project folder

RAW Materials

These materials refer to media that we have captured or obtained, and are cataloged according to the source media type.  These typically materials that are included raw-structure

  • With our current structure, most RAW materials get stored on the M: drive.
  • The most common folders are DigiCam, Scanned, and MiniDV.
  • The M drive is automatically backed up once a day.
  • All MiniDV tapes we upload get stored under M:/RAW/MiniDV/
  • The N: drive does not get backed up, and is intended for materials we have copies of in other locations (such as our MiniDV footage)
  • "RAW" folders can be stored on any drive, just make sure to maintain the same structure, always.

The proper structure is as follows:

For cataloged material types such as MiniDV:

*Root folder on drive* /RAW/ *Source Media Type* / * MEDIA FILES *

For other non-cataloged material types:

*Root folder on drive* /RAW/ *Source Media Type* / *YY-MM-DD Description Label* / * MEDIA FILES *

In rare cases, you may want to use a RAW folder within a project structure.  This this case, you can simply create the same structure within the project folder.

Also, there is one last exception to the structure rule.  In the scenario where you simply will only have many of one group of item, such as only DigiCam photos, you can recreate the structure with hyphens instead of creating sub-directories.  For example, to combine the last two exceptions, you can do the following: K:/My Project/RAW - DigiCam - Paul's Camera/09-02-16 Work/.

Project Folder Structure

It is important that projects follow a specific structure so that anyone who has to refer to the project can find all the components. The framework is maintained by keeping files allocated to their appropriate sub-folder under the main project folder. Flat inside the main folder should rest the most current versions of the project VEG files. The following is a list of the names for the only sub-folders that should be used, followed by their descriptions:

Admin This folder will contain planning and admin documents for the project. Upon backup, this folder will be moved to E:/TMM/Projects/*Year*/(*Project Number*) *Project Name*/*.

Files Any files that are used within the project that are not RAW materials should be stored inside this folder. Files should be sorted into sub-folders named after their file type inside this folder. For example, all JPG photos should be stored inside /*Project*/Files/JPG/Photo.jpg. If the project has a vast number of a certain file type, they can be organized into sub-folders beneath the file type folder.

Labels This folder will contain the final disc surface and DVD case cover graphic art, as well as a sub-folder titled source, containing all the files used to create them.

Menus This folder contains all the media for creating DVD and Blu-ray Menus. The key file should be a .DAR (or multiple for more than one disc) flat inside the folder, which is the DVD menu design file. Other files, such as background images and audio, should be contained inside a sub-folder called source.

Music All musical compositions should be contained in this folder, under sub-folders titled according to the name of the composition. This includes such things as Cinescore or Acid projects. These sub-projects should adhere to these same project folder rules.

Old VEGs As an edit progresses on a project, we create new versions of the .VEG files to save progress along the way.  These backup .VEG files don't need to sit flat in the project folder anymore, and should be moved into this folder when there are more than three or so.

Prepared When a project is exported for DVD, it is compiled into folder on the hard drive before it is burned. This compilation is stored inside the prepared folder, underneath the date it was prepared, followed by a space and then a quick description of which disc is being prepared if applicable. For example, /*Project*/Prepared/09-01-24 Act 1/. Underneath that date folder, DVD Architect creates two sub folders, AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS with the DVD contents.

Pulldowns This folder is specific for Super 8 and Regular 8 film transfers, and contains mpg files that are basically extracted from the original frame-by-frame capture and stretched with a special program a specific rate to make them playback at normal speed.

RAW Even a project folder can contain RAW media in special cases. This is media that can exist here for a number of reasons.

Renders All the renders from the project go here. Video, audio, and even still frames. If there are numerous renders of a certain type and it is getting unorganized, they can be categorized into sub-folders.

Visual FX All special graphical visual effects should be contained in this folder, under sub-folders titled according to the name of the effect. This includes such things as special titling, vegas projects to include as child projects in the master Vegas file, or even 3D Godzilla renderings. These sub-projects should adhere to these same project folder rules.