karenf1 wrote:
Any chance you have a few choice words of wisdom on Timeline / vs Footage Panel. They seem so close in nature that I get confused about what they each do and how to navigate them without feeling like Alice in Wonderland!
They aren't similar.
The Timeline panel is the time layout of your composition. This is where you manage your layers in both time and layer order, as well as change values and set keyframes for layer properties (position, scale, etc.) and effects. It's similar to the Layers panel in Photoshop in some ways, very different in other ways. Much of your work in After Effects will be focused in this panel.
The Footage panel allows you to preview footage you have imported into your project. For example, if you have imported 5 movie files into your project and want to see what is in each of them before you add it to a composition, double-clicking on a movie file in the Project panel will open it in the Footage panel. The Footage panel is similar to the Composition and Layer panels in that it displays pixels and allows you to preview (play) the contents. You won't likely be using this panel very much.