Version Control for Graphics

Question

Say a development team includes (or makes use of) graphic artists who create all the images that go into a product. Such things include icons, bitmaps, window backgrounds,

Answer 1

With respect to diff and merging, I think the version control is more critical for graphics and media elements. If you think about it, most designers are going to be the sole owners of a file -- at least in the case of graphics -- or at least I would think that'd be the case. I'd be curious to hear from a designer.

Answer 2

Yes, having art assets in version control is very useful. You get the ability to track history, roll back changes, and you have a single source to do backups with. Keep in mind that art assets are MUCH larger so your server needs to have lots of disk space & network bandwidth.

I've had success with using perforce on very large projects (+100 GB), however we had to wrap access to the version control server with something a little more artist friendly.

I've heard some good things about Alienbrain as well, it does seem to have a very slick UI.

Answer 3

We use subversion. Just place a folder under /trunk/docs for comps and have designers check out and commit to that folder. Works like a champ.

Answer 4

@Damian - Good point about the tagging and cross referencing. That's true; while I haven't working with many designers on a software development project, I have worked for a company that had a design department and know that this is an issue. Designers are still (perpetually) looking for the perfect system to handle this sort of thing. I think this is more suited to a design department for shared access, searching and versioning, etc to all assets -- where there is a business incentive to not reinvent the wheel wherever/whenever possible. I don't think it would apply for a project-oriented manner as tagging and cross referencing wouldn't be quite as applicable.

Answer 5

In my opinion Pixelapse combined with a backup solution is the best version control software for graphics that I've found thus far. It supports adobe files and a bunch of normal raster images. It has version by version preview. It autosaves when the files update(on save). It works like dropbox but have a great web interface.

You can use it in teams and share projects to different people. It also support infinite reviewers which is great for design agencies. And if you want you can publicly collaborate on projects that are "open".

Unfortunately you can't have a local pixelapse server, so for backup my current setup is that I have the Pixelapse folder(like a dropbox folder) inside a git repo for snapshot creation.

Answer 6

I would definitely put the graphics under version control. The diff might not be very useful from within a diff tool like diffmerge, but you can still checkout two versions of the graphic and view them side by side to see the differences.

I don't see any reason why the resultant graphics shouldn't be kept in the same version control system that the coders use. However, when you're creating graphics using PSD files or PDN files you might want to create a seperate repository for those as they have a different context to the actual end jpeg or gif that is produced and deployed with the developed application.