Naming Convention 4. - Numbers

We use numbers to count things. Avoid to use numbers on distinguish things.
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.

Naming Convention 3. - Files and Folders 1.

Let's pretend we have a project. A good starting point is to count how many things we have to deal with during a project. Obviously it could be tons of files and data. There are a lot of ways to deal with them but eternal question is "what is what?". So we have something and we have to give a name for that. Considering this we have to define what this something is. What is the reason for this something? For what we are going to use it? Etc.
To answer these questions we have to have a look at our project. That something can be an image file of a concept art or a 3d model or it can be a feedback that our client sent us.
Of course every project is different so we can only talk about it in general. This blog is about VFX-CG so I try to collect ideas about that kind of projects.

First of all we know there are inputs and outputs.
Inputs can be any kind of material which is not created during the project in-house.
Outputs can be any kind of material which is sent to the client, co-workers, off-site studios, etc.

If we are talking about folder structure it starts like this:

IN
OUT

One step back. There should be a solution to identify projects (or shows).
Date is a simple organizer with a project ID.

Definition:
[yyyy][counter][separator][ProjectID]
[yyyy] - year like 2014
[counter] - two digit like 01
[separator] - underscore
[ProjectID] - abbreviated name of the project - exactly 3 capital letters like OBP

For eg.:
201401_OBP (Obviously Basic Project)

So we have:

201401_OBP/
   IN/
   OUT/

Of course we shoud have something called production. We can extend that concept with pre-production and/or post-production.

That is the (first) point where we have to consider importance or priority because we have options to organize the folder hierarchy and there is no ultimate solution as I wrote before. One really important thing is to try to avoid redundancy. For example we can arrange folders like this:

201401_OBP/
    IN/
    PRODUCTION/
        PREPROD/
        PROD/
        POSTPROD/
    OUT/

As you can see PRODUCTION or PROD basically the same but there are two folders with almost the same name. So we can avoid that like this:

201401_OBP/
    IN/
    PREPROD/
    POSTPROD/
    PROD/
    OUT/

Usually this is also called flat vs deep directory stucture.

A typical file system arranges folders like above therefore we should use numbers to add a precise order of the folders like this:

201401_OBP/
    010_IN/
    020_PREPROD/
    030_PROD/
    040_POSTPROD/
    050_OUT/

About using numbers you can read this: Naming Convention 4. - Numbers

To be continued...

Digital Pyrotechnics at Industrial Light & Magic with Plume

I always think about how big studios deal with pyrotechnic (explosion, fire and smoke, usually). Do they use Maya fluid or FumeFx, Phoenix FD, Houdini Pyro FX, or Flowline, or something else (Blender)? And the answer is something else. Of course they probably use a lot of off-the-shelf stuff as it needed but since 2010 ILM has a proprietary solution called Plume. So there is an awesome presentation on youtube.

Autodesk acquired Shotgun

Okay, it is not recenty news but for me it is because I do an extensive research on asset and project managment topic.
I found this a couple of month ago: Redcurrant. It is in connection with the Goosbery Project as I wrote before. As the open source community push forward the industry (not just CGI and VFX) it could be a viable idea to create an open source asset and project management solution. But as we know it is a tough-tough topic.
So what I expect from that acquisition? Is it all about the big fish eats the small one? Maybe. Because Autodesk provides lots of tools for VFX an CGI (but certainly not all of them) I think there is a need to establish a clear terminology for the industry. There is a global need of generalization I think. Example for that is OpenExr and Alembic.
What do I mean generalization?
There are lot of things which are the same for eg. in Maya, Houdini, etc. and whole the industry use these  concepts. Polygon, shader, render, etc. for example.
But lot of concepts are conceived at different vfx companies, universities and software developers, etc. which I think should be the same. Asset is a typical example for that. Is it a file? Or is it a set of file versions? Or it is a lot of small components which build a 3d character?
Another example is a status of a task. Task is a complex thing itself. About it statuses: there are ready to start, WIP, hold, pending, approved, completed, on feedback, daily, commented, reviewed, has revision, omitted, etc. In this list reviewed, has revision, commented basically the same. Certainly should be an exact definition for for statuses and certainly should be a clear picture how many status necessary for the project management.

There should be a standard definition for a lot of concept in connection with VFX-CGI.
I think a major player on the asset and project management field or an open source movement can affect the generalization of the industry. It might be Shotgun.

About Shotgun you can read here.
About the acquisition you can read here and here.

Open Source

I wrote about open source a bit during the past few month but that was the first time when I looked up in wikipedia. There is that nice little stop motion movie I like to share here. I think it is great :)

Visions of Autodesk - Maya

Okay, you can say it is a commercial again. I'm not paid by autodesk :) Truly. This is my commitment to the profession (I hope google translator worked on this right).

Maya Lighting & Rendering

Maya Animation

Maya Visual FX

Naming Convention 2. - Pipeline (CG / VFX)

When we are thinking about naming convention more or less thinking about pipeline. So couple of words about pipeline.

We can separate workflow and pipeline. I could write a novel about this. Just look these words up in wikipedia. Of course we are talking about VFX or CG here so the simple conclusion is the following:

Workflow
A process like modeling, riggin, texturing, etc.

Pipeline
There is now exact wikipedia article about VFX pipeline. In general it means "chain of data processing stages". In VFX it could be workflows and their connections. We can imagine some kind of flowchart like this:

The arrows can be simple data input/out put connections or data processing as well. The boxes are the workflows as you can see above. Pipeline can refer to the arrows. Personally I prefer the concept that pipeline is the whole stuff (workflows and the arrows) as you can see above.


With computers we create, modify and store data. As simple as that. So the question is how we do that?

Workflow means (most of the time) we use softwares like Maya, Nuke, Houdini, Blender, Photoshop, etc.. They have input and output data: usually files. We have to store them in a consistent manner. Naming convention refers to that consistency.

We have to separate files from each other based on the content and store information within the filename. To organize files we use folders.
So the goal to establish an organized folder and file structure ruled by the naming convention.


Files and folders are ruled by the operating system (OS) therefore we have to accommodate these rules to the naming convention.

As I wrote before there are couple of problems with of folder and file structures in general. For example:
1. Limitation of the length of the file path.
2. One file can be only in one folder.
But this would be another topic. I'm going to write about it.