In my opinion, there are few things as nice as opening up someone else's project and knowing EXACTLY where everything is and should be. Pair this with the After Effects Folder Structure Guide and you’ll be ready for any post production project with happy clients, happy archives, and happy coworkers! (it’s a lofty promise but you get it)
I use a tool called Post Haste by Digital Rebellion to automatically generate my folder structure for each project I work on. That way everything is the same every time and I don’t have to spend any time in the setup or duplicating a folder that I have saved
#### - Project number. Going incrementally from 0000 to 9999 so the archive is automatically in order of when you booked your project
Client_Project Name_YYMMDD - This way when you have multiple jobs for the same client it’s easy to pick out client first and then job. Also The date starting with year helps you organize by years following the job number in your archive.
__POSTINGS - put the actual sent files in here based on date. Posthaste can automatically generate dates of creation for you
01-ASSETS - If it goes in a project, it goes in this folder. The only additional folder I add is FOOTAGE if needed but I don’t often work with footage. This is also where you can generate an AEUX folder if you are using figma for your design files.
02- PROJECT FILES - Everything you work on in here. Separated by program except for 3D because each program may generate a different folder structure. For example in Maya and Houdini create your project in that folder so your autosaves, caches, etc. all end up there.
Version files in here too so you keep all your versions in one place. Imported projects too go into these folders. Keep it tight and keep it clean.
We all have our own unique needs for post production so as time goes on add your own unique folders to the template and spend less time making everything from scratch.