<aside> đź“– Index
</aside>
Photography by Tom Hegen https://www.tomhegen.com/
Eagle is a library - not just for images, but also videos, vectors, 3D objects, assets, HDRIs, documents, inspiration, and all else. It is my everyday driver to store inspiring images, to grab and look for textures and references when I’m working, and even to save some tips and tricks about programs I use, in the form of screen recordings or even c4d files. If you want to dive in right away, here's a link to their site:
Eagle - Organize all your reference images in one place
Eagle will create a library folder in the location of your choosing. Inside this library folder, it will store all the images, videos and files you throw at it. When you open the app, you will see a sidebar to the left where you can create folders, subfolders, smart folders, quick access folders and some categories.
This is my current structure, but you can make your own from scratch.
You can choose which general folders show by default.
Every file can have its own set of tags and category which will help you organize, find, and assign to different smart folders.
This information is stored in .json files next to the actual files. The great thing about this is that you can synchronize your entire Eagle library through say, Dropbox, and have it available in multiple devices seamlessly with all the tags, folders and categories synchronized with it.
When I work on-site, I always bring my library in a USB drive and it makes a world of difference.
Once your files are inside the library, you can browse through the thumbnails, and filter through a variety of ways.
<aside> ⚠️ The files that you put in the Eagle library are copied to it. I hear a lot of mixed opinions about this, but personally I find this to have more pro’s than con’s. I virtually never need access to my textures through the Windows Explorer, and if I do need a texture I can just drag it out of Eagle and onto whichever folder I need it in. I also found this list on their site which highlights some of the great advantages of this system:
Why does Eagle use a library instead of an actual folder to store data?
Furthermore, the app will automatically detect when you’ve added an image twice, and will prompt you with a warning. This is IDEAL if you’re dealing with thousands of textures and don’t want to keep track of which ones you have, or if you’re storing textures that you’re using in multiple projects:
</aside>
On its most simple terms, think of it as a super-powered finder/explorer for your images and media. It is incredibly snappy and you can browse through hundreds and thousands of images without breaking a sweat. Preview, check metadata, copy, duplicate, delete and manage an entire library. Where Eagle shines its brightest is in the filtering and categorising of images:
Eagle will let you filter through colors! Especially useful if you’re looking for a specific mood, palette or gradient.