After Effects File/Folder structure clean up help!
  • David GorrieDavid Gorrie
    We have a client that loves to give us pre-made AE templates for their brand, which is great...but, what we wind up getting AE project collections from 4-5 different pre-collected projects and then we start to get folders in folders in folders in folders in folders in folders in folders in folders in folders in folders in folders in folders  :)

    We hit character limits on storage, windows, and our backups regularly and trying to see if there is a way to clean up the actual file/folder struction with a script?  I know that's probably not advised in AE but didn't know if anyone ever runs into this!


  • Lloyd AlvarezLloyd Alvarez
    Check out Declutter https://aescripts.com/declutter


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  • David GorrieDavid Gorrie
    Lloyd Alvarez said:
    Check out Declutter https://aescripts.com/declutter


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    Thanks - I looked at that one, and while it does an awesome job inside of AE - I need the file/folder structure in the actual files cleaned up - does that make sense?  In the AE project is usually fine, but the problem lies in the files sent to me and the folder structures.
  • JD DeanJD Dean
    Dunno if you're a Windows or macOS user, but for cleaning up cluttered folder hierarchies I often use Hazel on macOS
    It's a very powerful folder automation program that runs in the background (I'm not sure if a temporary, ad hoc alternative exists).

    The kind of rule I create in this situation:
    "move [any] file from subfolder to the top-level and sort into a new folder named [file extension]"

    In this example, it would end up creating a bunch of folders called "JPG", "AEP", "PNG" etc at the top level, allowing me to sort the files as I like way more easily.

    The manual workaround for this I would do is just searching by extension, and moving them by hand into individual asset folders.
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