A strategy for project organization at the desktop level

Some words to the wise to help you avoid some common pitfalls.

How to do it...

Following are the steps for organizing the project at the desktop level:

1. Determine a location for a folder that will hold items relating to your project that will not require being moved.

2. Create a folder and name it something that is clear and concise, for example, either [Project Name] Materials or [Project Name] Assets.

3. Inside that main folder, create additional folders for Avid Project Backups, files you will link to using the Avid Media Access (AMA) feature, Music, Sound Effects, Imports_Stills, Imports_Motion Graphics, Photoshop Masters, Fonts, After Effects Projects, and any others you think you'll need.

How it works...

By keeping everything organized and in a consistent location, you will have a much easier time keeping track of assets and changes to assets. Further, backing up, moving, archiving, or re-importing the assets will be easier.

The trick is to remember to copy assets into this folder before putting them to use in any way within your project. For example, copy music and sound effects from a CD to this folder, then import the audio file that's in the folder (rather than directly off the CD) into a Media Composer, or copy into this folder any fonts that you download before adding them to your operating system.