First time building asset library / manager

Pipelines
1

Hey,

I’m slowly picking up some more technical jobs at work, and i’ve written a couple of pipeline tools for us artists to use and i’m about to start tackling an asset library / asset manager.
More specifically we’re just worrying about managing materials for now.

I guess what i’d like to ask is, for you who have built one before, is there any tips or hints you could share. Anything to watch out for / Best practices?

I’m probably going to to use XML for managing the assets instead of a database, only because i’ve never used databases.
That being said, what is the best way to maintain that XML document across various artists, we can use p4merge but i’ve read that it can be problematic merging XML.

Anyway, I’d love to hear some tips / thoughts.

  • Joel
2

Ok - don’t use the XML, databases are quite simple to comprehend, there is a lot of materials and you can start with a simple file based database like sqlite, and afterwards upscale it to some networked sql server.

3

On a large production floor, you should really be working with a database. Is there a need for you to build it? Can’t you use something on the market, like Shotgun?

4

I believe tactic from SoutPaw tech is open source, it should be a good example of the kinds of things you’ll be needing to do:
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