Root Directory and Content Building Scenes

A production is not only composed of the series or movie’s scenes, there are also animatics, backgrounds, character builds, colour models, references, storyboards, and so on. These elements must be stored somewhere.

Most of these elements can be stored in the Harmony Network database.

There are two main elements that is recommended to store in the production’s environment:

Colour models
Character builds

Generally, a studio will create a special Job for the models. In the Environment, you will find Jobs for the episodes: ep001, ep002, ep003, and so on.

You will also find a special Job model where you will find three colour model scenes:

Characters
Props
Effects

Each of these scenes contain the colour models related to them. For example, the character scene will have one layer per character containing all of the colour model drawings belonging to it. If a movie has 50 characters, the character colour model scenes will contain 50 layers, each with a different character. If the character has five different models such as raincoat, regular clothes or pyjamas, the character’s layer will have five drawings.

In the same model job, you will find the cut-out character builds scene. Unlike the colour model scenes, the build scenes only contain one character. As a character build is composed of many layers and functions, it is not recommended that you build more than one character per scene. So, if a movie has 50 cut-out characters, the Job model will contain 50 character builds scenes.

Even if you have a structure integrated in Harmony, it is recommended that a root directory be created for your external elements such as audio clips, bitmap backgrounds, references, and so on. This directory should be stored on the server or be regularily backed up if you are a single user working on a standalone machine.

The Root directory contains subdirectories which hold such elements as animatics, backgrounds and audio files. You must create these subdirectories and name them accordingly. For example, store the backgrounds used in your production in a subdirectory called backgrounds or adventure_backgrounds.

Keeping an organized work structure will give you greater control and ease. You can further improve the organization by grouping similar elements into categories.

Animation Project Folder Structure for Building Content

Here is a list of typical subdirectories: