Reference Collection Manager?

[GregorCZ]

Hello ConceptArt,

I was wondering how you go about managing your reference collection? I just got a new computer and want to get together a collection of reference images I can refer to whenever, but I am wondering what the best possible way to go about this would be.

So, is there a program you use? Like Adobe Bridge? Or just an innovative file structure? If so, how?

Thank you for your time.

[korger]

Im very surprised no one has answered this question, because i guess almost everyone of us has a reference library (I think this subforum is not very visited :D)

I always used internet searches for reference, but a year or so i started building up my own reference library, after watching a podcast from one of fallout 3 , enviromental artists (sorry cant remember the name)

I starting using the method he suggested, a plain directory system.

An example would be.

Characters/Humans(People)/Women/Asian/Mid-age...

Where you have

*Women-Men
*Asian-Caucasian-Black-Sudamerica...
*baby-children-midage-old

or

Characters/Animals/reptiles... then you could add /Big, Medium or small reptiles...

The key is to make as much directories as posible because it will help you when organizing it.

At first It seems very stupid, because you have tons of empty folders, but with the time it will be worth it, when you have milllions of images i guess you prefer to have them extra organized that just into one category.

And the most important, get the habit to save everything u see (for reference purposes) I have the habit to drag and drop into my desktop tons of files and then one day when im bored i start to organize all of them into my reference library.

And the best of this system is that you can keep adding folders, theres no end, and its Cross-Platform, you can use it in windows/mac/linux... without having to worry about software, build the file structure into an external HDD and there you have your own portable reference library :D

Hope this helps, lets see if someone shares his/her system too.

cya :D

[GregorCZ]

Thank you for the reply :)
I think I will start making folders like this then :)

Is this the Fallout 3 artist comment you were thinking of?

I don't think I have any one place I'd consider a favorite for references or texture sources, I've been building a database of refs, textures and inspirations going back to college, now numbering about 350,000 images. (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4960&page=2)

- Rashad Redic


I wonder how he manages his 'database' of images

[korger]

Oh my¡ thats the exact sentence!!!

Nice, thank you for that, now i know his name again :D

That has to be a pretty big database, mine has now, exactly 5,210 files, as i told you there are still a lot of empty folders, but i can find pretty nice material, i will keep feeding the monster :D

One little tip i discovered today, if you use the "Columns" view in mac (i believe theres a similar mode in windows) its a greaaaat way to manage the library, because you can see all subfolders at same time , i wonder why i never tried before lol

cya and good luck with yours!!

[With no.Mute]

/ref..
../Animals
../B&L <<Mean buildings and landscapes
../Bugs
../Human
../Vehicles
../Wep&Arm <<Weapons and Armor
../OtherArt <<other peoples art which i found interesting
../Misc

I still got a very small collection compared to others, will more than likely expand the Human section to be divided into Male/female and portrait and full body.

[Lightship69]

hi there

I think the bast bit of advice i can give on this is do what works for you ......

My reference library is all over the place in folders named "sci fi guns and weapons", "WW 2 vehicles and weapons", "action poses" etc etc and some of the images have found their way from folder to folder. But the main thing is the name structure means something to me and I can quickly find what i want, you could try something like that or start some RW-CD backups of the various things you need that also has the benefit of easy file transfer and protection from computer crash syndrome.

One more note this is quite a friendly place so if you need some thing or cant find a texture for something post it and I am sure someone will help.

all the best

[Mik2121]

This is how I collect my stuff:

- 2D Sprites (all 2d-related stuff, barely check it though)
- Animals
- - Birds
- - Deep Sea
- - Dinosaurs
- - Dragons
- Artist # Name (I have about 10 folders, all classical artists with stuff taken from artrenewal.org)
- Buildings
- - Chinese Classical
- - European Classical
- - Indian
- Cityscape
- Environments
- Games # Game Name (got about 20 of those folders. All with game concept art)
- Hi-Tech (futuristic industrial design)
- Logos
- Low Poly Stuff
- Military (this folder has ~30 subfolders for modern and middle age stuff, vehicles, weapons, camouflages, etc..)
- Monsters
- Movies # Movie Name (got some 10 or so folders. All concept from movies)
- Plants
- Robots
- Vehicles
- Vintage

Basically folders for stuff I've been needing for my projects. But I have to clean up A LOT of this.