Naming Convention 3. - Files and Folders 3.

To continue the previous chapter we have to further analyze the structure of a VFX production.

201401_OBP/
    010_in/
    020_preProd/
    030_assetProd
    040_shotProd
    050_out/

Just to mention there could be a folder hierarchy based on kind of a workflows like, edit, paint, composition, or hybrid ones like 2D, 3D. I not recommend that because of redundancy and the lot of time we have to spend to jump for eg. from 2D to 3D or paint and composition since we usually work on one shot at time. There is an exception:

Edit
Editing as a workflow is an exception because this is the workflow rule them all. So it should be at the top level of the structure. A VFX studio usually not responsible for the editing, but it is very important to have the ability to watch to VFX shots in context. So there have to be editorial information, pre-cuts or rough-cuts, sequences in together, etc. Huge topic so might discuss it later. The conclusion is the following:

201401_OBP/
    010_in/
    020_preProd/
    030_assetProd
    040_shotProd
    050_edit
    060_out/

In
Before we get to the fan part, it is time to consider that I tend to call secondary stuff like documents, storyboards, audio, references, etc. Where to put them. For the in folder the definition was: things which was not created in-house during the projects. Being a VFX studio it is most likely that all these type of things should be placed under the in folder. For a small production I do not recommend to use sub-folders (flat vs deep structure - flat is the winner I think), but for this case I use sub-folders to demonstrate it.

  201401_OBP/
    010_in/
        010_script-storyboard
        020_documents
        030_references
    020_preProd/
    030_assetProd
    040_shotProd
    050_edit
    060_out/

Another very important rule for the in folder: never (never never) reference files from here. If you see somebody referencing an image for eg. in a nuke script you should fire he or she or ask your boss to do that. And of course you should be promoted being recognized that.