Is it just me or is Project Management, INSANE in the REallusion ecosystem!


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic490516.aspx
Print Topic | Close Window

By AlexKong - 4 Years Ago
 Hey guys! Does anyone know if there's a video, tutorial or article that talks about how to do project management in the Reallusion ecosystem?
I just feel it gets really confusing and hard drive space intensive. Like the same asset can be a project saved only on your windows folders, or on the project tab, it can also be an iavatar.
Then you have one of each of those in Character Creator and one of each in iClone. Oh how I wish there was a way to keep these two synched up or to access the content from CC from within iclone and viceversa, instead of having to import /export it every time.
And if you are sending it from CC to iclone and viceversa, you have to save/replace it on each place (Windows, Project and Avatar) side each time, and then you have no idea which one is the latest version, specially if you left the project for a while and you are retaking it.

And if it is a set, it can get even more confussing since a set can be a scene, a project, a stage, a prop, and you can-t really drag and drop/replace stuff from within the content manager.
Geez it gets super confusing!!!
And also, you can't do asset referencing like in maya or really most other 3D softwares, so each asset is local to each file, so each file is super heavy and if you have several characters and assets on each scene they are crazy heavy and if you are versioning for backup, GEEEEEZ it gets crazy hard drive intensive.
Is there a video to understand how to do project management in the best way? I haven't found it
Or does anyone have any suggestions in this regard?

Sorry for ranting on the subject, just feeling a bit frustrated with how the workflow/asset management is designed... any help, guidance, orientation will be highly appreciated.

Cheers!
By toystorylab - 4 Years Ago
Black text on Black background is GREAT :w00t:
By toystorylab - 4 Years Ago
EDIT
Now White on Black...

Hey guys! Does anyone know if there's a video, tutorial or article that talks about how to do project management in the Reallusion ecosystem?
I just feel it gets really confusing and hard drive space intensive. Like the same asset can be a project saved only on your windows folders, or on the project tab, it can also be an iavatar.
Then you have one of each of those in Character Creator and one of each in iClone. Oh how I wish there was a way to keep these two synched up or to access the content from CC from within iclone and viceversa, instead of having to import /export it every time.
And if you are sending it from CC to iclone and viceversa, you have to save/replace it on each place (Windows, Project and Avatar) side each time, and then you have no idea which one is the latest version, specially if you left the project for a while and you are retaking it.

And if it is a set, it can get even more confussing since a set can be a scene, a project, a stage, a prop, and you can-t really drag and drop/replace stuff from within the content manager.
Geez it gets super confusing!!!
And also, you can't do asset referencing like in maya or really most other 3D softwares, so each asset is local to each file, so each file is super heavy and if you have several characters and assets on each scene they are crazy heavy and if you are versioning for backup, GEEEEEZ it gets crazy hard drive intensive.
Is there a video to understand how to do project management in the best way? I haven't found it
Or does anyone have any suggestions in this regard?

Sorry for ranting on the subject, just feeling a bit frustrated with how the workflow/asset management is designed... any help, guidance, orientation will be highly appreciated.

Cheers!
                               
                  
By AlexKong - 4 Years Ago
Sorry about that, it's been fixed :P
By ckalan1 - 4 Years Ago
Project Management is a major problem with all kinds of media-intensive projects. I have managed, shows, movie projects, website design, animation, etc. It is always a challenge. I have spoken with this company about making this software for generic animation projects. https://www.toonboom.com/products/producer 
It is very expensive. 
By AlexKong - 4 Years Ago
But that looks more like a production tracker... I'm talking more about asset management and just how assets flow back and forth through the workflow/pipeline
By General Picture Animation - 4 Years Ago
My guess is if there is a management problem with projects, it's the fault of the poorly-designed project management strategy on the part of Character Creator.
By michaelrbarton - 4 Years Ago
You need those folders if you have CC3 Pipeline. If you have CC3 Pipeline, you don't need iClone 7.
CC3 and iClone, have different file extensions for characters. CC3 and iClone accept iProps. 
Maybe you should have a shared template folder for both. But if your project has animation in it, that will not 
work in CC3. Because, CC3 only uses the first frame from an animation to create a pose for your character.
If I have 5 to 10 saves from a project, I just delete the earlier saves to create more space.

By michaelrbarton - 4 Years Ago
I have storage problems with my projects too. When I am working on a project, then I get a new idea and drop the project I am working on and start a new project.
Maybe we should set up the project folder like a table of contents. Name the folders for the type of project you are doing (Comedy, Drama, SciFi, Romance)
In Hollywood, they reuse the stage props many times on different TV shows and movies. You may have the same prop or clothes in 3 or 4 projects. 
That takes up space too. Reallusion gives us the tools to create our projects. They don't know how big or small our projects will be. We have to be 
responsible too in how we save and store our projects.
By animagic - 4 Years Ago
For a specific project I have one main folder with subfolders for Scenes, Locations, and things like that. Likewise for Characters and Props that belong to a specific project.

There is actually a way in iClone to collect things that belong together without duplicating them but I don't use that option.

There is tab on the right called Package. Select Custom and there you could organize necessary assets. I forgot how to do that and there doesn't seem to be any useful information available. 
By AlexKong - 4 Years Ago
Thanks man!
By planetstardragon - 4 Years Ago
it's actually not so bad for me,  but then I've been using iclone since version 3,  and things were more simpler back then -  with the advent of the new features like substances and cc3 coming into play,  it was easier for me to adapt because I got where they were going with this -   it doesn't make the system less confusing though I admit

I'm not sure how you are using iclone to create your projects - but i will say from an old school perspective -  it worked out best for me to organize my library in a way I could find things fast  -  vs per project only  - which would become a nightmare ...the few clients I've worked with did a good amount of work,  and as a result of the per project approach,  all those assets are all over the place and I have to depend on memory instead of structure which makes it as you put it "insane"

basically this scenario   "remember that car from that sci fi project way back when ?  what was the name of that project,  where did we store it ?"
vs
:remember that car from the scifi project .... "search vehicles / cars / scifi /"  there it is. 

so I think it's about your personal workflow vs how iclone organizes stuff,  maybe ?
By gordryd - 4 Years Ago
I think one of the OP's main concerns is the duplication of assets from the RL side (same issue I brought up as a wish list item) -- for  many of the items, there is one set in the iClone Template folder and a duplicate set in the CC3 Template folder.  Isn't that what the 'Shared Template' folder should be -- one place where both programs can access the same assets so they're only stored once on the disk?  But unfortunately it doesn't work that way very often.  And why are there ccAvatars and iAvatars?  Just settle on one and store it once!  End rant...
By planetstardragon - 4 Years Ago
thats a nightmare all it's own too -   I have some assets, namely motions x 6

but the structured format will address that too,   ...well not wipe the duplicates,  but give you one solid "go to" library of stuff. 

I experience the same thing from my music side too,  duplicate sound samples ....and actually developed my cg workflow from that 
Organizing a library can be extremely time consuming ....so it's best to make one master library that you use to create ....and all else is in the backroom / storage area to be cleaned at a later date,  or dug through to discover new stuff you forgot you had lol.

structure in workflow is important so you don't get lost in a mess....structure your main workspace,  put everything else in the backroom to sort out at a later date so at least you can be productive now.
By planetstardragon - 4 Years Ago
hrmm,  @Gordryd -  this might be a great opportunity for you to create some asset / workflow organizing plug in ? :alien:

where there is a problem,  there is a plugin waiting to be born!! :w00t:

By 3dtester - 4 Years Ago
Hi, here are my 2 cents ;)

I think there is no project management in CC3 and iClone at all.
What we have is an independent asset management.
Additionally, all items are saved in the project file (which is nice and bad at the same time ;))

My work-around:
I keep all characters, clothing and accessoires in CC3.
In iClone i only manage animations and environment stuff.
If i have to change a character, i always open it in CC3, edit it there and send it back to iClone.
Finally that seems to work pretty smooth.

Since there is the Smart Gallery, it happens that i have duplicate clothing and other stuff.
At some point i will have to take care for these unnecessary duplicates, but currently i still have enough disk-space.
By Neole F - 4 Years Ago
It would be much easier if CC3 and iClone shared the characters format and folders. So if I added characters to CC3, they automatically get added to iclone characters, and if I modify characters in CC3, they automatically change in iClone characters tab.

I don't quite understand the need for separate character folders for CC3 and iClone, and having to export every character in CC3 as iAvatar before I can use them in iClone.

Can anyone explain the reason?
By Amper Sand - 4 Years Ago
I think it's a marketing thing (not unique to RL): if you want a particular character/clothing/hair/makeup/ in iClone you have to buy also the CC.
By planetstardragon - 4 Years Ago
the quickest fix to this without turning it into a coding nightmare.
Reallusion can consolidate all libraries related to all their products to a master directory,  and redirect the custom folders through shortcuts.

While users can do this themselves as a fix,  it's not recommended on the Main RL Libraries -  because RL smart stuff will just rebuild their old structure and recreate the problem.

what you could do though is re-design how your custom tabs work to include the main template and the custom template with shortcuts -  but that can turn into a truck load of work thats subject to change every time the smart gallery moves stuff around.   -  I personally just want to spend more time makng art than fixing bugs - so i just adapt to how it is now and keep my custom libraries organized like a master library.  
By planetstardragon - 4 Years Ago
another idea for a workflow that could work from the music side of art -  the ability to create playlists -   that's how it works with the DJ software,   we go through different files and create topic themed playlists and add related content to them.    That could be a great thing for RL products especially if the playlists work in both CC3 and Iclone

you go down your assets ....create a "Mystery movie theme" or "Sports Hair Styles" playlist -  and add all the assets to that playlist. your main library can be a trainwreck,  but the playlists keep everything tidy haha!  

( same with music actually,  so much new music comes out so fast, it's hard to organize files in a meaningful way as a dj - ...date vs mood -  so I organize by date ....and create playlists by mood. -  for music production / composition -  I use an entirely different "main library" approach to create music fast.  so there it's more like a snares folder,  a high hat folder,  kick drum folder,  vocals etc...no date or mood. which is how I organize my custom Iclone library )
By Neole F - 4 Years Ago
That can just work by adding tags Metadata to all content and then having the ability to have a custom tags organization the way you want -

Horror all
Horror clothes 
Horror characters 
Toon all
Toon characters 
Toon hair 
Etc

That still doesn't take care of the CC3 export to iAvatar everytime we modify a character and having separate folder structures for cc3 and iclone for the same assets. 


By planetstardragon - 4 Years Ago
the caveat with that approach tho,  is having to label every single file.  I think im like over 10k files in motions alone .it would literally take me months of work to label my library - not to mention all the stuff i have offline that i haven't converted yet. 

with a playlist, a simple drag and drop or right click to add is much faster way to handle large libraries that constantly get updated without turning it into a massive labeling / indexing project.


By Neole F - 4 Years Ago
You are right I hadn't thought about that!