Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this lesson, you will learn how to set up a Project Folder to keep your After Effects projects organized. Organization of your project and source files is essential for workflow and free from error messages.
Exercise Files:
https://dub.sh/aeugfiles
1. **Create new master project folder on computer**
1. On a Mac, right-click and choose "New Folder"
2. Name the folder (date_Project Description)
3. Double-click to open folder
4. Add sub-folders inside project folder
1. Project Files (.aep files)
2. Footage (Source Files - Assets)
3. Renders
2. **Organization Tips**
1. Add numbers before folder name to change order
1. 01_Project Files
2. 02_Footage
3. 03_Renders
3. **Create a Project Folder Template**
1. Right-click, duplicate the folder, rename to indicate it’s a template
2. Duplicate the template folder for new projects
4. **Missing Footage Errors**
1. Keep footage/source files with Project Folder to avoid missing footage errors
2. Fix missing footage errors in After Effects Project Panel
1. Right-click on missing footage and ‘Replace’ or ‘Reload’ after locating footage on hard drive (After Effects will reload all files if in the same folder)
In this lesson, you will learn how to set up a Project Folder to keep your After Effects projects organized. Organization of your project and source files is essential for workflow and free from error messages.
Exercise Files:
https://dub.sh/aeugfiles
1. **Create new master project folder on computer**
1. On a Mac, right-click and choose "New Folder"
2. Name the folder (date_Project Description)
3. Double-click to open folder
4. Add sub-folders inside project folder
1. Project Files (.aep files)
2. Footage (Source Files - Assets)
3. Renders
2. **Organization Tips**
1. Add numbers before folder name to change order
1. 01_Project Files
2. 02_Footage
3. 03_Renders
3. **Create a Project Folder Template**
1. Right-click, duplicate the folder, rename to indicate it’s a template
2. Duplicate the template folder for new projects
4. **Missing Footage Errors**
1. Keep footage/source files with Project Folder to avoid missing footage errors
2. Fix missing footage errors in After Effects Project Panel
1. Right-click on missing footage and ‘Replace’ or ‘Reload’ after locating footage on hard drive (After Effects will reload all files if in the same folder)
