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How to Change the Clip in After Effects

Published in After Effects Footage Replacement 2 mins read

Changing a clip in After Effects, often referred to as replacing footage, allows you to swap the source file for an item already imported into your project without losing the edits or animations you've applied to instances of that item in your compositions.

Replacing Footage in Your Project

The most common way to "change a clip" is by replacing its source footage within the After Effects Project panel. This method is efficient because any instance of the original clip used in your compositions will automatically update to show the new footage.

Here's how you do it:

  1. Locate the Clip: Open the Project Assets panel in After Effects. Find and select the clip (footage item) you want to replace.
  2. Initiate Replace: You have two main ways to start the replacement process:
    • Go to the menu bar and select File > Replace Footage.
    • Alternatively, right-click (or Ctrl-click on macOS) directly on the selected clip in the Project panel. From the context menu that appears, select Replace Footage.
  3. Select New Footage: A Replace Footage dialog box will open. Navigate to the location on your computer where the new source file is stored. Select the new file.
  4. Confirm Replacement: Click Open (or a similar button depending on your operating system).

Once you click Open, the new footage will immediately replace the old footage for that item in your Project panel. All compositions referencing the original clip will now display the new footage.

When Would You Replace Footage?

Replacing footage is useful in several scenarios:

  • Updating Assets: You receive an updated version of a video, image, or audio file already in your project.
  • Placeholder Replacement: You used placeholder files during editing and now want to swap them with the final assets.
  • Correcting Errors: The original file had a mistake, and you need to use a corrected version.

Using the Replace Footage command is much faster than importing the new clip and manually replacing every instance in your compositions.