Importing media

Everything you import becomes an asset in the Project panel. An asset that points at a media file is a footage item.

Imported footage never modifies the original file. The project references the file’s path, as well as how to interpret what it finds there.

Import files

1. Choose File ▸ Import footage….
2. Select one or more files.

Dragging files from your file manager onto the Lumit window works as well. An empty editor offers Import footage beside Open.

File ▸ Import folder… imports the footage in a folder and every folder inside it. Each folder becomes a project folder of the same name.

What Lumit opens

The dialogue’s Footage filter lists the common formats: MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM, M4V, MPEG, TS, MTS, M2TS, WMV, FLV, 3GP, OGV, MXF and GIF; PNG, JPEG, TIFF, OpenEXR, Targa, DPX, BMP, WebP, PSD, AI and the Netpbm family; WAV, MP3, FLAC, AAC, M4A, OGG, Opus, AIFF and WMA.

The filter is a convenience, not a limit. Switch it to All files and pick anything - Lumit reads the file rather than its extension, so a container or codec the list does not name opens if the build can decode it. A file the build cannot decode still imports as an item; it never gets a picture on its row.

Organise the panel

Use folders to group assets. A folder groups assets in the panel and nothing more; it does not create folders on your computer.

Image sequences

Pick any one file of a folder of numbered stills and the whole run imports as a single footage item. See Image sequences.

Photoshop documents

A .psd with two or more layers imports as a composition the size of the document, with one layer for each Photoshop layer. Each layer is also a footage item, filed in a folder named after the file.

• Name, opacity, visibility and blend mode are kept.
• A top-level group becomes a layer group. A group inside a group, or one with its own opacity or blend mode, becomes a composition of its own and a Precomp layer.
• A layer mask and a clipping mask are applied to the layer’s picture.
• A solid colour fill layer becomes a Solid layer.
• Drop shadow, inner shadow, outer glow, inner glow, colour overlay and stroke become layer styles.
• An Invert, Posterize, Threshold, Brightness/Contrast, Exposure, Hue/Saturation, Levels, Curves, Black and White, Vibrance, Colour Balance or Photo Filter adjustment layer becomes an Adjustment layer carrying the nearest effect. It arrives switched off, since the same numbers give a different picture in Lumit. Switch it on and set it by eye.
• A 16 bit document keeps its depth.

Not built yet

The other adjustment layers, a Vibrance below zero, a Curves drawn freehand or with more than sixteen points, a Photo Filter whose colour isn’t stored as Lab, gradient and pattern fills, and the other layer styles are not imported. A group’s own mask and styles are dropped. PSB, 32 bit, CMYK, Lab and indexed documents are not split into layers. Affinity files are not read.

Illustrator documents

An .ai with two or more top-level layers imports as a composition the size of the first artboard, with one layer for each Illustrator layer. Each layer is also a footage item, filed in a folder named after the file. An .ai with one layer imports as a single footage item.

• Name and visibility are kept.
• A layer’s opacity, blend mode, clipping masks and effects are drawn into its picture.
• Sublayers are drawn as part of the top-level layer they are in.
• A point in Illustrator is a pixel in Lumit.

Layer ▸ Create ▸ Shapes from vector layer makes a shape layer of a layer’s paths, one group per path, and switches the layer off. Split into shape layers makes one shape layer per path. Gradients come across as flat grey, and clipping masks, placed pictures and text are left out.

Lumit reads the PDF copy of the artwork that Illustrator saves with Create PDF Compatible File switched on. A file saved with it off imports as the page of text Illustrator writes in the artwork’s place.

Not built yet

A layer is read as pixels at the artboard’s size, and softens when scaled past 100%. Only the first artboard is read. Sublayers are not split out. Files from before Illustrator 9 are not read.

Interpretation

Frame rate and alpha are read from the file itself, and so is the colour space.

A recording with a variable frame rate, as screen and game captures often are, is laid out at its average rate: each frame shows the picture that was on screen at that moment, so the picture stays with its sound. A stretch recorded slower repeats frames and one recorded faster skips some.

Interpret footage… on a footage row’s menu changes how the file is read. It opens on every selected footage item at once.

Setting	Does
Render pass	Which pass of a multi-pass EXR is shown. Auto picks the beauty pass. Cryptomatte passes are not listed.
Alpha	Straight, premultiplied against a matte colour, or ignored. Guess reads it from the file’s frames.
Invert alpha	Swaps opaque and clear.
Frame rate	Plays the file’s frames at another rate. The picture gets longer or shorter and its sound does not.
Start timecode	The timecode of the first frame, which the source view counts from.
Separate fields	Splits each interlaced frame into its two fields, at twice the rate.
Preserve edges	Fills a field’s missing rows along the edges in the picture.
Remove pulldown	Takes a 3:2 or 24Pa cadence out of interlaced video. Guess finds the cadence.
Pixel aspect ratio	Widens or narrows the picture until its pixels are square.
Loop	Plays the picture through more than once.
Colour space	What the file arrived in, see Colour management.
Linear light	Whether the file’s numbers are already linear. Read only with no colour space chosen.
Preserve RGB	Takes the file’s numbers as they are, with no colour conversion.

An EXR pass of one channel, such as depth, shows in grey at the values the file holds.

Remember interpretation on the same menu keeps one item’s settings, and Apply interpretation gives them to every selected item.

Footage from an After Effects project keeps the interpretation it had there, opened directly or through a Lumit Bridge bundle. Its OCIO colour space comes across from an opened .aep, and an ICC colour profile, which Lumit can’t use, is named in the import report. A project colour managed with OCIO opens with the same config, and one After Effects ships is found in its install.

Not built yet

A proxy is not read while fields are separated. A looped item’s sound plays once. The fields and pixel aspect ratio a file declares are shown and not applied until chosen.

Missing files

If a file moves, the asset reports that it is missing. Relink it to the new path and every layer using it recovers.

Proxies

A proxy is a smaller copy of a footage item that keeps preview fast, made or attached from the footage row’s own menu. Exports read the originals unless you ask them not to. See Proxies.

Lumit projects

Picking a .lum in the import dialogue lists its compositions. The one chosen is added to the project, with everything it uses. A .lum dragged onto the window is not imported.

After Effects projects

A whole After Effects project can be imported via File ▸ Import ▸ After Effects project…, with support for compositions, markers, layers, keyframes, and built-in effects. A text layer keeps its font, spacing, outline, alignment, and box width. A light keeps its type, its aim and its light options, and a 3D layer its Orientation, Anchor Z, Scale Z and material options, keyframes included. A 3D layer, camera or light turns its X, Y and Z Rotation in After Effects’ order.

A common third-party effect becomes the maker’s own OFX plugin where one is installed, with its controls carried across by name. Any other third-party effect arrives as a placeholder that keeps its values and draws nothing. Neither stops the rest of the project importing.

Expressions come across as JavaScript and run as written, and a pseudo effect arrives as Custom controls. A property with both keyframes and an expression keeps its keyframes. See Expressions.

Animation presets (.ffx) are imported from Settings ▸ General ▸ After Effects presets. See Effects & presets.

Related

• Compositions
• Layers