New in Assemble: Asset Management Upgrades

We went under the hood to revamp our asset management platform to make it infinitely modular and customizable, while also adding an array of new features that will significantly improve your Assemble experience. Check out the video below for an overview of everything new in Assemble.

Customize & Reorder Phases

When you create projects, you can now customize your phases entirely. This includes adding a custom title, description, and color.

You can also drag and drop to re-order the phases; both within the project setup screen, and at any time on your projects sidebar.

For template fanatics, we’ve expanded our recommended phases as well. When setting up your project, you can now choose from many different categories for recommended phases, including film, photography, design, campaigns and more.

Three New Ways to Add Assets

Current users of Assemble will notice a few key updates that make Assemble fully modular and customizable.

Now all Phases (regardless of if you create a custom phase or choose from our phase templates) are an open canvas, and can accept any file type.

Additionally, we’ve expanded our standard file upload, and introduced three new file types that you can choose from to add files to your project:

• Asset

• Gallery

• Submissions

Each of these file types are packed with features that will upgrade your asset management workflow. We’ll cover each file type in-depth next.

Asset Upgrades

By selecting to upload an asset, you are uploading a single, self-contained file to Assemble. This is great when you’re working on a single video edit, a hero photo, or a graphic design that will go through many phases of revisions.

Key features for individual asset upload:

• Version Control: You can now access version control for any type of file, including photos.

• Bulk Upload: Need to add ten individual video files to your project? Just select them all on the upload screen and they will each be uploaded as an individual asset.

Gallery Upgrades

We don’t believe in sharing boring folders, so we developed an entirely unique file type for sharing large collections of assets. Galleries are a unique way to present photos, groups of videos, or any combination of assets that needs to be shared.

Key features for galleries:

• Upload All Asset Types: You can now upload all asset types together into a self-contained gallery, including photos, videos, audio, documents and even external links.

• Grid View: Switch between grid view and individual asset view.

• Add Descriptions: You can add descriptions to each individual asset within the gallery.

• Comments: Comments are now attached to each individual asset, rather than the gallery as a whole.

• Add, Delete & Re-Order: You can now edit your galleries to change the asset titles, add or remove assets, and re-order the assets.

• Share Galleries as External Links: Share the new gallery interface with anyone – no login required.

• Star Assets: You and your teammates can now ‘star’ assets within a gallery. Each gallery also keeps a count of the number of starred assets, as well as the ability to filter by starred photos.

Submissions

Submissions are a unique file type that enables users to manage the submission process for anything on their project. Are you casting for a role in your film? Location scouting for the perfect location option? Looking to hire a Director of Photography for your crew? Use Submissions to manage the submission and selection process for any scenario possible.

To use submissions:

1. Add a Submissions file type to any Phase in your project.

2. Create a Spec and detail what you're looking for with a title and description.

3. Upload submissions to the spec. Each submission option is a unique gallery that can include photos, videos, documents, audio and external links.

4. Share this set of submissions with anyone on your team to review the submission options and approve their favorite.

Key features for submissions:

• Add External Links: Have a link to an external actors portfolio or location option? Just add it as a link.

• Shortlists & Approval: Create shortlists to narrow down your list, then mark your favorite as approved.

• Share as Public Links: You can share any Submissions file type as a public link in a presentation format, so your teammates can review and select their favorite – no login required.

• Gallery Functionality: Add descriptions to each asset within a submission, add / delete / re-order assets, and more.

These features will enable you to build project structures and upload assets in whatever way suits your needs, enabling better collaboration and more streamlined organization of assets.

We’re excited for you to begin implementing these new features today. And keep an eye out for additional asset management features rolling out next month.