My roles in this crazy CG industry often involves pipeline development, maintenance, adaption, strategy, changes and enhancements. This kind of work requires a deep understanding of the project or product that will be created, the tools and applications that are used to create said project or product, and finally a list of features and workflows that the team would like to have.
Admittedly, the first and most important aspect that is needed to create a successful pipeline is experience. Experiences, both good and bad are the building blocks to make something better. Especially when it comes to something like the production pipeline where it has a impact on most of the team, and a big impact on those who have to produce some kind of CG content!
An aspect of pipeline development which often crops up, and is pretty fundamental, is that of structure and naming conventions. It seems kind of logical that this would be needed, but it is often something which is overlooked… Well, until a project either expands or more users become involved and then things start falling apart due to a lack of solid structure and naming. Kind of like the foundations of a house, sure without one the house will still be there, but it won’t last too long and will eventually fall without that foundation in place.
Structure & Naming Conventions are closely integrated, and feed into one another. Honestly, I have been using the same structure & naming for a long time, expanding, changing or updating as needed, but fundamentally the same as it was way back at the start!
The funny thing about this is I have converted people to this structure and naming convention – at times with resistance, others because the team/people just got it. However, even those that resisted the changes that they were not used to seem to understand and eventually enjoy working with the system that has served me well for years.
What is this system for structure and naming then? Well, there is actually a little bit of this covered in my book ‘Digital Creature Rigging’ – By no means is this a comprehensive guide but it should be enough to get you pointed in the right direction if you are struggling a little.
Oh, there is one amazing tool to help adjust a team and a studio to a new way of thinking when it comes to structure and naming – THE CONVENTION CUBE. A good friend of mine (Dave Miller) came up with this idea when we were switching over a studio to this new system. The cube acts as a tactile and visual guide to the new naming convention for anyone and everyone, and it’s way more fun than a document (but you should have one of those too!). I promise that we will cover the convention cube in a new post real soon!
Tags: 3d, cg, cgi, computer, convention, conventions, cube, dave, dev, development, experience, foundation, foundations, graphics, maintenance, miller, naming, pipeline, pipelines, product, production, project, strategy, structure, team, workflow
This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 at 10:08 am
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Source:
http://www.creatureattic.com/blog/pipeline-development/
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