How do you classify hundreds of saved images?

daniellooartist · Nov 2014

Hello everyone. I'm doing some cleanup on my computer. To say that reference folder is completely trashed and devoid of any order would be an understatement. I understand that a lot of artist save inspirational images to your hard drive as well. How do you guys like to keep your own library organized? For example, a friend of mine organizes his by Era > Style > Type. For example, Sc-Fi>Photoreal>Gun. This seems reasonable for me, but how do you guys choose to organize your reference library?

I've noticed that the fewer levels deep one's folders are, the less of a click hassle and more intuitive it is to categorize. However, the tradeoff is that it becomes very difficult to locate specific types of references. Would you agree, or do you have a different philosophy?

What are your guy's thoughts on Adobe Bridge or other similar tagging software? How about websites like Pinterest?

Eric Chadwick · Nov 2014

Here's my latest folder setup, but this is only the stuff I've saved off in the last couple years or so.

One thing I like to do, whenever possible, is to add the artist's name as a prefix to the file name. Makes it easier to find the source if needed later. But reverse image search is making that a bit obsolete.

Eric Chadwick · Nov 2014

Reverse image search, in case you haven't seen it. Really great for finding the source of an image.
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html

daniellooartist · Nov 2014

I see you use the naming convention to group things. I do this with all the files in my projects. Example, difMetalRusted.tga, nrmMetalRusted.tga, aoMetalRusted.tga, meshWall.fbx and so forth. I'm happy to see that it has been working for you for years.

Eric Chadwick · Nov 2014

I prefer to add those as suffixes, soilpebbles_n, soilpebbles_s, etc. That way all the "like" files are listed together.

Pinterest is great, but I've been burned too many times by link rot, things disappearing off the web because someone redesigns their site, or moves urls, or whatever. The web is so temporal. If I want to save something, I either use my HDD or I upload to the Polycount wiki.

Do a forum search, people have discussed file org in the past, lots of good tips...

Chimp · Nov 2014

I do:

filename: descriptive title + (style) + type of thing + by artist

so

trident (hand painted) weapon by brick tamland.jpg
or
a whale's vagina (realism) character by ronald JA burgundy.png
or
san diego zoo (stylised realism) environment by wes mantooth.gif

my ref folder has these sub folders:

environment art
character art
concept art
photography
FX
Unsorted

stuff generally gets dumped into unsorted cos I'm a lazy bastard, I move them into their folders at the end of the week.

If there is a game or film or whatever that I particularly like, it gets its own folder - some of these tend to have dumps of lots of screenshots that I haven't got around to naming properly yet, but being in their own folder means I can get to them quickly enough.

Teessider · Nov 2014

this is something I've been meaning to do recently. It's intriguing to see how other people organise their references

lotet · Nov 2014

I used to organize my files in a similar fashion, but In the end I felt it was too time consuming, and just saving a picture became somewhat a commitment and a hassle.

so now I just drag drop shit like a crazy person all day:poly115:

goolge image search is the shit for reverse enginere where the picture came from.

cryrid · Nov 2014

I gave up on using folders and naming conventions for my reference folder. It got confusing when an image could have easily belonged to any number of categories.

Instead I downloaded Windows Photo Gallery and spent 2-3 nights going through and just tagging every image I had saved with as many relevant tags as I could (thankfully it kept track of previously used tags). As a result of that investment I can now just open my main reference folder with Windows Explorer, type in whatever tag I'm looking for, and have the images sorted almost instantly. The more tags used, the more specific the results.

Joltya · Nov 2014

I use Pinterest. It's freaking awesome. The only thing that was weird when I started was setting up a solid organization method. I use a lot of prefixes for my boards (for example, reference is REF: x). Here's how I have it set up.

http://www.pinterest.com/j0ltzer0/

nyx702 · Nov 2014

cryrid wrote: »

I gave up on using folders and naming conventions for my reference folder. It got confusing when an image could have easily belonged to any number of categories.

Instead I downloaded Windows Photo Gallery and spent 2-3 nights going through and just tagging every image I had saved with as many relevant tags as I could (thankfully it kept track of previously used tags). As a result of that investment I can now just open my main reference folder with Windows Explorer, type in whatever tag I'm looking for, and have the images sorted almost instantly. The more tags used, the more specific the results.

I have thought about doing this multiple times but never pulled the trigger. Many people use ACDSee here at work to organize their images. I have heard of people using Adobe Bridge too. How are those tags saved in WPG? Does it modify the files at all? Can you export some sort of index if you need to re install or something?

Eric Chadwick · Nov 2014

Not sure how ACDSee does it, but in XnView you can press Ctrl D to edit tags, and it stores a "descript.ion" plain text file in each folder, with a line for each file... filename followed by tags.

cryrid · Nov 2014

nyx702 wrote: »

How are those tags saved in WPG? Does it modify the files at all? Can you export some sort of index if you need to re install or something?

I'll have to check to see how/where the tags are saved. All my images are saved to One Drive, which has so far preserved all the tags between my computers. It might just be a Windows thing that tags the files themselves.

Edit: (I sound like a Microsoft shill, but honestly it is a pretty convenient setup since its all built in and included with the OS)

McGreed · Nov 2014

I was thinking about doing that for ages as well, however I'm using XnView and I was thinking to do that, but the problem is when you decide to move that file to another folder, wouldn't have to redo the whole tag thing again?

SuperFranky · Nov 2014

Folders and folders within folders, that's the easy way.

kanga · Nov 2014

I thought about doing this just last night as I was sifting through images for reference. The more organized you are the more you rule out the random factors though. I use just a couple of folders atm:
anatomy (just mostly models without textures that have something special)
characters2d (mostly concept work and even comic book pencil drawings)
characters3d (work with a particular quality even if it is only an impressive single element)
graphic_des
photos
scenes
vehicles
weapons
scenes

Searching through a general folder can give inspiration on more than just a figure it can give a spark to the whole look. I add stuff to the folders regularly, but also throw out images that no longer seem special as well. I figure if I want something specific then I use google for a refined search. I also use XnView which displays png files too.

SonicBlue · Nov 2014

FenrirFS, don't forget to create a new Profile and change its behaviour on Environment Settings-->Drop Operation.

How do you classify hundreds of saved images?

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