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tiffanyl14655871
tiffanyl14655871
Inspiring
January 10, 2020
Question

Saving, Organising, Opening and Closing Project Files

  • January 10, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 3039 views

I have 2 questions and if anyone can help I'd be very grateful;

 

1. Is there a way you can change the preference of where Character Animator files get automatically saved?

2. Is there a tutorial on how to organise your files and closing a character animator project properly before you open a new one?

 

I've been using CA on and off for a few years now and have watched hundreds of hours of Dave's tutorials and I'm still so confused about saving project files and why some end up randomly placed elsewhere on my computer and how can I change this, also

When you have a project opened I'm always concerned I'm going to lose my work or 2 projects will get placed in the same file, so I Quit CA and open CA again with a new project, which I know is a bizarre thing to do but I don't know how to do it without a fear of losing my work.  I don't know how to close a project and open a new one without the 2 opening in the same project. I'm confused about having more than 1 project open at the same time in the same window and how this all works.

I've been wanting to ask this question now for a very long time but thought maybe it's just me and I'm too dumb to work it out but more than a year has passed and I'm still confused about this and I'm so frustrated now.  Please help!

 

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    1 reply

    alank99101739
    alank99101739
    Legend
    January 10, 2020

    This is my understanding.

    • If you import a PSD or AI file, it keeps a link to the original file so you can make further changes - this is the main cause of files in a project not being copied into the project directory tree (oh, probably true for audio files etc you import as well)
    • If you select "gather media" from the menus, it makes a copy into a "Gathered Media" directory inside the project directory
    • If you import a puppet, it always makes a copy of everything
    • When you create a new project, you can select where the project is created at that time

     

    In terms of how to organize a project, I wrote up a blog post when I was starting out in case useful talking about what I decided to do at the time. It might give you some ideas https://extra-ordinary.tv/2018/02/08/project-structure-update/

    tiffanyl14655871
    tiffanyl14655871Author
    Inspiring
    January 10, 2020

    Thanks Alan, appreciate this.

    I think the main thing is that CA automatically saves files in my documents > Adobe > CA  and then when you open a project it saves this automically, then you have a list of a million CA saved projects listed numerically and unless you open these files you don't know what they are.

    Yes, I've saved projects and placed them in a folder and I understand it's best to put the .psd/.ai file into that same folder, but the whole thing to me is still confusing.

    When you open a puppet, then another puppet, then another puppet, you can have all these different puppets in the same project even though they may not relate to another, so what I've been doing is physically closing down CA and reopening it, which I find a bit ridiculous but I don't know what else to do.

    I'll have a look at your link, appreciate your help.

     

      alank99101739
      alank99101739
      Legend
      January 10, 2020

      I create a project per video - Eg per episode in the series. When I start on next episode, I export the puppets and import them into new project. I always use the create project option where I get to name the project and specify the directory it goes in, never those default numbered projects (expect for experimenting). But yes, those numbered ones crop up after crashes etc. They are confusing after a while.

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