Reply To: A bit of a broad subject… But is there a “fundamentals of organization?”

[Jonathan Gonzalez]

Project management and general organization is something we have discussed teaching in a course. It definitely becomes important when working with others. It becomes apparent quite quickly how various team members organize their file structure.

I consider myself a more organized person, even when I do tend to be disorganized with certain things I eventually favor having things in order. I work on the Unity side and it always amazes me when people upload projects and have everything scattered, it just makes it incredibly tough to work in that manner. 

I use folders quite often, even for non-unity related tasks since I’ll have a number of different file types such as animations, audio, models, scripts, projects, etc. Those folders themselves would also have sub folders for specific genres or types. So an animation folder would have “FPS Animations”, or “Fighting Animations”, and go from there. 

Regarding having multiple copies of files, I always try to remove these unless I know I’ll need the backup. Also name your files logically. Some people like to add long names to things, I prefer to keep it short. When working with models that have textures I may have the blend file in the same folder, along with one exported version and a folder for textures. If I really feel inclined I’ll have a folder for “working files”, which would be blend files, substance files, PSDs or anything where I can go in and make changes. Then I’d have an exports folder for completed versions of those files.

Once a week you can go into your various folders or files and find what you don’t need anymore. If you absolutely don’t need it, trash it. I tend to use the Desktop for very quick and temporary file saves. Things where I know I’ll be using it within the hour and/or just need to be reminded of that file because of it’s importance. That’s also where I place files I know I can get rid of right after using them because I hate seeing things on my desktop. 

That was a bit longer than expected, but I think you get the point. Everyone has their own organization techniques so find what works best for you. If you have any questions on how I organize things let me know.