How do you organize your files?

[thomassayle]

Hey, I was just wondering how you organized your comic files?

I have folders for each series, within there's a photoshop, clip studio and Images folder.
And every so often I make a backup copy on an external drive.

That works for me what about you? Do you have a folder for each episode?

[TheGentleArtist]

I just have the files have the similar name, but separated by numbers; which would be their page number

[Random_Guy]

I make a unique folder for each chapter, within another file labeled comics, within yet another folder full of other folders labelled art.

[Cavechan]

It's a bit not as organized as I'd like... but I separate by series and then have folders for each chapter and other things such as references, misc art, banners/covers, etc. In the chapter folder are folders for CSP, PSD, JPG/PNG, and vertical.

I name my files like ch01_pg01.

I back up almost everything onto my Google drive. I also have two external hard drives that I back things on to every once in a while. I have to do that again sometime soon. I always back onto the Google drive though since it takes seconds to do.

[K-Rexo_Deactivated]

I save every episode folder including my art files through my flash drive, my virtual machine and my Google Drive.

Every picture I make has ".1, .2" or so on whenever I make modifications to scenes (e.g. add speech bubbles).

[thomassayle]

So you save multiple versions of each stage of the comic?

[K-Rexo_Deactivated]

Yes. If I drew a picture in Medibang and want to export it, I put "Picture15" or whatnot in the file's name.

I paste the same picture in MS Office PowerPoint/Publisher to add speech bubbles or add a few modifications. I then save the picture with the same name but only add a ".1" to the picture's file name (that makes Picture15 .1 per say).

[rajillustration]

curious to see how people are saving and organizing all the pieces of their vertical comics. Part of why I don't like making them is that I can't really work on them on one big file without slowdown, but chopping them up is...kind of a huge pain and it takes up a lot of space. I sort of feel like I'm missing something very obvious when it comes to organizing them.

[Random_Guy]

Use more folders.
You can always use more folders.

[Cavechan]

It ends up looking like this:

Photoshop automatically saves slices into a folder called "images" (it doesn't create a new folder if it already exists in the location) and also auto numbers everything 01, 02, etc at the end.

[rajillustration]

Yeah, slices I get, at least when Photoshop lets me make them the right size, haha. The file-size cap gets me like every time so I have to chop the image in half and then slice again.

But I meant like the process of making the original file itself--you have to do a lot of panels separately, and often it makes it harder to make them cohesive. I'll end up with like 5 files open at the same time to make sure the panels match and all that, tossed into a folder aside, but it's so many different photoshop files taking up extra space...when there's got to be a simpler way. My vertical comics are just sooo big because every panel is like nearly a full page spread.

[thomassayle]

When I make comics that go past the vertical length, I use folders within photoshop for each page. In those folders I have my regular set up. Besides doing the thumbnailing it isn't a pain as I don't have to switch between them. Though I haven't done a lot like that, maybe if there's 5+ pages needing to be done then I would use separate psd files.

[thomassayle]

Ah, do you work on a tablet? Cause if you do then that makes sense.

[pilot-obvious]

I have a folder for the series, separated into concept art, designs, extra content, pages, etc. Within the pages folder, it's separated by volume and then by episode/chapter. I'm really bad at keeping it organized though!

[K-Rexo_Deactivated]

No, I always work on a desktop computer.

[thomassayle]

Huh, thought mediabang was mostly used for tablets. I've never used it, how does it compare to other free software like gimp for example?

[thomassayle]

Huh that sounds like an organised system to me. I have my concept art and draft on paper so I have a organising mess x2! I did think of putting each episode into its own folder but I personally like to have a folder that I can read my comic quickly. Sure I could have multiple copies, but then where will it end?!

There needs to be a balance of organised and convent.

[K-Rexo_Deactivated]

Hmm...

Not quite sure about other free art programs (I just got started with Medibang two months ago, trying to figure it all out along with Krita). I did read that Medibang is more easy on RAM, though.

And Medibang is also available for PCs.

[Cavechan]

I work in page format and then split them up into a vertical format, so I can't say.

[Kiweevil]

The simple answer is, I don't. I'm chaotic like that.