The media panel is where you import and manage all of the media assets used in your project. You can import video, images, audio, 3D models, and arrange and organize all of those assets for use during editing. In addition, re-usable assets created in HitFilm, such as planes and composite shots, are stored and organized in the Media panel, so they can be accessed at any time.
When you first start a project your Media panel will be empty. As you bring files into the project or create assets in HitFilm they will be added to the list of items in the Media panel.
Importing Media Assets
Imported media assets can include:
- Video, image and audio files: If you’re editing a film you’ll probably have lots of these. Working with these files inside HitFilm never makes direct alterations to the source files on your hard drive.
- Templates and Composite Shots: Composite shot timelines can be exported from HitFilm as standalone .hfcs files, or as templates containing preconfigured animation.
- 3D models and animation: 3D Models are imported from disk like a video, but the geometry is then stored inside the project file. Associated texture maps or images are not stored in the project file. If you transfer or archive a project, make sure you include any required textures.
- Alembic animation files exist separately from any 3D geometry, and are not stored inside the project. They are treated like other media files.
- FBX and GLTF files can include animation in the same file as the geometry. However, only the geometry is stored in the project file. The animation resources must be loaded from the source file each to the project is opened.
Generated Assets
In addition to importing media, there are several types of assets which can be generated by HitFilm. These include:
- Planes: Planes are colored rectangles which can be created inside HitFilm. These are very useful and can be heavily customized with the addition of effects and mask shapes. Planes do not exist as files outside of HitFilm.
- Composite Shots: Composite Shots are layer-based timelines designed specifically for creating visual effects, titles and animations. Composite shots do not exist as files outside of HitFilm by default, but there is an option for exporting composite shots, so they can be shared between projects.
- Voiceover Recordings: The Voiceover recording option in HitFilm creates standard audio files, which are generated from within Hitfilm, but which are saved to your harddrive as separate .wav files. See Creating Voiceover Recordings for full details.
All items in the Media panel can be dragged onto any timeline in the project. Items can be used multiple times in the same project and even on the same timeline.
When you add an item from the Media panel to a timeline it creates a new clip or layer (depending on the type of timeline). You can then heavily customize that specific instance of the clip or layer, without affecting the main item in the Media panel.
For more information on the Media panel see: