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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Faster/Automatic media import into AfterEffects?

  • Faster/Automatic media import into AfterEffects?

    Posted by Arvin Bautista on July 1, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    Is there a faster way to import media into an AfterEffects project? Something like, say, a watch folder where if I put media into a folder called “media” it would automatically import into AE? Or an alternative would be something like C4D where if I drag media from one location into the AE project, it would save it locally into the project’s folder?

    Arvin Bautista
    Greasy Pig Studios
    Los Angeles, CA
    https://www.greasypigstudios.com

    Walter Soyka replied 14 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Michael Szalapski

    July 1, 2011 at 7:45 pm

    You can pop a whole folder of stuff into AE by just dragging it. If you want the stuff to be in a file folder on your computer with the project, just use collect files.

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    (The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

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  • Arvin Bautista

    July 1, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    I meant more like as I’m adding and finding new media, say images from the web, I’d love a quicker solution than “save file to folder, drag file into AE”. If there was a way for AE to automatically see a file in the folder for it to import it (it would be even greater if the project folder matched those of the structure within AE, and it would import to the proper folder.

    Arvin Bautista
    Greasy Pig Studios
    Los Angeles, CA
    https://www.greasypigstudios.com

  • Walter Soyka

    July 2, 2011 at 2:38 am

    Immigration [link], while not a watch folder like you’re looking for, might be helpful in your workflow.

    From the developer:

    If your files are already neatly organized in folders, Immigration will duplicate and maintain the folder hierarchy within the After Effects project.

    You can customize Immigration to only search for certain file extensions, and file age. So for example you can tell Immigration to only display .exr files that are less than an hour old. You can also tell it to include or ignore folder by name so if you would like it to ignore a folder in your hierarchy (an archives folder for example) you can do that easily.

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    Walter Soyka
    Principal & Designer at Keen Live
    Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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