DV Filmmaking

Importing Images and Adding Them to the Timeline

Before you can work with video footage or still images in either Final Cut Pro or After Effects, you first need to import them into a project. When you import video footage or a still image into either program, your computer doesn’t make another copy of the material. Instead, both programs create links to the material’s location on your hard drive. This saves disk space and enables you to edit without destroying your original footage (see Chapter 9). Once you’ve imported material into your project, you can add it to your project’s Timeline and start cutting a sequence together.

Note

To recreate the Final Cut Pro sequences illustrated in this chapter:

1. Navigate to the Ch11 folder in the Exercises folder on the StartToFinish DVD that came with this book. Drag the folder to your hard drive (don’t try to work with video files directly from a CD—see Chapter 10).

2. Import stopSignEdit.psd, which contains an image of street signs on a transparent background, and background.mov, which contains an animated tangerine-colored background.

3. Follow the step by step instructions in this section and those that follow.

Importing to Final Cut Pro

To import footage to Final Cut Pro, follow these steps:

1. Open Final Cut Pro. By default, Final Cut Pro opens the most recent project created on your computer. You have the option of working with the project that opens when you start the program or working with another project.

   To open an existing project, select File ...