Content organization

I've worked on a number of projects, in different engines, with all different formats, and one thing that always remains mostly in the artist's control is the organization of files. Its something that no one talks about much, it will be somewhat different for every artist, and is something artists have to figure out for themselves. However, it is worth it to start a discourse about it, because it can become a tremendous hindrance or a great blessing.

Different types of assets have different organizations, generally, so I'll run through my experience and preferences.

Characters

I work mostly with characters, so I'll start with them.

The first thing is to figure out, what are the requirements of this asset? Does it need to be broken down into a kit to be reused? How much time do you have to spend, how important is it, how much reference do you need, how many different 'scenes' will you need if you are doing the equipment separately? Do you need anything additional? How much sculpting and high poly work is required?

Example Project Folder

Generally, my project folder will look like this:

• project name
  • /data
  • /highpoly
    • /sculpting
      • body001.mud
      • bodyL2.obj
      • bodyL4.obj
      • bodyToMB.obj
    • /hard
      • shield001.ma
  • /models
    • body001.ma
    • body002head.ma
    • body003uv.ma
    • bodyTexture.ma
    • shield001.ma
    • shield002boss.ma
    • shield003uv.ma
    • shieldTexture.ma
  • /normalMapping
    • bodyLP.obj
    • bodyHP.obj
    • shieldLP.obj
    • shieldHP.obj
  • /reference
    • any concepts or texture references go here
  • /rigs
    • rig001.max
    • rig002fingers.max
    • export.max
  • /textures
    • /cmpr
      • body.dds
      • shield.dds
    • body.psd
    • shield.psd