With so many different kinds of files (textures, .blends, scripts, documentation, etc.) accumulated to do CG in Blender I soon found that I had to get organized way better than I was (which was not at all)! I used to have files in some way associated with Blender spread all over my machine! Not good!
So I ended up gathering everything that had to do with Blender together in one folder, then sorting all that stuff into categories each with their own folder. All my actual projects are in a single folder which has separate folders inside for each project. All files associated with a project are saved in it’s folder. The hierarchy for a house project then looks like this:
Here’s a brief summary of how I handle my Blender related files:
All main files are located in the /usr/local/blender tree:
/usr/local/blender/blender (All Blender binary files go here in their respective directories.
All Blender versions are soft-linked to /usr/local/bin so
blender-2.22 will start Blender 2.22 and blender will start
the latest version of Blender Publisher, etc.)
/usr/local/blender/demos (All downloaded video clips and stills to show off blender go here.)
/usr/local/blender/documentation (All custom documentation goes here; e.g. aspectx and y values for
NTSC and PAL 4:3 and 16:9 resolutions.)
(Also all official and other downloaded documentation goes in it's own
subdirectory.)
/usr/local/blender/files (All original zip/tar.gz files of Blender binaries, demos and
documentation go here.)
/usr/local/blender/fonts (All Blender usable Adobe Type 1 fonts go here in subdirectories by
style.)
/usr/local/blender/plugins (All texture and sequence plugins go here.)
/usr/local/blender/post-production (All post-production material goes here; i.e. for a NLE.)
/usr/local/blender/projects (All Blender projects go here organised by starting year. Current
projects are soft-linked to the ./current subdirectory.)
/usr/local/blender/python (All python scripts go here organised by function.)
/usr/local/blender/sounds (All commonly used sound F/X go here for use in NLE.)
/usr/local/blender/textures (All multiuser licensed textures go here sorted by collection.)
/usr/local/blender/utils (All custom utilities go here; e.g. to convert TGA or AVI to QT.)
This directory structure is also replicated in each users home directory /home/username, but only single-user licensed material is stored here along with private projects.
Hopefully this will give you a better idea of how some other Blender users organise their files. I know it’s a little different because I’m using FreeBSD, but the differences shouldn’t be too large.
I put .blends in one pile, textures in another (except some special ones that go in the .blend pile) and tutorials and stuff in a third. Then I kick it all around a little just for fun (a little chaos is good for you). The renders usually end up in the .blend pile, except when I want to put them in my gallery, then I place them in a little basket on the side.
c:\program files\blender (directory where i installed blender)
c:\blender (all my blender things (.blend files in main directory and everything else split into further subdirectories))
c:\blender extures (all textures, split up into categories like metal, fabric, wood, water, etc)
c:\blender\render (rendered animations)
sure it could be more organized, but i’m too lazy to be organized . besides, it works pretty well for me like this.
I’ve got almost the same as Mazer.
D:\Program Files\Blender - Blender binaries and other static stuff (scripts, etc.)
D:\Blender - All my “active” blend files
D: emp\anim - where I keep big animations until I can encode them into AVI’s or MPEG’s (Which then HOPEFULLY go into D:\Blender - if I ever get around to it )
. besides, it works pretty well for me like this.
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