Rendering Library Organization

[3darchitect]

Hey all,

I'm very new too CG Illustration, and am trying to teach myself 3ds and vray. I work primarily with architectural visualizations, but would like to expand away from that eventually into character design or whatever.

 

I would like some opinions or ideas on how people set up their rendering libraries. By this I mean, your folders of maps and textures, models, etc. Do you use the default setup that 3ds starts with, or do you go off and start your own library, and if so, how do you keep it up to date and organized without a bazillion (I like that word) jpeg files floating all over the place?

 

Granted, my library is very very small - its mostly the default stuff that comes with 3ds, but I know I'll want to add more eventually, and if I can get a good system down now, all the better.

 

I had considered looking into an actual program for file organization, but the only one I found was a bit too complicated for what I wanted, and not set up effectively enough (it was called Ideal Sorter I believe). I may end up asking one of my professors for assistance in writing a program specifically for this, but I'd like to know if that would be a total waste of time.

 

Thanks!

[shaneis]

Yep, that would be a total waste of time.

 

Leave all your default max libraries as they are - mess with them and you'll have to update it all in max. As for your texture/ maps, store them as you like. The most important thing is that you can find them quickly when you need them, then bring only the data you need into the current project folders.

 

As for larger asset management situations (eg: in a studio), its rarely stored on a local workstation - everyone needs to access the assets, so servers are the "libraries". Unless you're particularly interested in asset management, don't worry about it too much.

[3darchitect]

That's another thing I had a question about. Assuming all your maps and stuff are in one place, and that you create a separate folder for each new project, do you bring in the materials you need for that project into the the new project folder, or do you just continuously grab from the main library? I'd assume you'd do this so you can transport the project to a different machine and not have to worry about losing your maps/textures (and stuff). Right?

 

Right now, I'm the only person doing renderings and utilizing these resources in the office right now, so a networked library isn't needed.

 

Thanks

[shaneis]

That's another thing I had a question about. Assuming all your maps and stuff are in one place, and that you create a separate folder for each new project, do you bring in the materials you need for that project into the the new project folder, or do you just continuously grab from the main library? I'd assume you'd do this so you can transport the project to a different machine and not have to worry about losing your maps/textures (and stuff). Right?

 

Right now, I'm the only person doing renderings and utilizing these resources in the office right now, so a networked library isn't needed.

 

Thanks

 

That's the idea, populate your project folders only with what you need. Yes, it makes it easier when moving projects from one machine to another, but also, your app will access the files more efficiently as well.

 

Similarly, you can store (for example) a basic carpet texture in your archives, the copy it into your project folder, make changes to it, screw it up, and then be thankful that you weren't silly enough to mess with your original files.

 

Personally, if I were you, I'd utilise a partition on your HDD for your archive. You can then simply back it up to an external. That way, you also have a "portable" texture library - handy if you want to discuss materials with clients etc.

[jadhav333]

The way I handle this is so..

 

while assigning maps/textures , I browse to to the actual library and use it as is, unless the original needs to be edited( in which case a copy is made first).

 

At the end of the project, I use the utility Resources Collector in Max, which automatically identifies all the texture maps used in the project and copies it to a new user specified (read 'Maps') folder within the project root folder and also updates the link reference in the material editor.. all this in a matter of minutes.

 

This helps archiving when it is needed.. at the end of the project..