NOTE: Filenames should take on the following hierarchy to describe what they are for. EG. MOVIE_MV058_CS128_PLT_
Naming Conventions for Post-Production The following is a guideline for naming folders and files within a Post-Production environment. It is a methodology based on industry standards currently used by major post-production studios, with minor additions or changes. This methodology allows new artists to be added to a project quickly, understand where the assets are for a project, and where to place their own work files. General Usage Terminology: Show -
A single name (UPPERCASE) that describes the entire project. It should be kept short/brief, and have a matching 2 letter abbreviation. Eg. MOVIE (MV). Sequence – The designation (UPPERCASE) of a shot sequence. The sequence contains one or more shots(camera takes), for example, a chase sequence in a film made up of 30 camera takes (Shots). Usually this is labeled with a twoletter Show abbreviation followed by a number. Eg. MV058 Shot The designation: 2 Upper Case LETTERS(optional) + NUMBERS(####) representing a single “camera take”. This is the continuous in-camera shot before a cut. Example: CS128 NOTE: Filenames should take on the following hierarchy to describe what they are for. EG. MOVIE_MV058_CS128_PLT_.cin Methodology: An organized “container” strategy of naming and storing files for Post-Production is key to avoiding confusion and getting the job done on time. This method is like most organizational structures, from General to Specific. It begins with a Master Hierarchy, which all Shows share in common. This is the initial starting point, where anyone involved with a project can easily determine where to look to complete their tasks. It is very important to NOT change case/style/names on the Master Hierarchy list. Solid footing is established on common ground. Below is an example of the Master Hierarchy:
The Master Hierarchy Every Show will use the same Master Hierachy. Notice from the top down, the folders are arranged in level of importance. Dailies Key Production personnel such as the Director, Executive Producer, or Production Manager will solely be interested in their Show and the progress being made. All progress being made on a Show’s parts are put in the Dailies folder. The subfolders in Dailies are named by the Date to allow for sorting ease and to narrow down on past and present progress. This folder is commonly put outside of the Show folder when there is more than one show in production. In that case, the first subfolder you would find inside of Dailies would be the Show name, and inside of that, dated folder names. It is very important to use a title screen on the first frame all Dailies footage that lists the name of the shot, notes about changes made, and the artist whom submitted the shot, etc.. In addition, the dailies files should also follow all of the described naming conventions in this document. Dev This is the Development folder. It is where raw assets other than footage are placed. These should be in subfolders that are categorized by their type. For instance, Dynamics, Textures, Characters, Animation, Mocap, Hard_surface, etc. Artists are encouraged to pick and choose from here to build their scene files. However, only scene files determined to be tests and not shot-specific should be placed in their respective folder here. The artist should immediately create a new work-folder structure in the respective shot folder for anything that will be reviewed in Dailies. For the artist, it is advantageous to “get out of dev” as quickly as possible, meaning that you get the raw assets from dev and move quickly to your assigned shot and project folders. This is to avoid filling dev up with rendered files and other misc data as it is likely that many artists will be using dev to begin their work as well. Moving your work outside of dev will help avoid contaminating the raw files, many of which are sent from other companies, and cannot be retrieved again easily. Raw footage, or “plates” should not be stored here….as they are the most important assets in the pipeline, they get their own folder – Source FINALS This is where final output is placed. Each Shot is represented with a folder with Proxy and Comp folders within. The proxy folder contains a lower res movie file to be easily viewed online or elsewhere. The FINAL frame sequence or movie file will NEVER have a rev number, and the word FINAL will be added in place of whatever rev was used. The Comp folder is where a copy of the Compositing app workfile is placed. This allows others to quickly re-render a FINAL later.. for promo purposes, etc.
Reference This folder is for storing reference material in the form of pictures, movies, sounds, or other documents that artists can draw inspiration from or otherwise use as a basis for creating their own work. Good folder category naming is key here, and it is a good idea to name folders by general type and use many subfolders. Source This is an extremely important folder, as the raw source footage is stored here. The folder should have restricted user access preventing artists from writing to this folder. Only Production personnel should be allowed to overwrite or save files here. Artists should have Read-Only privileges, and they can make copies of the source files for their projects. The folders here are structured like the VFX folder – For Example, SequenceName\ShotName\SQ_SQ027_PLT _Rev#.ext. The Source folder is also where Storyboards or synopsis notes are located. Standards Standards is where Production Assets are maintained. The files in Standards usually do not have many revisions to them. They are the product of numerous tests done in \Dev\... and should reflect the “Gold Master Copies” of the Assets used in Production. VFX work is not done here, but the assets witin Standards are used to start a new scene. Standards is also a place where production documentation for the show is located. For example, pipeline docs, workflow tutorials, naming conventions, crew lists, etc. VFX Lastly, we have the all important VFX folder. This is where every shot is worked with until FINAL. Inside VFX, you will find Sequence Folders (if applicable) and directly beneath them Shot folders, named accordingly. All artists involved with the Show use special App_ArtistName folders within the Shot folders. All filenames that exist beneath the Shot Folder structure inherit their Folders naming. The VFX folder follows a pattern – Seq/Shot, Tdcomp/Publish, Artist/Project/Output. Artists can freely mention that a certain element is in their “output directory” for the shot. A CG Supervisor can look at progress inside the hierarchy, knowing that the artist means to navigate the Sequence/Shot to the Application_ArtistsName folder, and into the Output directory / folder. ALL Files will have the proper Prefix to distinguish what sequence/shot they are for. This makes it very easy to find and use any element for any shot later.
VFX-Contd. Example:
A Typical Character/FX Production Workflow After a few trial and error production runs, we have found some methods work better than others, and as a result, we have added a section in VFX folder hierarchy to avoid confusion of work files between TD's for lighting and FX, and TD's solely for animation. EG:
Workflow Contd: In the above example hierarchy, each Shotname folder will ALWAYS have the two master folders - ANIM and Tdcomp... Publish was removed. It is good practice to keep animators worrying about animating, and TD's worried about assembling the elements, lighting, and finishing the shots. To keep them apart as far as their work files proved beneficial, as animators could rev animation fixes without having the TD scenes getting altered, and when they had finished animation for the TD, they could just export and pass along point caches to the TD's to rev into their scenes. TD scenes stay untouched by others, and vice versa. Also, the elimination of Rigging overhead inside The TD scene files helps performance. A FX TD can think of ANIM folder as the source of their point caches ONLY.. not the meshes, or textures , or anything else. The TD gets all their Textures and Geometry to start a scene from inside Standards. Standards is the “toy box” from where you get all your “toys”. A Day in the Life: RAW assets are uploaded to a and Master Hierarchy directory structure on a secure ftp site. Logins and passwords are given to the TD's involved. A Master Hieracrhy set of folders/directories will be sent to each TD. Any source footage to be used as backplates will be put in \Source. The TD is welcome to extract and organize anything from the ftp \Dev folder into their own \Dev folders any way they see fit in order to start examining assets. Everyone works freely in their own Dev folders in an effort to produce Production Masters for use in the show by anyone who needs them. ALL Production Masters are stored in appropriate directories in \Standards, NEVER in \Dev! - Especially Textures! Animators: The Animation TD's will begin to assemble what will become a Standards\CHAR master RIG file inside of Dev. When they have a master RIG of a Character, they can post it back onto the ftp in \Standards\. As the animator begins to assemble and animate production work files, they do so exclusively inside \VFX\\ANIM. The animator should put their work files in _ inside of \ANIM and organize any point caches (with rev numbers) in a \pcache folder inside ANIM as well. It is responsibility of animators to notify the TD working their shot appropriately as new point cache files are available. NOTE: The best way is to mention the pcache file by exact filename rather than “I posted a new file”. Also, avoid sending any files thru email. Always post to the proper ftp folder.. and notify of its presence thru email or IM, etc. – AND, make sure you get a response that it was received!
FX/Lighting TD's: FX/Lighting TD's will work in \Dev to create Production Masters of assets they need to work shots with and pur them in \Standards in appropriate CHAR, ENVIRO, PROPS, VEHICLES, etc. master folders. All Production Master assets will have their Textures pointing to \Standards... rather than \Dev. As textures get added or changed, it is VERY IMPORTANT to Add the artists initials AND a Revision number to the texture, never overwrite an existing texture! *** It is good practice to actually change your texture names inside your scene files to reflect the texture revision that you are using. This way, any merged assets will not confuse older textures upon merge. TD's will have all rendered output put into REV Numbered folder in ...\Output inside their
