I'm starting to test Shotgun for use on an animated series. I currently have it so each Project is it's own episode. Since it's episodic, we'll be using a lot of the same assets for each episode (main characters, locations, etc). So far as I can tell, each Project in Shotgun has its own Assets. Is there a way to have a Master Assets list that each Project can link to, or do I need to rebuild the asset list for every episode?
thanks!
Hi Brett. We actually recommend you keep all episodes in the same project, which will allow you to share assets across all episodes. We're working on our episodic template now, but here's a list of recommendations for you to consider based on what we've seen other episodic clients use successfully:
I'd try that first to see how it feels. If you like, we can jump on a call with you to do some "tuning". Just shoot an email to support@shotgunsoftware.com
cheers,
dp
Hey Don, thanks for the reply. That's how I had it set up originally, but I ran into problems with my Shot and Scene names. We name our shots 'SH001, SH002', etc and our scenes 'SC001, SC002', etc. If they're all in the same project, I'm unable to have two 'SH001's, which means I would have to name my shot: EP101_SH001 and my scene EP101_SC001.
That's a totally decent work-around, but it makes for a more complex path than I'd like (ie. EP101>EP101_SC001>EP101_SH001).
I'll set up your recommendations and see how it feels.
thanks
-brett
Nevermind, looks like I can have two 'SC001's and link them to different episodes. Problem solved!
Hi Brett, head's up that we made the (incorrect) assumption that Shots and Versions would have unique names in a project. We've since realized that is not always the case. Although it is possible to have names that are not unique, various auto-complete menus will only show the shot code, which is not enough to pick the right shot since there will be many with the same code. As a quick fix, we can update your site to show the Scene codes in the auto-complete. We'll be fixing this for real in the next release or two.
If that workaround sounds ok to you, shoot an email to support@shotgunsoftware.com with the request and we'll hook you up.
Hey Don, I'm not sure if that would work either, since the scenes should also be linked to a specific episode. The way we would set it up, for example, would be:
EP101
SC001
SH001
SH002
SH003
SC002
SH004
SH005
SH006
SC003
SH007
SH008
SH009
EP102
SC001
SH001
SH002
SH003
SC002
SH004
SH005
SH006
SC003
SH007
SH008
SH009
Shoot, that didn't format properly. Let's try that again:
EP101
-SC001
- - SH001
- - SH002
- - SH003
-SC002
- - SH004
- - SH005
- - SH006
-SC003
- - SH001
- - SH002
- - SH003
EP102
-SC001
- - SH001
- - SH002
- - SH003
-SC002
- - SH004
- - SH005
- - SH006
-SC003
- - SH001
- - SH002
- - SH003
Sorry, those SC003 shots would be SH007, SH008 and SH009. But you get the idea. We would hypothetically have an SC001 for each episode, and a SH001 for each episode, which would be named the same thing.
Brett, per Don's response, we can help configure custom displays for your entities during auto-completion based on supplied criteria. Some studios are circumventing this of course by embedding some duplicate information into the naming, because as you can see, once you're really deep into the structure, e.g. a Task on a Shot that's part of a Sequence and an Episode, there's a lot of information that needs to be revealed in the autocomplete in order to give the end-user enough information.
Again, in a future release, you'll be able to custom define how entities get displayed in an auto-complete form (SG internal ticket #6240).