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Opening footage in its original application
You can open and edit a footage item in the application in which it was created, directly from an After Effects project. The original application must be installed on the computer you are using, and there must be enough unused RAM for it to run. When you edit and save changes to the footage in the original application, the changes are applied to all instances of the footage as soon as After Effects becomes the active application.
When you edit a still-image sequence selected in the Timeline or Composition windows, After Effects opens the individual image that is currently displayed. When you edit a still-image sequence selected in the Project window, the first image in the sequence opens.
To open a footage item in the original application:
- In the Project window, Composition window, or Timeline window, select the footage or a layer containing the footage. If you selected a still-image sequence from the Composition or Timeline window, move the current-time indicator to the frame displaying the still image you want to edit.
- Choose Edit > Edit Original.
- Edit the footage in its original application, and save the changes.
Note: If you're editing footage that has an alpha channel, make sure that you're viewing and editing all the channels, including the alpha channel, in the other application. Otherwise, changes you make might not be applied to the alpha channel, and it may become misaligned with the color channels.
If your project is open when you make a change to a footage file, After Effects can reload the new version of the file while the project is open.
To reload an edited file:
- In After Effects, select the footage file in the Project window.
- Choose File > Reload Footage.