Organization - Animating with Blender: How to Create Short Animations from Start to Finish - page 27

● Models : All of your model fi les go here. Each main object, such as a character or
a major set piece will have its own separate model fi le. If you are going to have
large numbers of characters, sets, and props (but you're not, right?), you can cre-
ate subfolders for each of them. What you want to avoid a list of model fi les that
you have to scroll through several times to fi nd what you need.

● Renders : This folder is for rendered images and animations. Within the render
folder are subfolders for the fi les associated with each individual shot. Within
those, you will have additional subfolders for raw renders and composite frames. Also
in the renders folder will be a folder called quick , which contains low-resolution
animation fi les for each shot, good for intermediate use in your story reel.
● Scenes : The actual scene fi les go here. These fi les bring together all of the assets
you have created and are where you will do the actual animation. There will be
a separate scene fi le for each shot in your project.

● Script : Any fi les pertaining to the screenplay, including the script go here. You
probably won't refer to this too often after you've entered the production phase,
but you need a place to keep it for posterity when you win all those awards.
● Sets : Although sets may consist of either full BLEND fi les with the props stored
locally, or fi les that simply contain links to fi les in the models directory; different
sets will be linked as a single asset, so they should have their own organizational
niche.
● Sound : This is for sound fi les, including the rough soundtrack, dialog, and fi nal sound effects and music.
● Storyboards : Your storyboard fi les will go in this folder. If you are using a program that has a “working fi le
format,” such as Photoshop (PSD), you may want to create a subfolder for working fi les and leave the
main storyboards folder for the actual storyboard images.
● Story reel : You'll learn about the story reel in the next chapter. The BLEND fi le that represents the cur-
rent state of the story reel goes here, along with any previous versions you may have saved.
● Tests : You may need to do render tests or create small BLEND fi les to try a new technique or feature.
Those fi les can be put here.
● Textures : This is the location of all your image texture fi les. If you have many characters or sets, you can
create a subfolder for each one.

Figure 3.2 A directory

structure for organizing a
short animation

Summary

Before you begin to create fi les, it is important to create a directory structure on your hard drive to hold
them. Using a good directory structure along with relative fi le paths for your Blender assets will make your
project more fl exible and portable.

Outbox

You will learn from this chapter a directory structure that will help to organize your project in later chapters.