to the current-time indicator.

    • Drag the selected footage items to the composition name or icon in the Project panel, or press Ctrl+/ (Windows) or Command+/ (Mac OS). New layers are created at the top of the layer stack and at the center of the composition.

Create a layer from a trimmed footage item

You can trim a moving-image footage item in the Footage panel before inserting a layer based on that footage item into a composition.

  1. To open a footage item in the Footage panel, double-click it in the Project panel.

    Double-clicking opens some footage items—including MOV and some AVI movies—in a media player window. To open some kinds of footage items in the Footage panel, you must Alt-double-click (Windows) or Option-double-click (Mac OS) them. (See The Footage panel.)

  2. Move the current-time indicator in the Footage panel to the frame that you want to use as the In point of the layer, and click the Set In Point button at the bottom of the Footage panel.
  3. Move the current-time indicator in the Footage panel to the frame that you want to use as the Out point of the layer, and click the Set Out Point button at the bottom of the Footage panel.
  4. To create a layer based on this trimmed footage item, click an Edit button at the bottom of the Footage panel:
    Overlay Edit
    Creates the new layer at the top of the layer stacking order, with the In point set at the current time in the Timeline panel.

    Ripple Insert Edit
    Also creates the new layer at the top of the layer stacking order, with the In point set at the current time in the Timeline panel, but splits all other layers. Newly created split layers are moved later in time so that their In points are at the same time as the Out point of the inserted layer.

Replace layer sources with references to another footage item

  1. Select one or more layers in the Timeline panel
  2. Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) a footage item from the Project panel onto a selected layer in the Timeline panel.