How would you redo your asset/texture library today?

[jensandersen]

Tom said this in a different thread:

....My asset library is unintelligible to anyone but me, I'd love to start again but I dont have time!

I guess project files is a different story.

And it got me thinking.

 

I am aiming to buy a good "freelance" setup (as I only own a laptop) when the "black friday" sales kicks off soon.

 

So apart from a workstation, good monitor and a single render node (based on Dimitris' great article: http://pcfoo.com/2013/02/8350-rendering-node/ ) I am wondering what you guys have learned so far.

 

Would it be overkill to also buy a NAS for assets or should I just go with extra HD space in the workstation?

Any tips on folder structure/project/client handeling to avoid a future chaotic library/project archive? (links to articles are also welcome!)

Based on Devin's thread on backup http://forums.cgarchitect.com/76981-server-crash-2.html it also looks like there is alot of ways of doing backups. How would you approach this as a freelance startup?

 

The plan is to approach small and local architects/firms primo 2015. Though I do have a 2year old kid and a full time job, so this is just to try and get my feet wet in the business in my (very little) spare time.

 

Cheers.

Edited October 1, 2014 by jensandersen

[TomasEsperanza]

Tom said this in a different thread:

 

And it got me thinking.

 

I am aiming to buy a good "freelance" setup (as I only own a laptop) when the "black friday" sales kicks off soon.

 

So apart from a workstation, good monitor and a single render node (based on Dimitris' great article: http://pcfoo.com/2013/02/8350-rendering-node/ ) I am wondering what you guys have learned so far.

 

Would it be overkill to also buy a NAS for assets or should I just go with extra HD space in the workstation?

Any tips on folder structure/project/client handeling to avoid a future chaotic library/project archive? (links to articles are also welcome!)

Based on Devin's thread on backup http://forums.cgarchitect.com/76981-server-crash-2.html it also looks like there is alot of ways of doing backups. How would you approach this as a freelance startup?

 

The plan is to approach small and local architects/firms primo 2015. Though I do have a 2year old kid and a full time job, so this is just to try and get my feet wet in the business in my (very little) spare time.

 

Cheers.

 

Looks like you didn't get any help, sorry to see that. What did you go for in the end?

 

I'm also tempted to buy a NAS.

[braddewald]

Getting a good NAS is one of those things where afterwards you can't imagine not having one. Synologies have awesome track records and are stupidly easy to set up.

[TomasEsperanza]

Getting a good NAS is one of those things where afterwards you can't imagine not having one. Synologies have awesome track records and are stupidly easy to set up.

 

Sold! - I've had my mouse hovering over the buy button of a Synology DS415+ for too long

[jensandersen]

I ended up with just getting the workstation and monitor. Asset wise, I decided to just use an internal large hard drive. But I really need to get the data structured. At work I use a free asset browser for 3ds max, but without data discipline from coworkers, it quickly got messy.

I can definitely see the use of a NAS when render nodes are involved, but at the moment, I am most interested in an optimal way to manage/browse assets and textures.

Any "must have" plugins or do's and don'ts advice any one?

[TomasEsperanza]

I can relate to that.

 

Colin Senner's "Relink Bitmaps" script is a given in my book.

 

I planned my folder/file structure and naming protocols on paper. I adhere to this religiously irrespective of whether others follow suit. If you get colleagues to agree to a protocol, you can stick to it and eventually they may start to realise "your way" is better. This has happened for me, although they took a while to change their ways.

 

You could even print it out to have on the wall! (I haven't done this).

 

My libraries are organised by brand. Concurrently I have folders containing folders with shortcuts to subfolders of the various brands collections for specific assets (vegetation, cars, street furniture, etc.). This way I can search by brand or item type (without having two copies).

 

It's good to have all assets named with some identifier (usually a prefix) of its origin in the folder structure so you can look to the original location if you do need to relink it again.

 

For batch renaming files, Ant Renamer is a good little free standalone tool.

 

If you don't use Scriptspot already, check it out. You may find more useful tools for specific tasks.

 

Also, a good tip is to always browse to maps and assets via the network path as opposed to local (even if the file you need is local) that way when network/distributed rendering the nodes can find it without you having to update the path.

 

When a project is complete I like to use mb resource collector utility so I know I have a folder with all the assets irrespective of the network availability.

 

I use the same folder structure in various data drives (internal and external) and use FreeFileSync to update from the folder I have been working with, over to it's twin location on the other drive/s. This is useful for taking stuff to and from home and office.

 

Project Folders can be numbered and named and kept on the server (in a folder called jobs or something). Network speed is important obviously. Some people don't like to use the 3ds max project folder system (and let everything go to one place or god knows where), but it is customisable and worth using to keep organised (in my view).

 

I have rendering presets set for Low and High settings set up individually for each scene, and the presets are named and saved with accordance with the project.

 

Textures I have downloaded (from CGTextures for example) go to the CGTextures folder in my materials library. Once they have been edited (made tilable or whatever) then they are "rebranded" with my initials and put into my folder in the Brands folder. If they are not edited, they can stay in the CGTextures folder with the original file name.

 

Less is more. I don't horde stuff, and only download what I need at the time. If it's good it will be re-used.

 

...I like to think I am well organised

Edited December 22, 2014 by TomasEsperanza

[jensandersen]

Cheers Tomas, that was some very helpful insight to how it could be done in an effective (I presume!) work environment.

 

I'd love to get more people to post how they organize themselves as I think we all could learn from that experience.

 

So from what you wrote Tomas, I tried to make a mock-up folder structure of how I understood it:

I kind of like this approach instead of having a main model and a main texture folder. Your way seems more manageable. But say you have to go and find a good tree for your scene, then you'd have to browse through X number of "brand name" folders to find a fitting one - instead of having them all in just one folder. How do you go about this? Is this something you solve with your prefix naming convention or do you have the brand catalogs in a different shortcut?

Would you mind giving an example? Is it like: Laubwerk_Summer_Tree_1.max and then just a windows search on: Summer_tree

 

I use the (free) HCG asset browser plugin from scriptspot, it also has the ability to render small thumbnails for each asset.

 

Great tip on mapping through network on my local computer by the way - haven't thought of that.

[TomasEsperanza]

Cheers Tomas, that was some very helpful insight to how it could be done in an effective (I presume!) work environment.

 

I'd love to get more people to post how they organize themselves as I think we all could learn from that experience.

 

So from what you wrote Tomas, I tried to make a mock-up folder structure of how I understood it:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]52389[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]52388[/ATTACH]

I kind of like this approach instead of having a main model and a main texture folder. Your way seems more manageable. But say you have to go and find a good tree for your scene, then you'd have to browse through X number of "brand name" folders to find a fitting one - instead of having them all in just one folder. How do you go about this? Is this something you solve with your prefix naming convention or do you have the brand catalogs in a different shortcut?

Would you mind giving an example? Is it like: Laubwerk_Summer_Tree_1.max and then just a windows search on: Summer_tree

 

I use the (free) HCG asset browser plugin from scriptspot, it also has the ability to render small thumbnails for each asset.

 

Great tip on mapping through network on my local computer by the way - haven't thought of that.

 

Well despite the large amount of data, one does become familiar with the library content, and recalling the various product lines from manufacturers is often easier than specific models. Plus keeping them this way means you can batch amend the assets filenames (with a prefix), by folder, not individually.

 

If for example, you had folders in your model library that where called:

 

00_Brand

01_Exterior

02_Interior

03_People

04_Animals

 

the actual content would all be in the "00_Brand" folder (under Evermotion, Laubwerk etc).

 

Then you create shortcuts for specific subfolders of Evermotion, Vispark etc.. of.. say "Archmodels-100_Autumn_Winter_Trees". Then and cut and paste them into 01_Exterior > Vegetation. So when you go to your model libary, you can say I need a Tree for the street, I'll go to 01_Exterior > Vegetation. Where you find shortcuts to all the Vispark and Evermotion, Laubwerk trees in one place (with no cars, teapots, people or whatever!). Meanwhile you maintain (in the 00_Brand folder) nice chronological/numerical collections from each provider.

 

The time consuming aspect of this is initially batch renaming everything, it's quicker but still might take maybe half a day(?) and the trawling through each volume to discern whether it qualifies for a shortcut to the Exterior>Vegetation folder. From then on it's imperative that you maintain this as you add new content, so if a new product goes in make the shortcuts then.

 

Anyway this is my approach and so is specific to my thinking and way of working, thus it may or may not be for you.