Principles of Naming Conventions for Post Production Workflows – Part 6

Example 3 – Cosmetics Ad Agency

This naming convention was developed for an agency with an in-house studio that produced regular ad campaigns for cosmetic brands from repeat clients.

When I joined the agency, we set out to build an efficient integrated workflow. Beginning with the shoots, the in-house studio would produce and film footage that was immediately ingested, proxied, and backed up to a tape server–which was then used across multiple campaigns for each client. All content was then edited and animated on Adobe Premiere and After Effects (using dynamic links in the timeline). Project files and other media assets lived in an intranet-accessed NAS, while raw footage or proxies were accessed through a 10GbE SAN. Similar to the footage, each client had brand-specific assets that spanned multiple campaigns and followed a lifecycle independent of other assets.

The campaigns had flexible scopes, which were often expanded, or forked into different projects. Each campaign had a job ID, which was used to track all deliverables, assets, hours logged, and client feedback. These job IDs corresponded across filesystems, proofing platforms, and project management portals.

Given these needs the naming convention needed to account for a large team composed of staff and freelancers; as well as all the technology infrastructure and many programs used in the pipeline.

After months of development we created a lengthy and thorough naming document. That presented the additional need of flattening the learning curve for all users as much as possible. To achieve this we set up a dedicated easy-to-remember URL with the naming guidelines, as well as a stylized desktop wallpaper set up on all agency workstations.

This is the naming convention document created for this workflow (I’ve changed all details to protect proprietary information).

Post Workflow Naming Summary

Post Workflow Naming Guidelines

The rules in this document have been developed to ease all processes in the post workflow. Wherever there is confusion, please contact the author for clarifications.

1. Syntax

1.1 Allowed Characters:

When naming folders, files, sequences, or comps, the only characters allowed are uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, underscores _ , dashes – , and square brackets [ ]. Each of these has specific uses and meanings which are defined in this document; do not use them in any other way. Also, do not use any other characters (e.g. @, !, *, &, /, :, etc.). Spaces in filenames are strictly prohibited, use camelCase instead (e.g. ThisIsCamelCase).

1.2. Name Fields:

The naming convention for deliverable/output files, sequences, comps, and working files aims to convey information about their usage and their origin. This information is separated into “fields”; and each field is separated from each other by hyphens – or underscores _ . Underscores are used to reflect dependencies and relationships and should not be used as space replacement. Initialisms are in ALL CAPS, do not use dots (R.A.C. is RAC, e-learning is eLearning).

• Job ID: The first field in the name of any deliverable/output file, sequence, or comp begins with the job number (enclosed in square brackets), which is followed by the client ID. Together, these two portions make up the Job ID (e.g. [1315]BK, [1182]MF, [1286]CL, etc).

• Job Name: The next field after the Job ID is the project name, (e.g. [1315]BK-HeatStylingAgile, [1182]MF-UltraHDLaunch, [1286]CL-TrifectaHowTo). This name is usually a descriptive phrase or word that is related to the client’s name for the job and is interchangeable with the Job ID when talking about a job. In specific cases, the Job Name field can be omitted to shorten the name of a file.

• Deliverable ID: The next field after the Job ID and/or Project Name is the Deliverable ID. The deliverable ID is composed of the deliverable number, and the deliverable name, e.g. [1315]BK-HeatStylingAgile-01HeatDesignHotTip, [1182]MF-UltraLaunch-02Christen, etc.

• Asset ID: The asset ID is used for comps and other assets/media related to a deliverable or job, and it is very similar to the deliverable ID; but it is prefixed by an underscore instead of a dash to convey a dependency or relationship. The asset ID is formed by the asset type letter, asset number, and asset name. In an asset name, the job name field can be skipped. For example, when a comp is related to all the sequences in a job, its name would begin with the job ID and be followed by the asset ID, e.g. [1315]BK_D01LogoIntro (refer to section 3 of this document for asset type initials). When a comp is specific to a deliverable, the name for the comp would be the Job ID, the deliverable number, and then the asset ID, e.g. [1315]BK-01_D01LowerThird. Pre-comps follow a similar naming, such as [1315]BK-01_D01_P01LowerThirdGraphic. This naming will make it easy to track a rendered asset’s origin.

• Iteration: The last field for any sequence’s name and their corresponding exported deliverable file is the iteration field. Iterations are expressed in YYMMDD format for the latest date that the sequence/deliverable was edited; that is, the latest date that any changes were made to the edit (i.e. subsequent exports of the same sequence would not change the iteration). Do not use terms such as V1, V2, or Final in iterations. The name of an exported deliverable/output file should match its originating sequence, e.g. [1315]BK-HeatStylingAgile-01HeatDesignHotTip-160623.mov

2. Specific Usage

2.1 Job Folders

Job folder names have the Job ID and the Job Name.

All job/work folders should be organized into the Asset-Working-Output hierarchy.

2.2 Project Files (.aep, .prproj, .idd, .psd, etc)

All project files have the job ID, Job Name, and Iteration. For project files, the iteration field is alway “Master”, or the Deliverable ID when separating a job into its deliverables. When workload division demands for a job with multiple deliverables to be worked on by several people, save a copy of the job’s Master project file and rename it by replacing the iteration field with the deliverable ID. At the end of a job, all final deliverable sequences should be re-imported into the job’s Master file.

2.3 Sequences and Outputs

All sequences and their corresponding outputs must have the job ID, Job Name, Deliverable ID, and Iteration fields (e.g. [1315]BK-HeatStylingAgile-01HeatDesignHotTip-170301). When making any edits duplicate the sequence into an “Old” bin, and update the Iteration field date; this will make sure that any properly iterated output can be easily tracked back to its originating sequence.

Once an edit has been picture locked and the sequence is moving into the turnover process, 4 additional sequences will need to be made (picture lock, color prep, conform, and output sequences). Append an underscore and suffix to denote the sequence stage:

[1315]BK-HeatStylingAgile-01HeatDesignHotTip-170301_PicLock [1315]BK-HeatStylingAgile-01HeatDesignHotTip-170301_ColorPrep [1315]BK-HeatStylingAgile-01HeatDesignHotTip-170301_Conform [1315]BK-HeatStylingAgile-01HeatDesignHotTip-170301_Output

The PicLock sequence is a direct copy of the last edit iteration sequence.

The ColorPrep sequence has only the footage used in the edit, including what’s composited in Ae dynamic links; and with all motion, time remapping, and other effects removed. The Color Prep sequence is then used to output an XML to send to DaVinci Resolve for color grading.

Once color grading is finished, the Conform sequence is used to bring back the clips rendered from Resolve to paste any attributes that were removed from the Color Prep sequence, and placing it back into Ae Dynamic links where needed.

Finally, once all the color-graded footage has been conformed into the edit, the Output sequence reflects what’s on the Pic Lock sequence, but with graded footage.

2.4 Comps and PreComps

All Comps must have the job ID followed by an underscore that reflects dependency. If a comp is for the whole job, it only needs the job ID; but if it is specific to a deliverable, the comp must also have the deliverable number. The name of the comp after the underscore should be the Comp Number, a number that corresponds to the order in which the comp was created, then followed by a camel case name that reflects the content of the comp (e.g. [1401]BK_D01IntroLogo, [1401]BK-02_D02LowerThirdJane).

PreComps follow a similar naming convention as comps, but they need to have a P before their Comp Number.

2.5 Media and other Assets

All media and assets (except for footage, general files, or general Client files) should be scrubbed of non-allowed characters (including spaces), and then the job ID should be added as prefix to the filename.

2.6 Footage

At this agency “footage” specifically refers to unedited original camera media. Wherever possible the naming of files output by the camera should be changed to meet the guidelines described in this document (with the exception of certain non-wrapped media formats such as Red Raw).

Footage files have three fields: FYMD, DeviceID, and InputName.

• FYMD: this field always starts with a capital letter F, and is followed by the day that the footage was shot in a YYMMDD format. When multiple shoots happen simultaneously, the CliendID is added to the end of the FYMD field.
• DeviceID: this field should be written in all caps, and reflects the device type, letter, and name. The device type can be either CAM for cameras, or AUD for audio recorders. The device letter corresponds to the device order and pairing (CAMA should be paired with AUDA, etc).
• InputName: this field is the original name of the footage file scrubbed of all non-allowed characters, and repeat information (such as date embedded into the filename by the camera). Make sure to process the footage files before they are used in any job.

3. Asset Type Initials

• D : Dynamic Links
• P : Pre Comps
• T : Text or graphics fonts that belong with a paired footage comp
• C : Footage that has been composited so that a Text Comp can be layered over it in Premiere
• N : Nested Sequences