Importing Media

Supported Video Formats

Autodesk Composite only supports MOV format in the 32-bit version of the software. MOV is not supported in the 64-bit version of Composite. Instead use image sequences.

Physical Location of Media

The media you work with can reside anywhere on the network. When you import media, you are not physically copying that media to another location, but rather you are creating a composition for that media in Composite; the actual physical location of the media is stored as information in the composition. Composite recognizes both drive letters and Universal Naming Convention (UNC) paths. Composite also supports Wiretap—see Accessing IFFFS Libraries on the Ntework Using Wiretap.

Importing Media

While you are working, you can import media at any time using the File Browser or the floating File Browser. You can browse the network and import media on a shared folder using the UNC path or the Python script. You can also drag and drop the media directly from the floating File Browser into a Schematic view or the Player. To share your imported compositions, you should use the Import button on the File Browser to create a Composite compositions folder or another folder that you use to store your media.

To import media with the floating File Browser:

1. Select File > Import or press Ctrl + I (Windows and Linux) or Cmd + I (Mac OS) to display the File Browser.
   
2. Navigate to the folder that contains the media you want to import.
   
3. Select the media files you want to import. You can either import, drag and drop, or use the UNC path to import the media.
   NoteYou can import multiple media files in the same folder, in a single operation. However, when you do this, you cannot set the import options for each file individually. To select multiple files, click the first file to import, then Ctrl + click each additional file to add it to the selection. Shift + click a file to select it and all files between it and the last file selected.

To import media with the File Browser view:

1. Middle-click or press the tilde key (~) to display the Gate UI. Swipe east and select the Views tab. Drag a File Browser to a view.
2. In the File Browser view, navigate to the folder that contains the media you want to import.
3. If necessary, view individual media files by selecting them and reviewing the Information tab that appears in the Tool UI.
   NoteYou can import an image sequence by entering the UNC path in the Path field.
   

   You can also play the media in the mini-Player at the bottom-left of the Tool UI, or click the Full Screen button in the mini-Player to play it in the full screen Player (press F to exit the full screen Player).

   

   (a) Full Screen button  

4. Select the media files to import. You can select the Options tab in the Tool UI and set a color conversion to be performed during import. The options available depend on the image format of the media file you selected—see Log to Lin Workflows, Image and File I/O and Channel Assignments.
   Note Values are not clamped when you import media in log format, so no image data is lost. All tools can work with all of the data contained in log format images.
   NoteYou can import multiple media files in the same folder, in a single operation. However, when you do this, you cannot set the import options for each file individually. To select multiple files, click the first file to import, then Ctrl + click each additional file to add it to the selection. Shift + click a file to select it and all files between it and the last file selected.

   The following displays the color conversion options for Cineon and DPX image formats.

   

   (a) Select Raw to disable conversion.  

   The following displays the color conversion options for image formats other than Cineon or DPX.

   

   (a) Select Gamma to adjust the Gamma options.  

5. Select Rec. 709 to convert to the Rec. 709 video capture board standard or sRGB to convert to the sRGB standard. Select None to disable the conversion.
6. The destination folder is either the default Footage folder, or the one specified in the Import tab of the Project Preferences window—see Setting Project Preferences.

   Drag the file directly into the Footage folder or click Import. You can create other folders to store the compositions that you create when you import. Dragging the file or using the Import button imports the media quickly and is useful when you do not need to immediately work with the media on the machine on which you are performing the import.

Things to Remember

• You can define the folder into which the media is imported by specifying it in the Project Preferences window. If necessary, you can also modify the Python script or command line used to cache media when you perform an Import/Cache.