Media Management

[munickster]

For years, I struggled with keeping track of assets in my projects, mainly because my project files were in the My Documents folder, my photos were in another folder, music in another, sound effects in another, and output files were wherever the application defaulted to. Last March, Videomaker had an article on media management (http://www.videomaker.com/article/14242/) so I decided to try it out. That short article has gone on to make a huge difference in my workflow, and I thought there may be a few people as unorganized as I was that it might help. Everything is always in the same place now (except for my photography which I left alone, using shortcuts instead). I added quite a few additional folders for things like snapshot/bitmaps and AE files, and have a master project folder that contains them all. Now when I start a project, I just copy the entire folder, rename, and get to work.

If you're always trying to find the assets in your projects, try this out!

Dick

[Chuck Engels]

I love Adobe Bridge and wouldn't be able to do everything I do without it

[Steve Grisetti]

Nice article, Dick! Thanks for recommending it.

[Bob]

I do something very similar to what's in the article. In addition, I have a dedicated drive for projects. At the root of the drive I have high level folders for a library, testing, projects, and archive. The library folder contains common reusable resourses such as backgrounds (static and motion), menu elements, templates, gradient wipes, audio clips and sound effects (but not my music library which is on a separate drive), standard leaders or trailers, and sample project files for more complex techniques such as the page turn effect for example. The testing folder is where I keep project files for things I'm just playing with that aren't associated with a given project. For example, I'll often try out new techniques in the testing folder and if it's a keeper, move the project file to the library. The projects folder is where the current projects I'm working on are located. Once a project is done, I'll move it to the archive folder and delete the project from the projects folder.

I also create logical folders within the media bin of each project file to organize things within the application.

[SteveG]

Chuck,

I see that Adobe Bridge Home is being discontinued. Were you aware of that? I never heard of this product before and, just like everyone else, I'm always on the lookout for new stuff. When I looked into this I saw it was being discontinued.

[Bob]

I see that Adobe Bridge Home is being discontinued. Were you aware of that? I never heard of this product before and, just like everyone else, I'm always on the lookout for new stuff. When I looked into this I saw it was being discontinued.

Bridge Home was discontinued at the end of January. For those not familiar with Bridge, Bridge and "Bridge Home" are not the same thing. Bridge Home was an online service accessed through Bridge which offered tips and resources for Adobe Creative Suite software. I personally never found much use for it and removed it a long time ago.

[Chuck Engels]

I personally never found much use for it and removed it a long time ago.

I never used it either.

[munickster]

* The library folder contains common reusable resourses such as backgrounds (static and motion), menu elements, templates, gradient wipes, audio clips and sound effects (but not my music library which is on a separate drive), standard leaders or trailers, and sample project files for more complex techniques such as the page turn effect for example.
* The testing folder is where I keep project files for things I'm just playing ...
* Once a project is done, I'll move it to the archive folder and delete the project from the projects folder.

I now have three new additions to my master folder. Thanks for the tips, Bob!

Dick