Blend-files workflow?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
#1

How do you usually structure your work? One blend-file for the whole project with all scenes within or divided into multiple?

Working in other animation tools, coming from 2d animation, I usually have one file per shot; one for animation, one for comp and a master edit file. Now Blender lends itself easily to having everything in one file, which is what I tend to do, but as the projects grow the file takes longer and longer to load and save. It’s also harder for many people to work on the same project.

So, is there a workflow that can be considered best practice?

#2

depends on what your goal is, i think its common to create characters in seperate files so they can be worked on by others
same for scenes, often lowres and high res version (i think).
and a master file that combines it all for animators per scene.
then a producer could mix video from various scenes in a different file (video editing with blender).

I think they do the big movies with blender like that.

As for my self, i keep a folder on torrentshare (freeware) to share between computers, number my blend files if i got big updates and keep all textures in one place (not in the project, since i might use them for other projects as well).
torrentshare has no limits and works between internet connected pc’s it doesnt require servers and thus your not limited by file size as it runs clientside

#3

Razorblade is right, the way you split things in various files depends a lot on the scale of your project (like shots numbers and people working on it). The classical way is to have one file per character or props. Then link them in shots file with dupligroups. And one .blend per shot is generally a good idea too.
That’s the best practice , but the flexibility of blender allow different workflows and having all in the same .blend can be useful for a very small project.

Also it’s possible to split things more, like having one .blend for animation and link actions (characters animations) in one .blend dedicated to rendering. That’s more operations to do, but it can be helpful in some cases.

In the end there is no perfect solution and it’s up to you to define what will be the best workflow depending on the project constraints…

#4

I’m posting so I can readily find this thread again. After quite a few years of using Blender with a interest in animation I’m still a one file user. And, by one file I mean very few assets are even in another file. I’m rethinking that approach hence my interest in this thread.

#5

Hey guy having to restart a project I used this link for a basic file system. Working rather well I might say.

#6

That’s a good start !
Depending on the scale of the project you might want to split things more, like having one folder per asset , one folder per shot. All of them in their respective folders.

I like to make one texture folder per asset next to the asset .blend, so it get easier to change or reuse them, instead of having everything in one big Texture folder…

In fact the bigger the project, the bigger you need to pay attention to the folder structure of your projet, or you’ll end up quicky in a big mess . That’s getting even worse when you work with other people . If the project folder structure doesn’t self explain where and how to put and name files, you end-up with crazy things…
Like file named shot03_version15b_FINAL_retaken_good_v3.blend , or render files at various places for instance …

#7

sozap thanks for the post and I’m still going over it in my mind. I guess from having everything in the original scene it is indeed a good start. And, by everything in the original scene I mean going over to the side and modeling something right in the master blend file. Not that my little project required that much modeling of individual assets.

But, the point is before getting into a long involved project this is something to work out on the front end and in such a way where it can be modified as time goes by. I did of course have individual shots in separate folders but something like textures was just that. Textures. There is no doubt it can get out of hand very quickly. Anyway thanks for the comments.