Best practices: Sorting Images and Pictures

Ayanefan · Post by **Ayanefan** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:14 pm

I'm currently working on an AMV with a lot of still images, the only problem is that I'm trying to sort them properly in my system so I can find them quickly when Importing them into my project. The problem I'm getting is that I have so many that I'm starting to get confused as to where to save the stills and new files. I have folders like PICTURES and withing pictures I have the subgroups like SKULD and under that I have Scene Names (Ex:TV blowing up) etc... . One problem is that the TV is a big part of the AMV and there are about 22 different scenes that I need to use.... so you see my dilemma, how the heck to sort it all.

So my ask is: What are your "best practices" when creating an AMV when it comes to a project with lots of different content? How do [u]you [/u]sort your work?

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:43 pm

Whenever I make an amv, I create one folder for the project as a whole. Everything that I will use in the amv goes into this folder... episodes, images, audio, whatever. If I have a large number of any particular thing, I will group them all into a subfolder. For instance, if I have 13 video files of the episodes im using, those go into one folder.
You don't want to get too crazy with folders though, and end up going like 3 or 4 or more levels deep. Just use the filename in an efficient way to help sort things out. For instance, if I were doing a video where I wanted to contrast scenes from Evangelion showing Asuka being happy vs her being sad, I might have some clips named something like Asuka - sad 01.png, Asuka - sad 02.png, and then have some like Asuka - happy 01.png. This way, the different types of pics get grouped together without having to go into seperate folders.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:56 pm

I don't. I tend to accumulate 40-60+ gigs of various crap in a project directory with names like "{a,b,c,...,z}render{0000,0001,...,1370}.tif".

I figure that since I
(1) tend to not work on more than six aspects of a project at once
(2) never directly reference the content
(3) eventually delete it all anyway

it's not worth sorting.

You might be surprised how quickly you can adapt to such a flat organization if you force yourself to do it, whether out of conscious habit or laziness.

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 3:16 pm

It depends. Raw video footage usually just gets slapped as 1.avi, 2.avi, etc. (the same applies for AviSynth scripts and sometimes images, depending on what they are). If it's context-dependent, it'll usually have a special name to identify it (i.e. text files with lyrics, general production notes, etc.). It all goes into a folder I've set aside for my video projects (in this instance, 'tba'), specifically in a subfolder usually named after part of the song title (like 'angel', or 'deal'). Everything (or almost everything) goes in there. About the only things that don't are the files I generate the titles from.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 4:49 pm

I've got a big "source" directory that has subdirectories of "images", "D2Vs", "scripts", etc. If one of my projects uses a lot of still images, I make a subdirectory for it in the "images" directory.

808-buma · Post by **808-buma** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 5:53 pm

I sort of organize my thinking into the separate aspects of what it is I'm organizing. I have an overall project folder that holds everything; I have each a VIDEO, AUDIO and IMAGE folder in that to hold each individual component, depending on what it is (obviously, video, audio, or a still image).

In the AUDIO Folder, I have a sub-folder for the original source that I keep the original WAV file in (just in case i need it for future reference / editing). Any edits and associated files just get tossed into the base AUDIO folder.

The VIDEO folder has a bunch of stuff in it. First there are subfolders for the SOURCE video (all my M2V files ripped from the DVD's) and in that, I break it down to a per-disc structure so if I have to go find something again, I still have all it there and don't have to re-rip them from my DVD. I also have a CLIPS folder where I put all my index files along with my AVS scripts. In the base VIDEO folder, I put all the processed clips that were generated from my CLIPS folder - which I try to name descriptively (for example --> MOTOKO - leaps out of chopper.AVI). This way I can have it all sorted by the character or scene that I want to use in my AVI's.

In the IMAGE folder, the complexity of subfolders is dependant on how many still images I'm going to use. If it's only 1 or 2, I'll just name them descriptively as my video clips and just import them in as needed. If however I have to do complex video layering or what-not, I'll create sub-folders for each and put all the pre-work stuff in there (like all my PSD files or whatever) so I can go back to it if needed.

yes, it's complex, but it seems to work for me, anyway...

godix · Post by **godix** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:24 pm

It's all about the filenames. It's pretty clear what "Shinji humps Rei.avi", "Rei bitchslaps putzboy.avi", or "Rei looking very bored.avi" is regardless of what directory it's in (well, ok, the rei looking very bored is too vauge since she ALWAYS looks bored but you got the idea I'm sure).

Of course, I've also had filenames like "big big truck ripoff.psd", "I cant think of a descriptive name 25.avi" and the uniquely identified "A01.bmp". Sometimes ya just gotta open up each file till you find the one you need.

Ayanefan · Post by **Ayanefan** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:40 pm

Thanks everyone! (Kudos to GodIX, keeping things real LOL ;-0 ) This is great info. I'm sure that my next project will be a little more thought out. I got the AMV down but never thought of the files and where to put them. Please keep them coming if you have 'em!
Ayanefan