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Default values
First let’s have a at look what default config value that you can set:
label | key | description |
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Element-Number padding | element_number_padding | Set the number padding for the naming convention. |
Framecount for Filmstrip | filmstrip_length | Set the frames used for the preview filmstrip in the ingest view. No matter the length of the sequence, the filmstrip length will be this many frames. |
First frame of Sequence | first_frame | Set first frame of a sequence when transcoding a file sequence. Some VFX studios start with the common 1001 frame. |
Thumbnail Frame of Sequence | thumbnail_frame | Set which frame of a sequence should be used for the thumbnail frame |
File path definitions
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This is the part where you define your naming convention and file path structure |
This is where you set the naming convention and file structure on disk.
You need to define the file path patterns so the software knows where to store the elements file data. These two path patterns are the most important path patterns that the transcoding template will use.
Types of path patterns
Which path pattern is used is depending patterns will be used depends on the output format and the transcoding templates setting for each library. There are two types of path patterns.
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In transcoding template you can set this with the option: Type of output file |
Single files
Movie files or single textures files without frame count.
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Cory process of a movie filemy-movie-file.mov -> fire_000023.mov
Sequence files
Renderings or sequence sequences with frame counter.
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/some/path/to/element.1001.exr /some/path/to/element_1001.exr |
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Use '#' for the frame counter. The default frame count padding is 4.
Path
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Patterns
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You can create a so called path pattern. A pattern is assembled by placeholder values. These values get resolved into the actual value on ingest/render time.
The reason is that we don’t know some values at this time , because they are dependent on the element that you want to ingest. For example, the width and height is depending on the source item.
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By using the combination of path patterns and , predefined path values and custom path values, |
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Path patterns can be assembled out of any number of other path patterns. These They will get resolved as much as they can. Finally, all values (predefined & custom) will get resolved into actual values. |
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This might look a little bit weird at the beginning, but this system gives you the full control for over how to assemble your naming convention. You will see the benefit of it in a second.
Example: resolution
Our source images image is an image of a flame with the resolution of width 1920 and the height 1080.
We create a path pattern to define the naming convention of the resolution folder as followed:
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<width> is a tag. Pattern Tags are defined by the < (greater less than) and > (less greater than) characters. |
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If we create a library transcoding template that creates a thumbnail preview for our elements, we can overwrite the path value <colorspace> by another value. For example: srgb
The path pattern for this transcoding template gets now resolved to: abc_1920x1080_srgb
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Example: category
Lets Let's create an a path pattern for defining the naming convention for folder of the element.
Create a new path pattern:
element_name : <category.base.name>_<element.number>
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What about <element.number>?
This is one of the predefined values. These predefined values are vales values that are only known once an element is ingested , because the values are dependent on the elements data.
If we now ingest a new fire element and there are already 230 fire elements in the database, the element number will increase by +1. Thus the <element.number> will resolve to 231.
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Why should we use the base category? We want our library to be sustainable and be as static as possible for many years. That is why you should decided to store the elements in the base category folder |
Path
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Values
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Path values are used to resolve the values of the path patterns depending on the element that will be ingested or rendered. Some values are known once we actually know the data that we want to ingest, others values can be set by you (custom values). The custom values can be overwritten in the library and the transcoding templates.
Predefined path values
The predefined values are used as placeholders in the path patterns. They are divided into separate predefined groups that are will be commonly used. For each group you can access the sub-keys.
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Example
If you want to get the width value of the source element you ingest, you access the group resolution and the sub-key width in the path pattern like this: <resolution.width>. This will resolve to the source image width value for you.
Example: element
Path of element that we want to ingest:/some/path/to/file.%04.exr
It is a sequence of OpenEXR files that contain an a picture of a flame.
The first frame of the sequence is 1001 and last frame is 1042.
Each image has a resolution of width 1920, a height of 1080 and a pixel aspect ration of 1.
In the library there are already 22 fire elements.
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description | predefined value | example resolves to |
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source image width |
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source image height |
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image pixel aspect resolution |
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source elements file extension |
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Frame counter for a sequence |
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output sequence first frame |
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output sequence last frame |
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number counter of this element |
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readable name for flame category |
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unique ID for flame category |
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readable name of the base category for flame, based on the hierarchy category tree |
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unique ID of the base category for flame, based on the hierarchy category tree |
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Custom path values
These are the values that you can define. These custom path values get resolve resolved in the path patterns.
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Custom path values are the values defined by the user |
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server : /path/to/server
library_name: my-element
If you use path patterns that reference path values you have to make sure that these values exist in the path values section. If something can not be resolved , because values are not defined, the ingest or rendering of proxies will fail and you will see an error message.
Overwrite pattern & values
The server path or the folder where the library data is stored might chance for each library.
Overwriting path pattern and path values is based on the concept that you only need to overwrite values for each library is necessary, hence reducing which reduced the complexity and misalignment of the file structure.
This gives you the control to setup a global conditions for all libraries and you only need to change one or two values for each library.