Importing sources - After Effects Tutorial

There are several ways to import source material into After Effects. For example, there's always the File > Import command. It's Command+I on Mac, Ctrl+I on Windows. You can use the menu item, or you can just double-click at any blank space in the Project panel and it will also open the Import File dialog for whatever operating system you're running. You can select individual files, change the layout to perhaps see previews of them. If you have multiple still images that are numbered, you even have the option to import them as a sequence--in other words assemble them end to end into a movie. You can also drag files from the Finder or Explorer into After Effects, but that can be difficult because After Effects tends to take up the entire user interface. If you already know what sources you want to import, the File > Import command works fine. However, if you're not sure what you want to import--for example, you have a folder full of still images you want to go through-- you might want…