Organizing resources

#1

Hi,
I am being forced to rethink my existing file structure. I have been learning 3d for a while, and the way I had been organizing my resources was barely working for me before, but now that have started compositing things have gotten completely out of hand.

Here are the types of resources I have:

project data – Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Fusion, Boujou
projects – things I have finished
published projects – things that are online
system archive – archived version of the OS and installed applications
scripts – other peoples scripts
scripts – my scripts located in My Documents
footage – this folder is growing quickly
pd images – images I have downloaded from google
photo library – raw images that I took myself
stock photos – in a jumbled up mess
3d tutorials – modeling, dynamics, rigging, texturing, rendering, animation, paint effects
vfx tutorials – Fusion, Boujou, After Effects, general
office docs - excel, word
personal – music, movies

I have two internal sata drives, but one is acting as a backup for the other – the one available drive is partitioned in two equal parts
I have two external usb drives
As things are now, I have everything all scattered around, with a lot of redundancy between drives, and between what is on and offline.

I would like to know if anyone would be willing to share their file management structure or make suggestions for how I should structure mine.

Thanks,
Ron

#2

What does this have to do with Fusion?

#3

Seems like it’s question about resource management that has become unmanageable now that he’s thrown compositing via Fusion into the mix.

#4

Nothing. I should have found a more appropriate forum.

I realized the simple-minded nature of the question shortly after I posted it. Most of the compositors in this group are probably professional compositors with LANs and SANs - even the students are probably in a university setting.
I am making it work. The new requirements have forced me to be smarter about how I use what I have and to make changes I had been putting off.

Thanks,
Ron

#5

Here’s what I have used in the past, and it worked well;


 Projects
	Job A
		Shot 01
			Projects
				2D
					Fusion
						shot_01_v01.comp
					Photoshop
						Shot_01_clean.psd
				3D
					Maya
						shot_01_v01.ma
					SynthEyes
						shot_01_v01.sni
			Renders
				2D
					shot_01_v01_04-30-09
						shot_01_v01.####.exr
					shot_01_v02_05-30-09
						shot_01_v02.####.exr
				3D
					shot_01_v01_04-30-09
						Creature
							diffuse
								c_dif_v01.####.exr
							ambient
								c_amb_v01.####.exr
							reflection
								c_ref_v01.####.exr
						Ship
							diffuse
								s_dif_v01.####.exr
							ambient
								s_amb_v01.####.exr
							reflection
								s_ref_v01.####.exr
			Footage
				scan
					background
						shot_01_bg.####.cin
					foreground
						shot_01_fg.####.cin
			Final
				final.####.exr
		Shot 02
	Job B

Sub directories are your friend in this case. If you have assets that are used in more than one job, just set up a basic “texture” and “footage” directory at the same level as the jobs. Little things like a naming convention that includes dates and versions can make life easier when trying to track things down. Having each project in a folder with all associated media under it helps in backing up.

#6

This makes so much more sense than what I was trying to do.

Thank you,

Ron

#7

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