your texture library

killingpeople

i'd be interested to see how others organize their texture and photo ref libraries. mine is in need of a more organized structure.

my texture directory's current state:

\Resource Library
\\Texture Library
\\\Texture Bakes
\\\Texture Mess

for now i'm thinking of organizing it like my music which is is an adopted system that has worked well:

\Textures
\\_unsorted_
\\A
\\B
\\C
\\\Castles
\\\Cats
\\\CircleTextures
\\\Cracks
...

my texture collection may not warrant alphabetized folders just yet, so i'll wait until it grows some more.

this system works great for music, but it doesn't seem very intuitive, or feels incomplete for textures files, for some reason. i'm sensing its demise or just want it easier to manage...

my photo reference directory's current state:

\Resource Library
\\Img Reference
\\\animals
\\\architecture
\\\artists
\\\bodyart
\\\bugs
\\\cloudforms
...

this seems to work fine but i begin forgetting what folders are in there and they become obscure. some days i'm not as on the ball created directories like "fuckedupwounds", rather than wounds or injuries and "kick ass little girls", rather than children or girls.

organizing my textures has been a pending responsibility for a while and was thinking about it, feeling the need rambling on about it before taking on the task. also, i thought it might help others with their conventions etc., couldn't hurt.

the funny thing is i hardly use the damn library, but i enjoy collecting them. i know they will come in handy sometime down the line once manage to fit them into my pipeline.

i'd like to have a more diverse selection of textures and personalized process for it all.

something handy sectuars does is inserting a collection of textures as a custom pattern set in photoshop for quick and easy access to favorite textures. so i've been using his patterns and textures.

how do you organize your texture library? do you separate source and tilables? are there folder names or folder structures for textures that have worked well for you?

Mark Dygert

I try to use naming conventions instead of separate folders, it leads to some really long file names and abbreviation but it works really well for me. I also will take a series of images I'm using and re-save them out (Simple PhotoShop action) so when I sort by date they pop to the top or bottom. For me its just silly to have a bunch of folders especially if the folders only purpose is to hold more folders, unless you have a quick way to browse in and out of them? Why have a C directory when you can just start each castle image with C.

At work we have a custom made image viewing tool. It lets us sort images by partial name, info tagged into the image, and by all the other standard sorting methods. I'm sure there are comparable or even better tools out there. Our tool is nice because it plugs into the Asset Browser in 3ds Max.

Ryno

I organize by surface types, and this works pretty well. I usually know what the type of surface is that I need, and like to do my search accordingly.

Asphalt_Concrete
Brick_Cobblestone
Fabric
Foliage
Grime
Metal
Skin
Stone_Natural
Terrain_Natural
Window_Door_Framing

MoP

I've got one folder for reference/inspiration, and then another for actual textures and photosource material.
Reference is organised by theme (ie. Trees, Architecture, World Details, Furniture) and the Textures folder is sorted by surface type much like Rynos.
In each one I have a subfolder called "Mine" containing any images I've made or photographed myself, and in the root folder I have "Unsorted" which I dump things into until I can be bothered to sort and categorise them all.

Bronco

I just have Texture libarary and then list the texture "wood","metal","rock","ground","grass" etc etc also I have a downloaded and unsorted folder for when I download them or get textures off other people.....and speaking of which maybe I should acturally go through my vast unsorted/downloaded folders and sort them out. .

I also have a "Johns Texture libarary" in a subfolder which are all pics ive taken myself,again sorted in the same way as above.

John

Eric Chadwick

Naming hasn't worked so well for me/us. Though I like the sound of your browser Vig.

Problem is, every classification method breaks down at some point. IMO just keep it fluid, easy to use, don't get too strict.

Our main art server tree:
\Content
\Apps
\Projects
\Company

Content has all this stuff:
\Calibration (monitor setup, uv grids, memory tests, etc.)
\Fonts
\Models (meshes, animation, rigs)
\Reference (not directly usable as texture)
\Sounds
\Textures (anything ready to use, or nearly ready)
\Tutorials (saved off the web cuz else they disappear, also lots of whitepapers here)

Reference breaks down some more:
\Animalia (animal photos, human anatomy, animate things)
\Art_Inspiration (artists we admire, game shots we like, anything "made" not photographed)
\Photo_Reference (architecture, landscapes, inanimate things)
\Video_Reference

Art_Inspiration has a lot of folders...
\Characters
\Cinematics_FMV
\Cinematics_Ingame
\Concepts_Paintings
\\Asian
\\European
\\Fantasy
\\Horror
etc.
\demo_Scene
\Design
\\Architecture
\\Interfaces
\\Products
\\Vehicles
\Game_RTS
\Game_Screenshots
\Game_Trees
etc.

Animalia is broken down loosely by family:
\Avian
\Human (anatomy, pathology, costumes, faces, etc.)
\Insectoid
\Mammalian (I know, humans are mammals, but we're special dammit)
\Marine
\Molds_Misc
\Reptilian

Wow, I took a lot more time on this than I should have. Boring work right now.

Jesse Moody

Oh man my texture library is getting so big with all of the 3dtotal texture cds / dvds, stuff I have taken from photos, my reference library and textures I have taken off the net.

Right now it's not too organized. My music folder is all like yours kp.

/A
//Allister
//Alien Ant Farm
etc...


Texture Library is in the process of being organized but it's been a bit of a longer process.

Lee3dee

mines just in 1 big folder with other folders generally labeled, very unorganized

Mark Dygert

[ QUOTE ]
Naming hasn't worked so well for me/us. Though I like the sound of your browser Vig.

[/ QUOTE ]It's nice because it also previews weird formats and has toggles to view alpha info. Before it was written we used XNView and before that ACDSee, which lets you view TGA's and has some nice batch rename tools.

Thats another feature our tool has I didn't mention, batch rename. Which lets you swap out part or whole file names. It makes adding a series of images to the catalog much easier. Our tool has preset file names that can be used as a base, which helps cut down on the "opps forgot the naming convention when I added those". You can also batch edit the info tagged into an image, so each time an artist uses an image on an asset or as reference the procedure is that they edit the tag with that environments code so it pops up during search/sorting.

I'm pretty sure the answer will be no, but I'll ask if I can make it public, it doesn't hurt to ask. It works as a stand alone app and a MaxScript/C++ voodoo thingy was written to replace/modify 3dsMax's asset browser.

Eric Chadwick

Sounds sweet Vig, please do.

Emil Mujanovic

I seem to agree with Per a lot as of late... Hmmm.
But with my Reference library I don't keep things I know I will never need. Like as many wood textures as possible, or a hundred variations of grime on a concrete wall. I know I'll never really use it and on the odd chance I need some ref, there's always the internet (which is where most of the ref we get is from).
I don't bother with filename conventions when storing, sure its really handy as Vig has pointed out. But my folder structure is pretty general and the things I want can be found fairly easily.

REF
/2D
//characters
//environments
//modelsheets
//vehicles
//weapons
/3D
//(most of the same setup as 2D with a few more folders)
/Artbooks
/Basemeshes
/Photo
//Animals
//Environments
//Human
///Female
///Male
//(bunch of other stuff)
/SDKs

In the end, I think it comes down to the ease of finding what you're after and with what works best for you. My reference library is my own personal collection so it doesn't bother me if others can't navigate through it, because I know I can.

-caseyjones

moose

i recently went through and cleaned mine up a little, i had stuff such as:

\REF
\\asses
\\faces
\\hair
\\people
\\athletes
\\concrete
\\dirt
\\rock
\\satelite
\\signs
etc..

I've since combined a lot of my "earthy" photos together, all the people stuff, etc. Its a little better.

One thing i try to not do, but always end up doing is naming your folders descriptively. I always look at my "big guns" reference folder and say "whahahhaahhaaa???" because its typed out "bigguns."

If you have time to, you can put keywords on your images through adobe bridge, and search for them. You just gotta get in the habbit of setting stuff up and creating keywords/filters for them. It doesnt work alll the time, but is pretty good about finding stuff.... but ive found when doing "find" sometimes it only finds the first thing it sees ><