Labeling conventions

[Greg C neumayer]

I’ve drifted to the following habits over time:

Project Window:
Only expose Comps that will be rendered. They all start with “_main”. This helps others (or me– 3 years later) navigate the project.
Keep everything else in folders, “MUSIC, VO, AI, and a catch-all: COMPS”

Timeline:
I like to give masks a fuchsia color/label. Things I’m not using but want to keep around are “none” labelled.
I group related animations by color, just to help me grab them all when needing to add just 10 frames of time to something before the next sequence.

Finder:
–I call files, “ProjectName_1” so they increment correctly. I increment anytime I feel like it, or always if I’ve sent something to the client.
–Any renders that are for approval/comment are work-in-progress: “wip1_ProjectName.mov”.
–Any re-renders of the same file (like failed renders or prematurely quit) are “wip1b_ProjectName.mov” I add the b,c,d letter to let me know that it’s just a re-render of the same file. This allows me to avoid the frustrating “file-busy” errors, or simply keep track of permutations that may be only output-module specific, when there were no actual changes to the AE file.
–Anything approved and delivery quality uses “r” for “render”. e.g: “r1_ProjectName.mov” This makes it easier for things to alphabetize, and when the project is done, I can safely throw away anything using “wip”.
–Projects are in a ClientFolder (inside Dropbox), and are labelled “2016.2_ProjectFolderName” This keeps all my projects chronological.
–Projects that have been “Collected” get a green finder Label dot.

Never:
— use “final” or “approved” in names. Everything is simply incremented, and can easily be revisited.

Collaborating:
— Projects that get sent to associate/subcontractors get a .dot increment to the naming until they come back home. For example, I start a project, “myProject_1”, incrementing until “myProject_4”. Then I send it to a subcontractor who also works on it. They save it as “myProject_4.1”, “myProject_4.2” etc. When it comes back to me, I take “myProject_4.3” and promptly rename it “myProject_5”, then “myProject_6”, etc.

I’m sure there are other things I do that I haven’t thought of. I’m interested in picking up some tricks from you all!