Creating Branches in the Workspace

In the Workspace panel, a branch is named after the operator that is farthest downstream in the branch. For example, if you add a Paint operator to clip, a branch named "Paint" appears. Any operator added to footage in the Footage Library creates a branch.

There are four types of branch that you can create as you open footage into the Footage Library: Composite, Paint, Keyer, and Color Corrector.

The following workspace was created by selecting Paint while opening the Pond Scene footage.

When you create a composite as you open footage, each piece of footage you select becomes a separate layer in the composite.

For the Paint, Text, and Particles operators, you can also create solid footage and add the operator to it in one step. This creates a branch with the selected operator and the Footage operator for the new solid footage.

The following workspace was created by selecting Particles and defining the properties of the solid footage (for example, frame size and duration).

The Composite operator is different from Paint, Text, and Particles because you define the properties of the composite itself, not a piece of solid footage.

In the following example, a 3D NTSC composite with a duration of 150 frames is created. The new composite appears in a Composite branch, and is initially empty (no layers, but it has a light and the camera).

The Footage Library is empty (no triangle next to it) because no footage is in the workspace yet.

Lastly, you can open footage into the Footage Library, or create solid footage for the Footage Library without immediately using it in a branch.