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Importing Elements into the Project Panel

Accessing the Project Panel

The Project Panel is the main panel for managing project resources. This panel is used to import and organize project elements.

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Importing Files

  • Click on Import Files to open Autograph's file explorer. || You can also double click in the blank area of the Project Panel or press Ctrl/Cmd + I

  • In the file explorer, you'll see navigation tools and an interface for selecting files. To know more about the File Explorer, you can refer to this section. Navigate to the Autograph_Intro_Assets folder, which you downloaded and unpacked at the beginning of the tutorial.

  • To select and import files, hold down the Ctrl / Cmd key to select multiple items. Select Basketball_Court.png and Ball.png, then click on Open. The items you selected will now appear in the Project Panel.

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Creating Bookmarks for Quick Access

You can create bookmarks for frequently used folders:

  • In the file browser, navigate to the folder you want to bookmark, such as the Autograph_Intro_Assets folder

  • Press the "+" button in the Bookmark section to create a new bookmark. You can also rename it by pressing Enter or F2

  • Use the bookmark anytime to quickly access this folder

IMAGE DU BOOKMARK

Additional Navigation Tools

Autograph's file browser includes several navigation aids:

  • Use the up arrow icon to move up one folder level

  • The forward and backward arrow icons let you move through your navigation history, and the history button lists all folders that have been accessed since opening the browser

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Drag-and-drop Importing

You can also import files through your computer's file browser:

  • Select the Lights.png and Net.mov files and drag them directly into the Project Panel. The elements will immediately appear in the panel.

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Viewing and Managing Elements in the Project Panel

Autograph provides two modes for viewing imported elements: Tree mode and Grid mode.

Tree Mode

Tree mode displays detailed information about each element. For example:

  • You can see that Net.mov is a QuickTime file encoded with the ProRes codec, and it uses 12 bits per color channel

  • For animations, duration and initial timecode are also visible

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Grid Mode

Switch to Grid mode by clicking on the current view mode button in the Project panel toolbar:

  • Grid mode displays the thumbnails of each element

  • An arrow on the right provides options to adjust thumbnail size and sort elements by various criteria, such as name or type

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When you hover over an animated file like Net.mov, a vertical black bar appears that moves across the thumbnail left and right as you move your mouse, allowing you to preview frames of the animation. For static images, this preview effect doesn't apply.

Notes

To know more about the Project Panel, please refer to this section.


Summary

We've covered the basics of:

  • Using Autograph's layer stack for compositing

  • Importing graphic elements into the Project Panel

  • Navigating the file browser, including creating bookmarks and switching between Tree and Grid views