Keeping Project files

[Knowname]

I keep my source clips very standard ie I just rip the entire dvd in huffyuv without using filters. That way when I archive them all I need is a project file and instructions on how to rip them again. I don't use filters on the clips (or source files, the actual clipping is done in premiere ofc) cuz different filter versions can result ib different algorithms used thus seriously f*ing me up *_*.

of caurse that is what I SHOULD do, I usually end up making it too complex with filtering and posters and what not that I just don't wanna... So I hadn't even backed up my last few, just a con version and up the ditributable to the org. That's enough backup for something as trivial as this.

[Kristyrat]

packrat?

Heh heh heh.

And yes, I keep all my project files now, even the crappy projects I never finish just get moved to a 'Graveyard' folder. I usually have backups of the project files littered around randomly too, but I'll usually toss the source footage, particularly if I edited with AVS or .vobs

[Kristyrat]

[Castor Troy]

All I keep are my huffy files and mpeg2's.

I use the old fashioned huffy avi method of editing, so there's no way I'm keeping all that crap.

[sunwukong86]

I dont delete anything until Im absolutely sure the video's done. I only have about 20 GBs left on my 100GB harddrive, and its almost a 6 year old PC. What Im getting at is my space is limited and the loseless Lagarinth clips can get pretty big.

[Epical Zamora]

I always keep the lossless. But I'll only keep my project files until I know I won't need them again. Since I rarely reuse sources, I usually delete the source, which makes the project a little tricky to reopen.

In any case, lossless ftw.

[BasharOfTheAges]

I've tried, but with more space on my system i've begun to get a bit lazy - saving entire DVDs as lossless copies instead of clipping. I may have a TB of HDD space, but saving stuff that way seems a bit silly.

My final exports, scripts, con distros (why so many cons have so many differences for MPEG2 requests is beyond me), and final encodes for online distros all get Rared into a folder and backed up.

[Unlimited Rice]

Yeah, I only save my projects if I did the bait-and-switch method b/c I can usually keep the .d2v and .avs files lying around, too.

[Qyot27]

I back up all of my source. Usually the individual clips are in a separate folder, and I convert all of them from the RGB Huffyuv they were in during the editing phase to RGB Lagarith. The .d2v and .avs files I pack up into an archive by themselves which I put in the folder with the video clips. I rar those up usually, and sometimes have to span the archive if it goes over 2 GBs. The VOBs and MJPEG copies get scrapped.

The project file, stills (which may or may not be converted into PNGs for storage unless they were PSD files), audio (which usually is converted to FLAC beforehand), all notes I took down in .txt form - including the file tags for the MKV releases - and any posters, etc. I make get zipped up together.

The names the archives are given typically are based on the song name rather than the video title, so for instance with ...Whatever..., the project archive was suzie-source.zip, and the clips were in suzie-clips.partX.rar or some such.

All the different encodes I make (Lagarith-FLAC lossless master, H.264 'master', H.264 distro, XviD Preview, XviD distro, DVD, SVCD, VCD, Low-res DVD) typically get packed up together as well, or if the Lagarith-FLAC master is too big, then everything else gets packed together and it gets packed separately. The filename for those archives are generally after the video title; so even though ...Whatever...'s source files are in suzie- marked archives, the encodes are in whatever.rar.

Finally, I burn the archives off to a data DVD-R and get them off my hard drive. I keep both of the H.264 copies around though, and may or may not keep the XviD distro around as well.



My earliest videos didn't get this holistic treatment (I did always do a pack with the encodes, though early on it was just DVD, SVCD, and VCD, and later on, maybe a DivX Q1 copy), I want to say I started doing the whole thing around early 2004, since I needed to back up the source for Solace In Destruction for later remastering. The different types of encodes started showing up at different points as I started to need them.

The H.264 'master' copy is encoded at --crf 10 and uses ESA at Range 32, whereas the distro is at --crf 18 and uses Hexagon at Range 16 (and aside from the distro using a 1,1 deblocking setting, the two profiles I use are otherwise identical). Both of those replaced the previous XviD or DivX based Q1 and distro copies, the XviD Preview is a personal copy at full res for me to watch to check things over since my comp is too old to reliably do H.264 decoding all the time, the XviD distro copy is a reduced-resolution version that I only started doing for the last few releases, and the Low-res DVD version originated as the initial compromise for time savings as I switched to authoring DVDs instead of VCDs - it's encoded at 352x240 like for VCD, but uses MPEG-2 at 2000kbps and like my regular DVD encodes, uses 192kbps AC3 audio (whether this would change if I did something in 5.1 channel I don't know, as I encode 5.1 AC3 at 576kbps).

[ngsilver]

It really depends. Ever since F.E.A.R. I have gotten into the habit of saving the premier project files, the lossless encodes (bumper'ed and clean), and the online release files. I put all of these onto my external HD and when I get around to it I burn a DVD of these. I do also keep all of my released videos in a folder with my AMV Archive.

Though lately I have saved the majority of the project. If it is a video I feel I might go back to later (of course I've not actually done that ever) then I'll save all of the photoshop files and extra clips and things I made just for the video. If I used the HQ xvid encode method for my source then I usually keep those files in my source archive folder (and in the end IC source.) But mostly I just save the project file.

I do have quite a few videos I have everything backed up for currently, but those are videos I'm retooling that were something else before. But space problems have been creeping up on me, even with the 1+ TB internal I have now.

[krzT]

And yes, I keep all my project files now, even the crappy projects I never finish just get moved to a 'Graveyard' folder. I usually have backups of the project files littered around randomly too, but I'll usually toss the source footage, particularly if I edited with AVS or .vobs

This is pretty much what I end up doing, especially since I'm a pretty big packrat with everything to begin with. Though I should probably go back and reorganize my multiple cluttered project folders...>_>;