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Importing media

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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.

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

Dragging files from your file manager onto the Project panel works as well.

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 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.

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

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

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

Where a project carries a colour configuration you can say what a footage item arrived in, from the Colour space submenu on its row — see Colour management.

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

A proxy is a smaller stand-in for 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.

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. Third-party effects are not imported, but do not stop the rest of the project importing.