# Red Giant PluralEyes 3.5

## Using a PluralEyes Project

This page discusses how to create and manage your PluralEyes projects and media locations.

### Create a new project

To start a new project in which you will import media files, click File> New Project. The project will open in a new tab. To start a new project using a file exported from an NLE, see Importing Projects from NLEs.

You can have multiple projects open at a time in PluralEyes. Each project will show in a different tab.

### “Standard” projects vs “complex” projects

A "standard” project uses the basic, simplest function of PluralEyes: Syncing a camera or two with a single audio track. Let's say you have two cameras and one audio device. You put the media files from each camera into separate Camera Bins, and the audio track into a separate Audio Recorder Bin. This is the simplest way to work with PluralEyes.

A “non-standard” or “complex” project would be any other project in PluralEyes. Perhaps you’re creating a multi-clip situation, OR syncing multiple audio clips to a single video clip. Maybe you have a music video project with multiple takes, or are using external audio from a pre-recorded CD.

As soon as you have overlapping media from multiple devices, you get into a more complex PluralEyes project. That's because PluralEyes needs help deciding which of the media to export. Once you get into multiple audio tracks and/or multiple video tracks, your project may need more planning to determine what workflow will be best for syncing your footage.

For instance, it's important to take into account the settings on each device before shooting, since that will have an effect on the sync. If you're shooting with one camera at 29.97 fps and another camera at 60 fps, you're gonna have a difficult time syncing.

This is especially true if you want to use the Export Media Files option, and you have overlapping audio tracks in the Timeline. Using multiple audio tracks — like two audio mic tracks of the same actor — makes things more complicated.

This page discusses the organization of various projects, from single camera situations to using multiple devices.

### What a project looks at

Each PluralEyes 3.5 project references a set of media files that you import into it. The automatic synchronization process will look at all the media files in a project, and attempt to synchronize them all together.

PluralEyes does not move or change your original media files. Instead, it creates temporary files next to your media files. You will need to import media files from a location for which you have read/write privileges, not a CD or DVD.

For example, you can store media files on your local hard drive, an external drive, or a RAID system. Temporary files can be quite large, roughly 10% of the size of your audio files and 1% of the size of your video files. Therefore, you should have plenty of free space on the disk containing your media files.

### Save your PluralEyes project

To save a PluralEyes project, click File> Save Project. Saving projects in PluralEyes 3.5 is not strictly necessary, but doing so has some advantages.

- It lets you give the project a meaningful name, which will become part of the name used for the files and folders that you export from PluralEyes.
- It gives you a small project file containing references to your media files and information about settings and any synchronization that has been done. This lets you share your work with another user, or come back to your work after shutting down your computer.

The project file is saved with the extension “.pep.” (OS X) or “.pe3.” (Windows). This file format references your media files, and includes information about project settings and synchronization attempts. Project files are small, typically less than 100 KB.

### Store and share your projects

Storing. PluralEyes 3.5 is a non-destructive editor, similar to editing applications like Premiere Pro. The PluralEyes timeline points to the media clips. The project file and the PluralEyes “synctemp” folder can be saved anywhere, as long as they can access the original media clips. After exporting from PluralEyes, you can safely move the project files to a different location.

Sharing. If you send a PluralEyes file to someone who uses a different computer, that person can use it as long as the project can see the source media files. The user must also have read/write permission for the location of the media files, so PluralEyes can generate temporary files to that location.