Data Management

Data Management Intro

Data for production of TWO is collected and updated on a server reserved for that purpose. You can view the data online , but to be able to work with the data you must use SVN

The following is the template for the folder layout on the svn repository and filename convention for the TWO movie project. Please follow this as closely as possible.

A:M v13.0 is required to receive and read these files with svn.

Please do not use accent marked characters in your filenames, as this causes problems with svn on the MAC.

Data management layout version 1.0

• Twodata (this folder name depends on where you told svn to checkout into.)
  • Data
    • Shared Data
      • Models
        • Actors
          • TinMan (Folder)
            • TinMan.mdl
            • Actions (reusable Tinman only Actions)
              • TinMan sit.act
                (Model_File actname .act)
            • Images
        • Props
        • Set_chors
          • Set (Twotown)
            • Set Final (Twotown Final)
              The set can have its own folder structure depending on its complexity
              • Base model for set (Twotown.mdl)
              • Final populating action (Twotown Final.act)
            • Set (Twotown Proxy)
              • Base model for proxy set
                It is preferable to use the same base model as the final set
              • Proxy Populating action (Twotown Proxy.act)
      • Actions (reusable actions between models)
        • walk.act
      • Images
      • Materials
    • Act#
      • Seq## (sequences)
        • 1_01.prj (prj → sequence)
        • Shared Data (reusable inside sequence)
          • Actions
            • 1_01 tinman laughing.act
          • Models
            • 1_01 candle.mdl
        • Sc## (scenes)
          • 1_01_001.cho (cho → scene)
          • 1_01_001.prj (to easily save/load scene)
          • Movies
            • 1_01_001.mov (animatic)
            • 1_01_001-take.mov
          • Test Frames
            • 1_01_001 F0001.tga
          • Models (only used in this scene)
            • 1_01_001 chair.mdl
          • Actions (only used in this scene)
            • 1_01_001 tinman a.act

Other folder types

• Sounds
• Drawings

If you see changes that need to be made please discuss them with Noel Rhett Jackson or David Higgins in this topic on the forum.

Keep this up to date with the consensus.

Notes / Suggestions

Keep in mind that once a file is being used especially when in more that one scene, renaming it or its parent folders should be avoided.

Folder names should probably be as human readable as possible.

So that you can tell where each file belongs from its name, filenames that are specific to a scene should be named along these lines.
act#_seq##_scene## description.ext
Like ”_1_01_03 tinman sits.cho”

Objects should be linked and not embedded. svn works most efficiently both for merging and for backup reasons. Also, chunks of TWO can be worked on with the smallest amount of data sent possible.

Keep in mind that the Subversion (svn) abilities being added to A:M v13 (hopefully available around Jan 1st) will lower or stop the need for many versions of the same file to exist on the TWO data server.

See Also

Set Design Principles

Change history

• v1.0
  • expanded on set folders
• v0.9
  • updated test movie names
  • added scene .prj
  • added test frames folder
• v0.8
  • removed (chk.mov renamed app.mov when approved) with svn renames should be kept to a minimum
• v0.7
  • Removed redundant “sequences” folder, made sequences and scenes numerical so they would sort
• v0.6
  • Changed sequence # to a letter, and added act, seq, scene.
• v0.5
  • Removed file version number as svn makes this unneeded.
  • added some numbers to the folder names