Organizing Files for Production: A Simple Folder Structure That Saves Your Sanity
- AVG Guild
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Organizing files for production isn’t the flashy part of animation, VFX, or game development, but it’s one of the biggest multipliers of speed, clarity, and fewer late-night “where is the latest version?” panic moments. A solid structure keeps your team aligned, protects the work you’ve already done, and makes it easier to onboard new artists without a full guided tour of your hard drive.
Below is a straightforward, battle-tested folder strategy you can apply to student films, indie projects, collabs, and even studio-style pipelines. It’s designed to keep creative exploration flexible while still making “latest and greatest” easy to find.
The Big Idea: One Project Folder to Rule Them All
Start with one main folder per project. Everything lives underneath it. No scattered assets in downloads, no “FINAL_FINAL2” hiding on someone’s desktop. Under the project folder, you will have subfolders of all the main stages of the production.
Example:
ProjectName/
00_Admin/
01_Ideation/
02_Assets/
03_Shots/
04_Composite/
05_Product/
The numbers aren’t mandatory, but they help keep folders in a predictable order across machines and operating systems.
00_Producer: The “Boring” Folder That Prevents Disaster
The Producer folder holds everything production needs to stay on track—schedules, planning, and communication docs. Yes, it’s the “boring” stuff, but it’s also what keeps projects from collapsing under their own ambition.
Suggested subfolders:
Schedules/
Time_Tracking/
Meeting_Notes/
Deliverables/
Budgets/ (if needed)
Contacts/ (optional)
Keeping these documents centralized makes it easier for the whole team to work from the same plan. It also avoids the classic problem of “three different schedules in three different places.”
01_Ideation: Where the Creative Chaos Belongs
The Ideation folder is your early sandbox: the place for brainstorming, exploration, and all the creative building blocks before production gets serious.
Suggested subfolders:
Concept_Art/
Characters/
Environments/
Story/
Scripts/
References/
Moodboards/
Styleframes/
This is where you keep the “why” of the project, not just the “how.” When you’re deep in production and someone asks, “What were we going for again?” you’ll be glad this exists.
02_Assets: Build Once, Use Everywhere
The Assets folder is for anything reusable across the project—models, rigs, hair, cloth, and other “one-time needed things” that get referenced repeatedly.
Suggested subfolders:
Models/
Rigs/
Hair/
Cloth/
Textures/ (Autodesk Maya refers to this as sourceimages)
Materials/ (optional depending on pipeline)
The WIP Rule (Non-Negotiable if You Want Peace)
Inside each asset folder, create:
WIP/ (work-in-progress iterations). This file can have references.
One “latest and greatest” file outside the WIP folder, This file should have all of the references imported. That will lock in that file with exactly what’s there and other file changes wont interfere.
Example:
Rigs/
CharacterA/
WIP/
CharacterA_Rig_0001.ma
CharacterA_Rig_0002.ma
CharacterA_Rig.ma
Why this works:
Artists can explore freely in WIP without fear.
Anyone joining the project can grab the correct file instantly.
There’s a single obvious “approved” version for shot work.
CharacterA_Rig.ma can be referenced into animation without needing to be “updated” with the latest version number. It wil be automatic. If a rig update does happen to “break” animation, the animator can temporarily reference the WIP that worked, until the rigger fixes the latest rig file.
This rule alone will clean up most production chaos.
03_Shots: Shot-Specific Work Lives Here
The Shots folder is for anything tied to a specific shot rather than a reusable asset. This is where most of the day-to-day production happens.
Bonus tip: Name your shots in increments of 5. Why? Because at a random point in production you are going to want to add a shot in between an existing shot somewhere. This makes it easy. When you inevitably do that, don’t go for the next number, also leave some digits in between (ex, 5, 8, 10 instead of 5, 6, 10). There is a chance if you added one you will add 2.
Organize by shot number, then by department:
Shots/
0005/
Animation/
FX/
Lighting/
0010/
Animation/
FX/
Lighting/
And again, use the same rule:
A WIP/ folder inside each department folder
The “latest and greatest” file outside WIP/
Example:
0005/
Animation/
WIP/
0005_Anim_001.ma
0005_Anim_002.ma
0005_Anim.ma
As for file naming, use the shot number, underscore, the subject. (001_Anim, 001_FX, 001_Lighting) For the WIP files in with the version number as the suffix.
This reduces confusion when multiple artists touch the same shot, and it prevents accidental renders from old files.
04_Composite: The Cut
If your project is animation (or VFX-heavy), add a dedicated Composite folder. This is where the final assembly and final comps live—your last stop before delivery.
Suggested structure:
Composite/
WIP/
Composite_001.ae
Composite_002.ae
Composit.ae
The key idea: this is where final composite files go. Not scattered among shots. Not hiding in someone’s personal folder. Centralized and easy to locate when you’re exporting the final deliverables.
05_Product: The Final Video Product
This is where your video and all its iterations will live. You want it clear in one folder that you don’t have to dig through. Easy to grab on a whim and say here is my video.
Suggested structure:
05_Product/
WIP/
FilmTitle_001.mp4
FilmTitle_002.mp4
FilmTitle.mov
FilmTitleCompressed.mp4 (Optional depending on submission requirements)
The key idea: Anyone can ask you to see your film and you only have to go to Project/05_Product and Boom! You have your latest and greatest ready to show or submit to film festivals. The naming convention is precise, so no need to rename for special cases. It’s ready to go.
A Quick Reality Check on Organizing Files for Production
Organizing files for production isn’t about being tidy for its own sake. It’s about:
finding the right file fast
reducing rework
keeping teams aligned
and protecting your project from confusion as it scales
Even if you’re a solo creator today, you’re future-proofing your workflow for when collaborators join (and they will). Even if you do the entire thing solo, time will pass between tasks, and you need to be able to easily find things. You should never be beating yourself up, wondering where you saved something 6 months ago and not knowing what you named the file at 2am when you were exhausted.
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