What Naming Convention Do You Use?

[P.M.B]

1)  namingConvention

2)  naming-convention

3)  naming_convention

4)  naming convention

5)  ?????????

Coming mainly from Maya & some basic coding the 1st method above is deeply ingrained to my muscle memory.

But for reasons I cannot recall I've made a conscious effort in After Effects to move toward the 3rd method above,  separating words with underscores.

What do you do?  And does After Effects have a preference?

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

Inside AE it doesn't matter since all its naming is based on the visible UI string, not some underlying script function/ command like in Maya. Hence whatever works, works. The only real point is to actually name things explicitly rather than relying on AE's automatically created names. After all, the curse of a lot of projects is sloppy naming with everything kust being named "Solid #" or "Comp #'" and simiular and then people go crazy why they lose track of stuff or their expressions break down. File names are a different things of course. I even had a whole article on that on my old site...

Mylenium

[foughtthelaw]

totally depends on the job. I tend to use camelCase by default. if it's a longer project I try to group things with - and use _ instead of a space. spesifically because you can us option+arrows to navigate around whole words and doing so will skip _ and jump right to -. a dumb example of this is

YY_MM_DD-projectName-s010_v001.exr

this makes it easier to jump around and rename things.

[Rick Gerard]

For productions I use industry standard project, scene, and take notation so notes from the set match file names in the projects. I've been doing this for 40 years and it works perfectly. There are many books on the subject of organizing a production and post production workflow.

Inside the composition I use whatever name lets me or any other technical know exactly what I want the layer to do. The only standard there is that track mattes always have TM at the end of the name. Guide layers have GL at the end of the name. Adjustment layers are always RED and if the FX are complicated or involve 3rd party plug-ins I'll add a layer marker and list the effects applied to the adjustment layer in order as a note.

[P.M.B]

Thanks you all. Your answers were helpful and informative.

Inside AE  I mainly use underscores to name folders, layers and comps.

But for my Project related files & folders outside the main application I use lowercase words &

hyphens between every word just because that's what my employer asks for.

My main curiosity was whether or not AE had a preferred format it liked to read & Mylenium answered that question.

Basically AE doesn't really care.

But it's always good to get some insight into how the pros organize their workflows, so thanks.

-Paul