Where is Video library on Aperture 3

Question

Level 2

299 points

Where is Video library on Aperture 3

I see that Aperture 3 can now work with HD videos, which I think is great...however, with the massive amount of storage required, does it have the ability to automatically separate videos into a different library than photos? I often have photos and videos of the same shoot/session that I would love to keep in a single project, but I also would like to keep the video and photo libraries distinctively different.

Also, does "trim" on a video in Aperture discard the portions that are cropped off or is it non-destructive?

Thanks in advance.

27" 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 iMac / 15" 2.3GHz MacBook Pro / iPhone 3Gs, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Feb 13, 2010 1:42 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Feb 13, 2010 1:57 PM in response to Ken Loh

I noticed that Aperture 3's library folder has a different structure than Aperture 2. All the imported photos are kept in the "Masters" folder inside the library. Inside the Masters folder things are sorted by year, month and then day. The images and movies are kept together.

The Previews and Thumbnails are kept in separate folders.

Things used to be kept inside Project folders in Aperture 2. No more.

I don't think there will be a way to keep images and movies in separate libraries unless you import them separately while using the corresponding library. But then you won't see them at the same time.

I'm pretty sure the original movies are never touched when you trim. I noticed that reference movies exist in the Previews folder. These reference movies must have the trim information in them and they just point to the original movie in the Masters folder.

Reply

Answer 2

Ken Loh Author

Level 2

299 points

Feb 13, 2010 3:59 PM in response to Thomas Emmerich

Thanks for the detailed response. I'm kind of bummed the project folders are no longer. I liked that you could navigate to the master files easily using the finder and "show package contents" before.

I hope the reference movies aren't making duplicates which will bloat hard drive usage. This is my largest complaint about iMovie and what I like much better about FCP and FCE.

Reply

Answer 3

Feb 13, 2010 6:10 PM in response to Ken Loh

I imported a movie from a Canon Digital Rebel T1i. The reference movie in the Previews folder was 12KB and the original in the Masters folder was 109MB. I trimmed it in Aperture and the reference movie didn't change its size but its modified date changed. After trimming, the original in the Masters folder wasn't affected as expected.

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Reply

Answer 4

Ian Wood

Level 5

4,350 points

Feb 13, 2010 7:33 PM in response to Ken Loh

Ken Loh wrote:
I hope the reference movies aren't making duplicates which will bloat hard drive usage. This is my largest complaint about iMovie and what I like much better about FCP and FCE.

It's a reference movie - by definition it's not duplicating the video footage but is a tiny binary file containing a reference back to the original file plus the trim points. I just had a look and they are a few KB each.

The trimming is non-destructive or you wouldn't be able to reset it. 😉

Reply

Answer 5

Feb 13, 2010 8:14 PM in response to Ken Loh

Ken Loh wrote:
I see that Aperture 3 can now work with HD videos, which I think is great...however, with the massive amount of storage required, does it have the ability to automatically separate videos into a different library than photos? I often have photos and videos of the same shoot/session that I would love to keep in a single project, but I also would like to keep the video and photo libraries distinctively different.

hi, ken 🙂

you'll need to buy more hard drive space especially if you shoot video formats, dvc pro hd, red, etc these are huge files.

my workflow is to keep all video on separate hard drives and on import do a "In their current location" not in the aperture library.
for all photographs I do import into the aperture library.
you can still keep the video & photographs in the same project

Also, does "trim" on a video in Aperture discard the portions that are cropped off or is it non-destructive?

non-destructive

victor 🙂

Reply

Answer 6

Ken Loh Author

Level 2

299 points

Feb 14, 2010 9:30 AM in response to victor maldonado

Thanks, Victor. I have a Drobo I use for media already since my photos and video libraries are already huge. I currently don't have anything managing the video library but obviously my photos are in Aperture.

After reading the forums, I have now relocated my masters outside of the Aperture library (in anticipation of upgrading to A3) and my videos remain where they always were. I will import them and leave them "in their current location" as you have suggested so they don't get duplicated.

I'm assuming A3 will now import both photos and videos into the same designated folder if a batch of photos and videos are being done at the same time (which will now be my new relocated masters folder). I guess once I have everything upgraded, I'll probably do another relocate to pull my old video files into the aperture masters folder so I don't have some of my videos in one file system and the others in another.

Anyone come across any issues doing this? Or have a better workflow/organization strategy to suggest? I currently have 140GB of photos and 160GB of videos.

Reply