Projects

An After Effects project is a file with compositions and links to all the source files that are used by the video elements in the project. Compositions are sets of layers. The source for many layers is video sequence elements (such as movies or still images), although some layers, such as shape and text layers, contain graphic objects that are created in After Effects.

Project files have a .aep or .aepx extension. A project file with the .aep extension is a binary file. A project file with the .aepx extension is an XML text file.

The name of the current project appears at the top of the application window.

XML project files
Some of the project information in XML files is contained as binary data with hexadecimal encryption, but most of it is human-readable text in string elements. You can open an XML project file in a text editor and edit some project elements without opening the project in After Effects. You can even generate scripts for changing information in XML project files to automate your workflow.

Below are the project elements you can change in the project XML file.

Marker attributes, including comments, chapter point parameters, and markup point parameters

Paths to the source files with the video sequence, including proxies

Composition, video sequence element, layer and folder names and comments

Note.
The names of the video sequence elements are displayed in the string elements of XML project files only if the names have been previously specified. Video scene element names automatically borrowed from source file names and solid color names are not displayed in line items

Some strings, such as workspace and view names, are displayed as readable strings, but their changes have no effect on the project file opened in After Effects.

Note.
Do not use XML project files as the primary format. The primary project file format for After Effects is a binary file (.aep). Use XML project files to save a copy of a project and as an intermediate format for automating workflows.

Note.
To save an XML project file (.aepx) as a binary file (.aep), choose File > Save As and specify a file name ending in .aep without the x. (See Saving and backing up projects in After Effects.)

Project links embedded in QuickTime and Video files for Windows
When rendering and exporting video in container format, you can embed a link to an After Effects project in the container file.

To import a project, import the container file and select Project from the Import As menu in the Import File dialog box. If the container file contains a link to the project that was moved, you can specify the path to the project.

Creating and opening projects
Only one project can be opened at a time. When creating or opening a project file, if another project is already open, After Effects will prompt you to save changes to the open project and then close it. After creating a project, you can import video sequences into the project.

To create a project, choose File > Create > Create Project.

To open a project, choose File > Open Project, locate the project, and click Open.

You can also create and open a project directly from the Start screen.

To create a project, click New Project.
To open a project, click Open Project and navigate to the project folder.
On his redefinery website, Jeff Almasol offers a script that creates and saves a new project for each selected song in the current project.

Project templates and examples
A project template is a file with an .aet extension. You can create templates based on the projects.

When you open a project template, After Effects creates a new unnamed project based on the template. Saving changes to this project does not affect the template.

Project template authors often lock layers that need to be left unchanged and leave layers that need to be changed unlocked. This is a convenient way to avoid accidental or unnecessary changes.

For other examples of After Effects projects and templates, see the After Effects community resources section of the Adobe website.

Opening a project template
To open a project template, choose File > Open Project. On Windows, select the Adobe After Effects project template from the Type Files menu.
Creating a project template
To convert a project into a project template, change the file extension from .aep to .aet.
To save a copy of the project as a project template, choose File > Save Copy, then change the file extension of the copy to .aet.
Creating a template for new projects
You can create a template with your own preferred project settings, such as color management and folder structure, and use it as the basis for all new projects.