I have a drive dedicated to my video projects. It has a root folder cleverly called "E:\Video Projects\". Under that each project gets it's own folder. So you might create "Dave and Tina's Wedding", "Mark and Mary's Wedding" etc. Then under each project folder I have the following folders: "Source", "Music", "Images", "DVD", "Renders". The source folder is all of my source footage from my cameras. Likewise any music that I use or images go in their respective folders. The DVD folder contains all of the DVD assets like the main menu and chapter menus, dvd case templates, etc. and any audio for the menus. Finally the renders folder contains all of my rendered files that are to be used on the DVD. Project files are kept in the root project menu.

What this allows me to easily do is delete everything in the renders folder (because it can be recreated) and then archive the project folder out to external storage knowing that all of my assets are in one place. Since I do this with every project, I added a function in Ultimate S Pro on the Setup tab that will create any saved folder structure for you and also create matching media bins in your project automatically.

~jr

That is my problem, I have never seemed to make it simple. Now I'm trying to delete the files from the last wedding, and they are scattered in different folders all over, and trying to remember all of the names and folders I used. Most were named after the couple. Just trying to figure the most simplest way. AND if I should ever want to go back to an old wedding and just be able to load and burn
into Vegas, or as I use Encore for my choice of authoring programs, the programs would know where to look.

> AND if I should ever want to go back to an old wedding and just be able to load and burn

That is the real issue here. You don't have a prayer of recreating all of those folders all over the place. That's why it's imperative to create a single project folder and keep all of your assets under it. Then the Vegas project will always know where to look and find it's files.

~jr

Right. It does take a few extra seconds and a smidgen of discipline to make sure you create the folder and stuff things in it to begin with. After you do it a few times it becomes automatic.

It will save you hours and days of frustration later on.

Just trying to figure the most simplest way.

Do a Save As, select the Copy Media With Project option, pick the appropriate options and save this to a new folder on your hard drive.
When you're done, double-check everything first and then delete the original folder(s) as all the assets from your project will be in the new folder.

Even when some of the assets are already elsewhere on my hard drive (music, stock graphics,etc.) I make a copy of them for the new project.
BTW, I always follow the same protocol that JohnnyRoy and others have recommended as it makes life MUCH easier :-)

Mike

You can also do a save with media to a new folder. That will copy all of the media and the veg file to a new directory. You can also trim the media to just what you used with a selectable margin on either end so as to reduce the total storage space.

Now I'm trying to delete the files from the last wedding, and they are scattered in different folders all over, and trying to remember all of the names and folders I used.

But if you follow the advice already given, nothing will be scattered. Main directory (folder) "Mary and John;" within this folder a sub-folder for camera tapes, sub-folder for music, sub-folder for jpgs, etc. When you delete "Mary and John," everything in the folder (i.e., all the sub-folders) is deleted too.

Another way to do this, if you don't have much music, many jpgs, etc., is simply to put everything relating to "Mary and John" into a single folder and sort the files by type (using "View" on the Windows Explorer tool bar.) This will group everything by extension, making it easy to locate music, jpg pictures, etc.

In any case, as everyone else has said, you MUST be careful and methodical in saving, so that everything goes into the "Mary and John" folder that's connected with this particular wedding. It's very easy when capturing, for example, not to check the "Disc Management" tab to see where captured material is going to be saved.

It's always a good idea, too, to look carefully at the files in a folder before you delete it; it's awfully easy to delete something you've inadvertently saved in the wrong location.

Jack

I was just about to ask what file structures others use and found this thread on the search.

I guess that I'm pretty close to what jr is using which is:

\project folder (project name)
.....\1-media (contains all stills and movies)
..........\camera name sd1
..........\camera name sd2
..........\[additional media] ([]-name of person providing additional media)
..........\audio (custom audio clips specific to this project)
.....\2-renders (project chapter renders)
.....\3-dvd ( *.dva files)
...........\VIDEO_TS

I also have another partition that contain music and custom stuff that I recycle between projects like credit lists and templates.

Coming over from Vegas Studio, so still learning Vegas Pro 9, just wondering if anyone has any recommendations of best practices that may work better or any gotcha's with this setup?

Thanks!
Byron

I have a Folder with all the veg templates

98170 - Jo & James 29th Aug 2009 (root)
> Video> (more if required for two cam)
> MPEG>
> DVD (main DVD)
> Online (for streaming online stuff)
> OLD (if projected corrected this is the old mpeg files)
> DVD Template Files (Used for DVD-A logos etc)
>Audio>
> Sound Effects
> Zoom Files
> Common Audio files
>Pictures>
> Logos
> Photographs (taken on the day)
>Project Files>
> Old Files (using the back plug-in )
>Customer paperwork>

Thanks for sharing! This is a great template, as my projects get more complex it will help keep it organized!

Byron