Image naming conventions?

[Ernest Burden III]

My favorite business joke is the one with a merchant who boasts "I'm losing money on each piece but I make it up in volume". Welcome to rendering in the Great Recession.

 

I've been quite busy this year, so far. But every project has been an exercise in squeezing as many images as a client can get out of a small fee. They have less to spend than what they paid for a single rendering last year, but need many views. There's no point in thinking in per-rendering pricing at the moment. It's just a project fee, and the result may end up as a dozen, maybe two dozen renderings. So I'm using the automated version of my process to combine a decent render 'look' from 3D with my 'make pretty' button in Photoshop, low-res, then save to JPEG and email. Next!

 

One problem this is creating is that I never created a naming convention for my image files along the production process. I end up with a confusing soup of file names as many, many view tests go through revisions and updating. I may end up with 10 - 20 'candidate' views that get updated daily (or several times per day) and re-sent to the client. How to use a naming system that makes sense? Any thoughts?

 

I've sometimes used:

-ProjectName (shortened, abreviated)

-some indication of revision, like 'B', C etc.

-whether its a viewtest, a decided view or a general FYI image

-the view number, which I express like '01', '02', but C4D will tag a frame number when I run a series of views, so it adds a '0001', '0002', etc.

 

You get something like this: "SW-Porch-viewtestD-09.jpg" or worse.

 

Often I'm not even that clear because at first I think I'm doing two or three views until the client keeps adding shots they want. In the end, we're all confused.

 

So what do you use for naming conventions?

[BrianKitts]

That's similar to the route we take. Everything gets labeled project / camera / then either progress or final with a file increment number. Such as.....

 

Project_CameraName_Progress01

-or-

Project_CameraName_Final01

 

Which ends up being something like....

 

INMHC_Aerail-NW_Progress34.jpg

-or-

INMHC_EntryCorridor_Final03.jpg

 

 

Originally the finals didn't have an increment but we all know final is never final when the designers are directly involved.

[SandmanNinja]

The important thing is to think about the format (and ALL possible implications) and then try to stick to it.

 

The Scientific Method for naming plants and animals springs to mind, like Brian said.

Genus Species

So, PROJECT_CAMERA_ITERATION

[Lester_Masterson]

I hate using anything with "FINAL" in it, because I inevitably end up with FinalV4_Final_fin1.jpg

 

Please tell me I am not the only one

[rpompeu]

I hate using anything with "FINAL" in it, because I inevitably end up with FinalV4_Final_fin1.jpg

 

Please tell me I am not the only one

HAHAHA, I was like this when a was in College! The final project probably was somthins like Project_Final_Final_thelast2.dwg

Nowaday I use something like

ClientName_ProjectName_CameraName_01.jpg

[Thox]

I take a slightly different approach to all the suggestions above, as I don't like to type out the project name, camera name, etc when saving an image.

 

I try to keep it simple, by using directories, so I guess it comes down to file structure. Each project in the company has a specific job directory, as I work in an Architects office this includes, directories for schedules, drawings, letters, etc and right at the bottom is a directory simply called 3D. So thats the project naming taken care of. All the images that are rendered go into a Dircetory called Render, which is further broken down into five sub-directories, these being Final, Email, Production, Video and WIP.

 

WIP is were I put all the test renders, and simply name them wip01, wip02 etc, camera naming isn't that important here as they are tests only and never taken any further.

 

Production is used for compositing all the renders together, which broken down into sub-directories for each camera position, ie, Cam01, Cam02, etc. If there is a revision to be done, I just create anyother directory called Cam01a, Cam01b, etc. So that deals with my camera naming.

 

Once the image has been processed in the production directory, I just save it to the Final Directory, as 01.jpg, 02.jpg, 03.jpg, etc, with the number referring to the camera position.

 

Video is used for any animations and email contains low res versions of those in final (although I rarely use this directory anymore as files in the Final are generally small enoigh to be emailed).

 

This works for me and keeps things in an ordered fashion.

[BrianKitts]

Once the image has been processed in the production directory, I just save it to the Final Directory, as 01.jpg, 02.jpg, 03.jpg, etc, with the number referring to the camera position.

 

I'm absolutely OCD about my subdirectories and file folder naming, but I would probably never simplify image names this far, because when you go to doing portfolio work and demoreels comps you'd have to pull all your content and rename it to keep track of it. If you toss all your work into one folder or worse directly link to the original folder if everything is named generic numbers like 01.jpg you'll be lost.

[vizwhiz]

what about using a date Type naming convention?

 

ProjName ViewName 090612-00-00

 

ThisJobreallysucks - BirdsEyeView -June 12th 2009 - Image 00 - version 00

 

for a FINAL i use

 

PN VN date-00-0000

 

four 0000's

 

This is consistent and makes it easy To know The FINAL IMG

you can work on as many variations of whatever Img and Then

 

have a Master Image That is final (until They change IT again)

 

just an Idea

[Nic H]

sadsfssadf_final_definately final_v002b_01.tga

 

[Scott Erstad]

Put a lot of effort into this one a few years back, trying to look at the various needs that something like this can support when you consider 4-5000 images in sum. I think it works pretty good.

 

I've incorporated "cam##" after the view type (gv, Int, etc) as needed when there are numerous views being explored.

 

When archiving imagery at the end, I only archive visuals a client has seen that are applicable to the final (or nearly so) view.

 

When searching the archive for marketing, reference imagery or parts for current production needs or this has been a the key. This is a great question, especially when you intend to be able to leverage your archive in various ways. It seems complex, but for me it is automatic.

 

Here is a screenshot form the procedure book...

 

Cheers!

[Chad Warner]

sadsfssadf_final_definately final_v002b_01.tga

 

 

That's pretty much the way it is here. Of course, nothing is EVER final, so I don't bother with that.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

The problem with all of the naming conventions require thought. One thing that has always bothered me about Max and my naming conventions is how many times I have to rewrite things. If I was a good scripter, I could probably solve the problem, and save myself time by having my 3d app generate names for me according to current date, title of file, and camera selected, and then a iteration or comment of choice.

 

Or maybe I preselect a name name when a project starts, and the names would be generated off of the date, the name of the project, and the camera chosen. This would be better than having a script use the Max file name.

 

This would also speed the submittable and organization of files to Backburner. It would mean no more naming the file to save, and then naming the job that was being submitted to the renderfarm. The name of the job submitted to the renderfarm would be generated automatically by the name of the file being saved to disk, which would be generated automatically by the date, the title designated at the beginning of the project, and the camera selected, + iteration, ...or whatever you decide at the end.

 

But anyway, ....that is all an idealistic situation. My directory names tend to stay more organized than my file names. I won't go into great detail, but my rendering directory contains subdirectories that always start off with the date first, and even then it is always the year first,then month, then day then description of what the renderings are inside of that directory. This assures that the newest images are always at the bottom of the directory.

 

Then that directory is subdived into Final, Process, Raw, and Test. I think it is obvious what goes into which.

 

Then I try to stick with project name, camera name, and any additional information. Additional information might include something like "tree pass" or "bridge patch."

 

I can't say it is perfect, but it isn't perfect because it requires input throughout the course of a project, which, as we all know, is bound to get messed up because you trying to work to fast.