What is an Asset?
An asset is an element that can only be manage using a certain program/software.
Assets used in Blender (software)
- Lamp
- Armature
- Camera
- Cube
First of all Asset Management and File Management are both vital in the development of digital media outcome. They relate to how we structure and organize assets and files during the process of content creation. During the walk cycle project the assets that i used are the blender specific elements like the armature, meshes, camera and lighting whereas the files used would be the blender save files and the .png images which will allow me to create the walk cycle animation.
Asset are organised in blender interface in the top right corner. In the interface I can see all assets present, this technique is very useful during the walk cycle project. I used this technique to check whether the bone are parented correctly, and also i used this technique to show the bones and hide the bones or show the character or hide the character. This technique made it easier for me to see if everything present in my project is arranged properly.
What is a file?
A file is a document of some sort that is saved outside of the application it was created in usually either in a folder stored on a computer, cloud or external device.
File management during this project mainly related to creating appropriate folders and naming them efficiently. For example, i named my folders 'INM', 'Blender', 'Gingerman', these are the folders that i used to save my files during the process. Files such as blender and images were also clearly named to make it easier to identify the content of the file, this was used when i made the walk cycle animation. When i compiled the animation into image files, many .png files were created that if I simply saved them straight to my documents the folder would very quickly become messy and chaotic. To prevent this I simply created an appropriate folder to store the files as to not clutter my other folders.
TASK TWO: For this task you will need to discuss the importance of effective and appropriate asset management and file management in the development of digital media outcome.
Starting firstly on file management, I believe my method of file management was certainly effective and helped with my animation and the importance of having a system that is efficient was displayed in my work. Basically the main reason why file management is important is because it puts your files into a logical structure. Now there are multiple benefits of it being logical. This includes making your work folders nice and clean, by doing this technique it made it easier to locate what I'm looking for rather than having all my files in one folder but this is not efficient it will only make thing even worst because as i mentioned above the part were i need to save my images in one folder to make the walk cycle animation. If i saved everything in one folder with those images it will be chaotic and of course it is not appropriate file management and most importantly it is not efficient. Also naming your files with their right file names will help identify files easier, for example naming files like 'untitled.doc', you may have been writing a lot of words in this files and accidentally deleted it because you thought that its just a useless file because of its name.This proves the importance of using proper naming conventions for files so that you never lose them/delete the accidentally. All these things apply to the walk cycle project and are important to put into practice in some fashion to improve your work.
Efficient management of assets is choosing the tool or function that will not only be effective but also make the process smoother and faster. The obvious reason why we'd want to apply this is because it will make the whole process quicker. Examples of this is not knowing the quickest ways to preform certain processes through things like hotkeys or where in the program important features are. Hotkeys can save you a lot of time and it's a good idea to take to time to learn them to really make working a lot quicker. For example, where hotkeys are useful is when mirroring the skeleton, or armature, it is possible to complete the entire process with hotkeys alone. First of all, duplicate the skeleton 'shift +d' and mirroring and selecting the axis 'ctrl+m' and 'z,y,x axis'. All of these process are done on the keyboard by just pressing buttons. Applying these sort of things in blender is important as if you don't, the outcome will be potentially delayed and you might fail to complete it in the specified time. This would apply to anyone working on a digital media outcome. After all this, these techniques should be applied in every project not just using it specifically on the walk cycle project.
