Main file types
Characters
Location: {project root}/lib/char/{char subfolder}/{char name}.blend
A character asset is a collection which contains shaded geometry, rigs, rigging objects such as mesh deformers and lattices. All of these are needed to give animators control over their movement and make up the final rendered representation of the character in the movie
Props
Location: {project root}/lib/prop/{prop subfolder}/{prop name}.blend
A prop in real life is a rigged, animatable object which characters interact with or can be constrained to. An environment library asset can sometimes be turned into a prop (e.g. Autumn picks up a branch from the ground and breaks it into pieces).
Environment library assets
Location: {project root}/lib/env/{env subfolder}/{env name}.blend
The building blocks needed to turn over sets and construct the movie stage. These are either static, or can be animated in a more limited way than props. Typically a larger set of them is needed with different variations, so we group them into asset library files. For example on Spring there was trees.blend, rocks.blend, etc. Each asset is in its own collection, but is also placed in a library collection that groups them together for easier linking access.
Sets
Location: {project root}/lib/set/{set subfolder}/{set name}.blend
Sets are more tricky to define, since they can differ even on a shot level. In practice they are formed by a ground plane and dressed with environment assets. They can also contain individually created assets (Spring example: riverbed.blend contained two non-library trees which were modelled and shaded uniquely in this set). Sets can be connected together to build a larger world if necessary. Sets are contained in a main collection which has sub-collections for visibility management)
Shots
Location: {project root}**/**shots**/**{sequence number}**/**{shot identifier}/{shot identifier}.{task identifier}.blend
Asset file names
Examples: gabby.blend, gabby.shading.blend, gabby.rigging.blend
The main asset files should be as simple as possible: {asset name}.blend. These main asset files are meant to be written by our asset pipeline, but should rarely be touched by hand (other than solving errors). Data is consolidated
We use task identifiers to distinguish between the different stages of the asset. {asset name}.{task identifier}.blend.
task identifiers:
- concept
- sculpting
- modeling
- shading
- rigging
Shot identifier
E.g. **010_0030_A** {scene number}_{shot number}_{variant}
Scene: 3 digits, incremented by 10 at first creation
Shot number: 4 digits, incremented by 10 at first creation
Variant: Letters A - Z
Shot file name
- No uppercase letters except for naming shot file takes (100_0002_A.anim.blend)
- No special characters like +=#^*&^$()?!
- Underscores are allowed as spacing, no actual spaces or - as separators (no caps, no gaps!)
- We use dot notations to specify a different representation or variant of an asset (hairdryer.more_ugly.blend)
Example: **140_0010_B.anim.blend**
- 140 : scene
- 0010 : shot
- A: variant (only one variant per shot is picked in the edit)
- anim: task (layout, anim, lighting, comp, sim_hair, sim_fluid, sim_smoke)
Its position in the repository would be at:
pro/**shots/140_credits/140_0010_A/140_0010_A.anim.blend**
Output for the animation playblasts at:
/render/**shots/140_credits/140_0010_A/140_0010_A.anim/140_0010_A.anim.v001.mp4**
/render/**shots/140_credits/140_0010_A/140_0010_A.anim/140_0010_A.anim.v002.mp4**
...
Output of the rendered frames:
/render/**shots/140_credits/140_0010_A/140_0010_A.lighting/000001.exr**
Generated previews from frames:
/render/**shots/140_credits/140_0010_A/140_0010_A.lighting/140_0010_A.lighting.mp4**
Example of a Backup copy of frames:
/render/**shots/140_credits/140_0010_A/140_0010_A.lighting_bak/140_0010_A.lighting.mp4**
pro/**shots/110_rextoria/110_0010_A/110_0010_A.anim.blend**
pro/**shots/110_rextoria/110_0010_A/110_0010_A.layout.blend**
pro/**shots/110_rextoria/110_0010_A/110_0010_A.fx.blend**
pro/**shots/110_rextoria/110_0010_A/110_0010_A.comp.blend**
pro/**shots/110_rextoria/110_rextoria.layout.blend**
pro/**shots/110_rextoria/110_rextoria.scene.blend**
In-file prefixes
Collection names
We use prefixes only for top level collections of an asset. This is important to distinguish types of assets. The name of the asset itself should be lowercase.
- CH : Character
- PR : Prop
- EN : Environment asset
- SE : set
- LG : light rig
Example: CH-phileas
Sub-collections should start with the character's name and have dots as separators: phileas.rig.widgets
Object naming
All objects should have a prefix, followed by a dash that determines their type:
- WGT : bone shapes
- LGT : light objects and mesh-lights, also shadow casters
- HLP : Empties and other helper objects that are not rendered
- GEO : Geometry, meshes, curves that contribute to the rendered appearance of the asset
- RIG : Rig and rig specific objects that do not appear in rendering
- ENV : matte paintings, sky-domes, fog volume objects
- GPL : grease pencil stroke objects (need to differentiate from GEO because can not be rendered on the farm)
Use dot uppercase L or R for objects that belong to one side and are mirrored
Example: GEO-dresser_drawer.L
If a name contains a of relationship - in the above example the drawer of the dresser - these should not be separated by a dot, but rather with an underscore.
Another example: GEO-ellie_watch_screw and not GEO-ellie_watch.screw
If the watch had a variant of type clean and dirty, these would be using a dot to express the nature of the variant: GEO-ellie_watch.clean and GEO-ellie_watch.dirty
Actions
Prefixes
Example: PLB-spring.hand
- PLB Pose library actions to be linked into animation files
- RIG Actions used by the rig's Action constraints
- ANI Animation to be used in a shot
More examples:
ANI-rex.140_0020_A.v001
ANI-ellie.060_scratch.layout.v001
ANI-sprite_A.110_0100_A.v001
PLB-rex_face.scared
PLB-rex_face.happy
PLB-rex_hand.closed
Textures and maps
Location:
{project root}/lib/maps/ for general textures which are used across the entire project
{asset folder}/maps/ for specific textures related to an asset
Example: dresser_wood.faded.col.png
- As for all other files, format the entire name in lowercase, separated by _ instead of spaces.
- Textures which are specific to a prop should include the name of the prop and THEN the name (if it's a label, or tex type such as metal or wood e.g.)
- If there's more than one type, Textures should also include the type (col, bump, nor, disp, spec) LAST in the filename (separated by a dot)
- make sure to clean up texture file names coming from the Blender Cloud according to these conventions. Sometimes there can be a .png.png at the end or files can have an uppercase first letter.
Versions and variations for file naming
{show_prefix:optional}-{name}-v{version:optional}.{variant:optional}.{representation:optional}.{extension}
- version (v001, v002)
- variant (voice, red, blurry) changes meaning of the content
- representation (720p, lowres, cache) the content is the same
Various Examples
- Assets
- bark_oak.normal.png
- maps/bark/bark_oak.normal.png
- maps/bark/bark_oak.albedo.png
- maps/bark/bark_birch.normal.png
- bark_oak.albedo.png
- spring.anim_test.blend
- Shots
- 010_110_A.anim.blend
- 010_110_A.anim.mp4
- Export of animation preview
- Edit
- sf-edit.v002.voice_recording.blend
- sf-edit.v002.blend
- sf-edit.v002.mov
- sf-edit.v002.noblur.mkv
- sf-edit.v002.720p.mkv
- sf-edit.v002.voices.lossy.mp3
