FileIn version management

[arctor]

this is a workflow question…
here’s the situation:
hundreds of shots
dozens of layers in each shot
all the layers have different/changing version #’s

eg:
mylayer_01_v001.#.tif
mylayer_02_a_v007.#.tif
mylayer_02_b_v007.#.tif
mylayer_02_c_v007.#.tif
mylayer_03_v008.#.tif
mylayer_04_v012.#.tif
mylayer_05_a_v001.#.tif
mylayer_05_b_v001.#.tif
mylayer_06_v001.#.tif
etc

if I get a new version of mylayer_05 ( which comes with _a_ and _b_ ) I have to hunt down each FileIn node and manually update the versions, which are in 2 places in the file path:

/mnt/foo/bar/etc/myJob/myShot/myLayer_05/*v001*/mylayer_05_a_*v001*.#.tif

the v001 dir has to be changed to v002 and the file name itself has to change from mylayer_05_a_v001.#.tif to mylayer_05_a_v002.#.tif

doing this a few times is no big deal…but when it becomes 100+ times a day spread over lots of shots it screams for a better way….

so my question is…how do other people manage all this?
using variables gets us part of the way – but since the version #’s don’t change all together it doesn’t work, additionally the layers are not always the same shot to shot so making a $myLayer_01 var doesn’t work either.

any advice would be great.

thanks

[Liquid Child]

One thing I’ve done before is set up a file structure that holds only the latest versions, as to say, the master names. So, you have to keep track seperately which of the versions is the latest (on an excel sheet or something), and use a renamer tool to copy it into the folder (and override the exciting files). This way, every time you open the Shake script, you will have the must updated files in it.
Again, if you take this approach you have to be very carefull and make sure to keep track of the versions and tag if they’ve been converted to the master name… and so on, but it is much easier then having to replace the footage every time in the node view.

Hope this helps.

[clara09]

Try installing the SMSH plugins at http://www.shakeplugins.com/

One of the features is a search and replace tool from within the node view in shake.

You can search ‘myLayer_05/*v001*/mylayer_05_a_*v001’
and relace with ‘myLayer_05/*v002*/mylayer_05_a_*v002’

The main benefit is when you have multiple layers with the same version # which
you can change in one go.

[Author]

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