Naming Convention

[Aaleyah Lovell]

Hello!

I have been working on some clothing for a while, and I've noticed that my folders are starting to fill up with textures and I was wondering how do you name your textures and keep your folders organized? I need some ideas before mine get out of hand, right now I have a Polo's Folder, Shirts Folder, Skirts etc. and then each item is named something like "3 Color Striped Polo" but I have a feeling that in the future that may not be the best system if my clothing collection keeps growing... >.< Any insight would be awesome from some people experienced in the fashion area.

[Maryanne Solo]

Hello!

I have a complete section for my stuff. Similar to this:

Folder/Company name

                   Folder *Products

                   Folder/Item 1 name --> folder/textures

                                                    -->folder/items

                                                   --> folder/Old

                   Folder/Item 2 name --> folder/textures

                                                    -->folder/items

                   Folder/Socks   --> folder/Baby Blue

                                                          --> folder/textures

                                                           -->folder/items

                                                          --> folder/Old

                                         --> folder/Pretty Pink

                                                          --> folder/textures

                                                           -->folder/items

                                                           --> folder/Old                                     

and so on. When updating I will add another folder called: Folder/old so nothing gets mixed up. An old folder is good because you can also use it to keep lesser quality items you can use to sell for a cheaper price or include with the latest version.

Every single item has a company/ item description/colour name and version number. Even the textures have a version number.

Eg: BestClothingCoBabyBlueSocks2.1 The texture has the same name because they are in different folders. The name should also indicate what layer the item is, I use U for underwear, S for shirt etc. Try to keep the name as short as possible but totally descriptive of the item. (not easy). OR? BCCBabyBlueSocks2.1

Someone unfamiliar with your items should be able to look at it and say "oh yes that's BestClothingCoBabyBlueSocks2.1, I know what they are" but many do it differently. Think of the end user and make it friendly/easy for them. An early name I tried and discarded was, (real product) "SLikRoyalBlueSouthernCrossOnepieceUTop1.0" :matte-motes-agape:USELESS! Now it is called "SLik1pRoyalBlueSthnXUTp1.0" or similar. Still descriptive still a mouthfull, but a lot neater.

I also use yet another folder for items that have been boxed and ad images finished called *Products. This is also IN the Company name folder as well, right at the top of all the others and has a single named folder inside it for each product.

Look at items you have in your inventory and you will see people use things like * before a folder name to keep them at the top.

I hope that helps ^^? 8^)

Ps: I don't make socks :-)

[Marybeth Cooperstone]

I have also been making clothes and have uploaded many textures over the years. One thing that I do is put the date in the name of the texture when I first start making it in GIMP. For example, if I started today on a lace cami, I would name it "cami lace 8-20-11". I usually start with an existing PSD file, so when I make a v-neck top I would start with a bra file to make it easier to see that the top covered the bra. Then I would "Save As..." with the new name (including the date)

When I finish in GIMP and upload the texture file the general description of the texture and the date (so I can go back into GIMP and make changes) is on the texture in SL.

So far, the only organization of textures I have done in SL is to have a folder called Old of older textures, so their are only a small number of new ones outside of that folder. I should, and probably will, create folders like Top, Bra, Panties, Skirt, etc.

My clothing is organized by clothing type. So they will be in a certain order I start the folder name with a number, such as "1-Bras", "2-panties", "3-tops"," 4-Skirts", etc. so they appear in that order.

When I create an item of clothing from a texture, I add the date on the texture to the description in the properties of the clothing item.

[Aaleyah Lovell]

Thanks Guys!

 

Maryanne Solo - I love the idea of an old folder! I think I'm going to use that when I start to get some old stuff, and I like the idea I think that'll help to keep it names like "ALC3StrpPolo1.0"

 

Marybeth Cooperstone - I like the idea of dates, that is how I organize my photo's in Lightroom but I think I'd be overwhelmed by dates in clothing, I can put times to pics but for some reason I can't picture dates with clothes >.< I do like the number system for the folder, I may use it, we'll see if what I came up with works for me

So I've come up with something like this...

-->Products

     -->Tops

          -->ALCWmnStrpPolo1.0

               -->Textures

               -->Template

     -->Bottoms

     -->Skirts

     -->Shoes

     -->Outfits

          -->Outfitname

               -->ALCWmnStrpPolo1.0

               -->ALCWmnRndJean2.0

[Maryanne Solo]

Looks good to me! The trouble I had was I didn't know of the forums and knew none that could help. Therefore I don't know how my system compares to some of the Guru creators like Pinco J of Babelle for example. Someone like her must have gazillions of textures.

[Marybeth Cooperstone]

Aaleyah,

Just to be clear, the actual clothing in my inventory does not have dates. I right click and pull up the "Properties", and put the texture date in the description. With a name like "Red bra demi trans lace", a texture date in the name would be way too long. I have dates on the names of textures, however. The texture might be named "bra demi trans lace 8-20-11". If only one color is used, (or black and one color), I make one white texture for multiple clothes, then add color using the edit function in-world, with the same item in a number of colors (e.g. "White bra ...."', "Red bra...", Black bra..." etc.).

I should organize my textures (in the SL inventory), by clothing type (bra, t-shirt, pants, skirts, etc.) I wil, if I ever get around to it.

[Aaleyah Lovell]

Cool, I may do that then, cause if I do start getting a lot of folders I may sort them by dates so that'll help later on!