Project Directory Structure Templates

I do a lot of different video and web projects and I have found that unless I take the time to really set up an organized directory structure it’s easy to get confused and loose files. When working on any multimedia project there are countless source media files from a wide variety of sources that will be combined to produce the final product.

So I have set up a standardized folder hierarchy for my own use that saves me some time in that I just copy the blank folder structure over and rename it every time I start a project. It should also save me some frustration in the future, because now I will know where exactly each type of file should be found and usually I will know exactly where to save files as I work on them. Also, when working in a group it would be wise to make sure that everyone has a copy of the same standard directory structure so that others can look at their files and easily find what they need.

You can take a look at it yourself if you like.

Download Folder Structure Template

The policy I use is that original source files go inside the ’source’ folder and the edited version that I actually take into the final video or web-page are stored in the root of the ‘images’ folder (for example). I like to have separate folders for each type of media file that I used, images, video, sound effects, and music.

If it’s a video project I have folders to hold the original captured footage, the trimmed video clips, and the rendered post-AfterEffects video clips. There are of course folders for images, frame stills, audio effects, background music tracks, and project related documents.

The documents folder holds pretty much anything that does not go directly into the final project, or anything that isn’t media. Its purpose is to hold organizational files. Word documents, spreadsheets, any sort of document that was used to communicate ideas guiding the progress of the project. Outlines, scripts, copy from the editor, use case diagrams, site-maps, style guides, anything of that sort.

In the web project folder I have a folder for each of the five phases of web-site development.

  1. Planning
  2. Design
  3. Production
  4. Testing
  5. Sign-Off

These come straight from the default phases that are used in PhpCollab, a great open source project management system for teams.

There are a lot of other folders in there that I use some of the time, they are not all necessary, and there may be some gaps where you need many additional directories. I encourage you to create your own folder structure template for projects. If you are like me you will really get a kick out of this sort of standardization. I’m sure that I will change the folder hierarchy as I use it more, but that’s the great thing about it being just folders, its dirt simple to modify.