Typical example to count versions like:
v001
v002
...
But not the best practice to distinguish different things like:
Tree_01
Tree_02
I usually use letters to distinguish variations.
Tree_A
Tree_B
...
Tree_Z
Using one letter can refer to 26 variations. We can extend it with double letters like:
Tree_AA
Tree_AB
...
We can combine variation with counter like this:
Tree_A_01
Tree_A_02
Tree_B_01
Tree_A_02
...
Anyway, this topic is about using numbers. We are talking about CG and VFX (as TidyVFX is about that) but this knowledge is important for the whole universe of course :)
To establish a naming convention means we have to specify for what to use numbers.
1. Count things
As I wrote above
2. Arrange things
For files and folders usually have to use numbers to specify a certain order because file systems use alphabetical order by default. For eg. if we have IN, OUT, PROD it would look like this in the file system:
But if you want a certain order you have to use numbers like this:
2.1 Padding series
Because of the file systems another thing to deal with is the padding. It is quite simple.
One character can produce ordered sequence from 1 to 9, two character from 1 to 99, etc.
For image sequences in VFX we usually use 4 digits and that means correct order 1 to 9999.
Also have to mention never start a sequence from 1 because it is a big issue when we have to extent it with 80 frame at the beginning for some reason. It would start from -80 and we really don't want that.
2.2 Padding shots (insert shots)
There is another function of padding in shot numbers for eg. We have to consider there could be new/extra shots during the production. So if we use 001, 002, 003, we can't insert a shot between 001 and 002. We have to extend the name with zeros. Same rule. If we use one character that means we can insert 9 extra shot.
So the shot numbers should be like this:
0010
0020
0030
The rule for inserting extra shots is to halving the numbers. To insert shot between 0010 and 0020 would be 0015. To insert a shot between 0010 and 0015 would be 0013 (or 0012).
I would not recommend to use 001A, 001B for shot names.
