Scene Preparation - An Introduction to Computer Graphics for Artists - page 62

Chapter 5
Scene Preparation

In CG applications, each fi le is a scene, but many of these fi les can be combined into
a master scene fi le . When discussing scene preparation in the context of CG, it
refers to the application environment variables within which the fi le is made, not the
environment depicted by the scene elements. Careful scene preparation is useful for
all CG artists, but it is required for artists who work on teams. CG artists who do not
follow standard practices in scene preparation may fi nd that their work takes longer
to execute than it should because they have violated technical requirements related
to the fi le itself.
The goal of preparing the scene is to have a clean and well-organized working
environment. Some studios create empty template scenes, then prepare them for the
different types of uses they have in mind, like modeling, rigging, or lighting. These
fi les are then distributed to employees to use as the starting point for all of their fi les,
to ensure they all match and everyone knows what to expect when they open a fi le.

5.1 Naming

The fi rst issue in scene preparation is to establish a naming convention that clearly
identifi es the contents of the fi le and any other germane information. The naming
convention is used to expedite fi le search operations and to prevent the loss of
important fi les through misnaming (Yotsukura et al. 2009 ). Naming conventions
vary a great deal from studio to studio, but it is generally true that the video game
industry uses more abbreviated names than the feature fi lm industry, which prefers
longer, more explicit names. Table 5.1 provides an example of how a naming
convention is used to build names for use on a project.
A name that is built out of discrete parts as shown in Table 5.1 is a concatenation .
This means that the separate elements of the name have been concatenated, or
added together, into a single string of characters. This can be done in spreadsheet
applications to create a master naming list for all the fi les in a project.