How do you handle your workflow and files/folders?
Subtropic Pixel
Posts: 2,388
Since I just got a new laptop and am building a NAS environment with synced folders, I figure this is a great time for me to rethink EVERYTHING.
How do you manage all the assets and subcomponents for your projects?
Before you leap in with a quick answer, I'm going to make it harder and ask you to answer the question with regards to multi-asset and/or multi-media pieces/parts. This might include parts you made from scratch, purchased from a store, commissioned to be made by a third party, and/or you modified it legally from somebody else's work.
How do you keep a big project straight? Lets' say you did an animation video with moving characters, vehicles, and backgrounds. This would include meshes, textures, lettering, scenes, and maybe even audio in the form of spoken word and background music.
That's a lot of things to keep track of, and it's even MORE complicated if you made some things, purchased some others, and obtained free even some more.
At some point pretty quickly, a simple file/folder methodology is probably not going to work for something like this, right? I mean...hell, I have stuff in my photo libraries, textures in another set of folders, meshes for Poser, Bryce, Hex, and Blender all in different libraries for each app's own needs, and .. wow .. I'm scaring myself now. What do people use to track their assets, who made them, who owns the rights, and who is developing that asset (in my example above, I could be doing it all or maybe I have somebody doing the modeling in Daz Studio, somebody else making a model of a space ship in Blender and also doing textures for the whole project, a third person is doing the music, and we're getting ready to record character audio next weekend.
I'm thinking this might be ready-made for something like a source code manager product, only geared to support multi-media project management. Your DS files are source code to DS. Photoshop files are source code to photoshop. And more! I mean, it has to support a variety of different original file types (some Bryce, some Blender, oh and there's an Adobe drawing in there and a half-dozen Photoshop brushes in the project too). So metadata and change-tracking maybe? Maybe even have a back-end database to help keep track of all the little pieces/parts? Curious to know where this all leads.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I keep everything separate by Daz products and other store's products and I have a separate library for my own stuff (keeps things simple so that I can pack stuff up more easily). Then, I categorize everything, cross referencing what's necessary. That way I don't have to keep jumping libraries ;).
Laurie
Thank you for your input, I really appreciate it. Do you mostly work just in 3D and with DS, or do you have other work in other formats too?
My goal is to come up with a workable way to comprehensively organize and manage my 3D files and assets PLUS my music (the music I make and the music I buy), photos, videos, and website designs. For example, I am redoing a website right now and it's going to include photos and artwork that I have made. So it's not "just" a website. It's a product with multiple components of different types in different "source formats".
So what I'm looking at is basically version control. I'm educating myself now on topics such as GIT.
First off, for many folders I make custom icons... that’s a habit I got into on Macs, where that is easier... being able to visually identify a folder by icon from a great distance is quick and less confusing to me... especially when there are particular colors.
My system is a little weird...
There is a main folder for finished or near finished models... year... category and project... for example: 2018 > Sci-Fi Architectural > The Octogon... inside that separate folders for early versions, major parts, textures promos and any add-ons... any Blender, Hexagon, Silo, 3D Coat versions or parts go into folders marked (for example) Hex, Blend, 3DC, etc... and finally a folder that goes to the top of the list which is named “!Final Version” within it is the OBJs, maps, additional textures, read me and final runtime folder... And the packaged zip file.
Projects that I’m currently working on go into a folder titled “Current Projects”... which makes no sense at all... I used to store them in “Plumbing Supplies”, but that was too easy.
Finished seamless textures go in a folder of their own, broken down by categories like: Stone, Wood, Concrete-Brick, Metals, etc... so there you would have a structure like- VixTex > TX00-0000 SL Textiles > TX100 SL CamoNanoFiber ... within that, the individual versions of that texture numbered TX100_CamoNanoFiber_VT.(jpg, png, whatever)... from 100- 199... usually I never get near fifty versions... this includes bumps, normal maps or transparencies...
Plumbing supplies go into a folder marked “Armadillo-Fashions”... reference photos of armadillos go into a folder maked “HistoricCheeses” and so on...
UV maps I try to keep with their models, but their PSDs go with PSD layouts...
PSD layouts go into a similarly structured folder just for PSDs...
Promos have their own folder structured similarly to models.
Promos get their own... do you care?... why are you still reading this?
It’s complicated and stupid, but it works for me... plus I used to have helper monkeys to file everything, but they all recently quit in a dispute about what constitutes proper workplace attire and a no flinging poop rule which I wouldn’t adhere to.
Stupid monkeys...
I don’t recommend my system to anyone because it requires alcohol to make sense and thusly promotes the consumption of fermented beverages, which seems unscrupulous and ethically incorrect... but being that ethically correct behavior has become highly unfashionable in recent times, I say feel free to adapt my system if you like it and even to date your helper monkeys if you are into simians or other helper animals...
To be honest, the only part I really recommend is making custom icons... it’s super easy and low in calories when done on a Mac & Cheese and semi easy when done on a PC... but it can lead to overly colorful screens, retinal detachment and possibly to a comical death if done incorrectly.
Like with all advice, consult a physician before taking it and stop it immediately if you find yourself on fire or befriended by strange circus clowns.
Good luck.
Okaaayyy!
I don't know what this has with workflow management, but I do think your helper monkeys have a point. Poop flinging is pretty much a bad thing. Most self-respecting helper monkeys have abandoned it by now.
I totally misread what you were going for... I thought you were asking about how people arrange their own stuff for their own modeling projects... I reread that and I see this is not what you were asking... big projects, lots of content... no helper monkeys... got it. Well, in my defense I am stupid, so there is that... Well, I guess in that case I can’t suggest anything other than the fermented beverages. I’d delete my comment but that would make your reply about the poop flinging look really out of context, so I’ll just leave it there as a warning to others not read quickly in a distracting environment and base your reply on what you think the other person is asking... in fact I’ll leave it there as a warning to others to just ignore any text accompanying the appearance of my avatar.
Cheers.
Oh, don't sweat it. It made me laugh, and that's always a good thing.
Maybe one day you'll explain the difference of opinion on the "proper business attire" for helper monkeys. Or was that for you, hmmm? 
And I do think there's merit in alcohol. There are days when I wonder why this stuff hasn't yet driven me to drink.
aah I was wondering about this myself.
I tend to have for a project :
Reference graphics (Pureref collections, Pinterest, photos, sketches, napkins, misted up windows...(don't laugh. I once designed an engine room layout on a misted up kitchen window))
Model Files (Heaxgon, Sketchup, Blender)
UVmapping Files (Obj etc)
test renders
texture maps (paint.bet, photos etc)
render files (daz, Keyshot, etc)
Notes
I've been looking for a simple program to help to organise this mess... thinking of you'd link your project files to 1 master file in this, then when you open said master, it'd have all your work ready to open in just a click or 2...
yeah, I'm dreaming...
Nvidia is working on AI Cars. I can see the accident report now: "Driver says he was watching a ... d-Force simulation when his dress, uh, exploded causing a restart of the GPU drivers, at which point the vehicle veered out of control and hit a lamp post. Wants to know if we can give him a ride the rest of the way to the bar."
I just use Smart Content, where I drag stuff from Content Library too! :)
I have a manually organized folder for everything that has to go in Content Library, divided in Clothes, Accessories, Footwear, Poses etc. and then per figure! ^^
LOL, you folks are hilarious.
So here's where I stand. Remember first that I'm not asking about assets "only in DAZ Studio". I'm about 3 levels beyond that thinking right now. I'm thinking in terms of whole projects that have a variety of assets created in different apps/tools. So it's way beyond "smart content". My Cubase or Ableton Live music won't fit into the smart content library. My pictures (pics that I took and pics that I didn't take) won't fit into the smart content library. My website might one day contain a bryce image, and neither of those will fit into the smart content library.
I'm just starting to teach myself about GIT, GitHub, and GitLab. There are a TON of tools available to manage all kinds of "source assets" and that's what I want to learn about.
So far, that's it. Except...I'd be interested to know what DAZ uses in house. Because they HAVE to use SOMETHNG. They're far too organized to just be winging it with a bunch of external hard drives and a loose collection of Dropbox folders.
Have you looked at Tabbles:
https://tabbles.net/
I use ActionOutline for my attempts at organisation, and it works for me. I have checklists created for most of the things I'm likely to be doing (creating a 3D product for sale, producing a book cover etc) and use them as templates, duplicating the appropriate one to edit with each new project as appropriate. At each step I can include links to local files or web pages, add images and notes and stuff, and hopefully eventually check it off as done. The sort of things I include in the templates are links to the Substance Painter and Materialize .exe files on my hard drive at the texturing stage of making a model, required promo image sizes at Rendo at the submission stage... things I won't have to search for or remember every time. Then when I use a template I can include reference images and notes for a particular product at the research stage, a 'child' checklist at the morphing stage outlining the morphs that I'll need to create that are unique to the product. It's also searchable, which can be useful if you encounter a problem with a project that you know you somehow managed to solve in a previous one.
None of this is the least bit complicated. As it's name suggests, you can use ActionOutline to outline and create books, articles, tutorials etc and export it to various formats if you've a mind to, and obviously you can use it for non-work related things too, like outlining painting and decorating projects then checking each stage as it's done (including a picture of the Sistine Chapel at the kitchen ceiling painting stage for inspiration if you're feeling really ambitious!). It won't work for everyone, but I'd probably be lost ithout the program.
I don't overthink it. I have a portable HDD that I run the free windows utility synctoy on every time I get new content or complete a session workin on a new project. It checks for new files and collisions and transfers bidirectionally depending on newness. The result is two drives with identical content. This not only acts as a backup but allows me to take my content on the road with me when I travel for work.
You can get a 2TB My Passport for $70 and a 4TB version for $100 on amazon.
Nice suggestion. I'll check it out!
Thank you, but this is not what I'm asking about. I already have simple file/folder syncronization/replication covered. Thanks anyway!
I shall review this; thanks!