Tortoise SVN Tutorial and Explanation

all right welcome thank you for watching this video if you're here and you're watching this odds are you're with us on the furniture film title pending so thank you for joining us for the 3d production we are going to be using what's called SVN servers throughout our 3d production and if you've never worked with an SVN server this video is oriented to try and help you learn what is an SDN server what does that mean how do we use it on the project and what do you need to know so you can get started working on your modeling texturing rigging animation anything else you need to start doing so this videos can be broken up into two parts the first part is going to be about what is an SDN server what does it mean how do I kind of like understand what's going on and then part two is actually like why do you click and how do you use it so that you can get started on the project if you're really comfortable with SVN servers you could skip part one if you really want just to kind of get a refresher but I highly recommend that everybody watch the whole video whether you've used it before or not just so that you can have a refresher and we don't have any mistakes down the road all right so that's part one uh let's get started and start learning about what is an SVN server alright part one what is an SDN sir and how does it work like what what does that mean so I'm just gonna open up paint here and kind of draw and hopefully you can see this while I'm kind of talking in the corner and you guys can get a good idea of what I'm talking about so I'm gonna be looking at my notes and SVN server is kind of like Google Drive so it holds the file online on another computer that acts like a storage device so there is a computer at depaul that is going to hold a folder of all the files for the entire film for us and if you were to look let's say that there is this little box here and this is the server this is going to hold everything that we have on for our film and an SVN server allows it to make copies and send it to different people so say there's like a person here and here and these are all people that are working on the film the server the SPN server what it does is it will send a copy of all of the folders over to you and you and you and what that does is that allows everybody to work on different files at the same time and then what they'll do is they'll say here are my changes and they'll send them back to the server then the server says ok I'm going to take your changes and your changes in your changes and update it so that the server has a brand-new folder of all the updated files ok so the idea is it's almost kind of like Google Drive where you'll check out like a copy of all the files you can start changing stuff and then say make my copies official and then change the big folder of files that is on the big computer at depaul that has our whole film on it ok so an Espeon server is just kind of like a fancy version of Google Drive this is really useful because everyone can work on stuff at the same time and not really have issues with you have to redownload everybody else's work on Google Drive and you can be like oh I'm missing a file I have to figure out what file it is the server will always make sure you have all of the files all the most recent versions and it makes it really easy for you to like put up your changes ok so it makes it so much smoother and easier to work on the film the big thing that really helps is that allows us to do referencing so what is referencing referencing is this idea that it's almost like a game of telephone that Maya and other 3d programs can do so imagine you make an asset like a 3d model say you have a 3d model you can open up say you want another shot that's going to have that 3d model in it there's two ways to to bring this model into the shot you can import it or you can reference it now if you import it try to do this if you import it you now have this shot that has the 3d model in it so if you were to delete this 3d model it would still be like the original file it would still be in that shot okay because the 3d model now lives in that shot file if you reference it you just have this shot file and what it does is that every time you open this shot file it looks back and says hey read this little other file to know what the 3d model looks like so it doesn't actually understand what what the 3d model is it just says oh I'm supposed to go look at what that other file is and then like copy it into here every time you open it so it's a smaller file and it lets you change this 3d model because it's not living in the file it will always go back so if I decide that I want to make this 3d model you know number two I don't know if you can see that if I want to make this 3d model number two like an updated version in the imported version you're still going to have the old version of them file 3d model number one in referencing now when you open up your shot next time it's going to have model number two so it automatically updates everything that you're working on and that lets us work on a lot of different steps of the film at once without worrying about having to bring things in over and over because things get changed or fixed or updated we have a 3d character like a 3d rig say that gets referenced into a shot animation so they animate the shot and then that shot is referenced into lighting that is referenced for the VFX let's just say that this is kind of a simple pipeline okay anytime if you're doing referencing any time you change this 3d model right here all these are going to change for you which it's awesome if you have an imported version that means that every single step down the road you have to bring in your new version of the character the other thing is that if I were to say add another control for the foot it's in this 3d model now I don't have to redo the animation I've already done with this character most likely I can probably just go in and hey there's a new controller that I can work with cool you don't have to redo everything so it saves so much time and allows you to fix things down the road so you don't have to get them perfect the first time so the way that we're gonna work on referencing files is that we have two folders that we're gonna work in in our server so back in this little server over here we're gonna have two types of folders we're gonna have a working folder and we're gonna have a reference folder now the reference folder is what is actually going to be read by each of these files okay so this little like 3d rig that gives brought into everything it's gonna be the reference folder and that's gonna be I don't know box underscore wrath okay and that's gonna be read by every single file that's using that box in our working folder we can have as many versions that's where we actually edit what the box is so we can have box version 1 box version 2 box textured box you know rigged you know we can have all these different versions and we can keep working on it but whenever we want to update the very that you see in every shot after that that everybody's going to be using and saying let me go look at what the box is supposed to be they're gonna be looking back at this one right here so when you want to get a new updated version all you have to do is take one of these versions that like box is the most recent one you just save as and save over that and all of these shots will be updated automatically imagine you're animating a film with 50 shots and you get all the way to the end of animation and on the last one of the last shots you realize oh my gosh we totally forgot to make a controller for Simone's ear I don't know something random like that and you realize all the shots have been missing the special little ear animation that you need if you haven't used referencing and you've just been importing your character and they're all your shots that means you just have to reanimate the entire film if you want any shots of that year because you have to start all of that over with referencing you can go back into the original character file update and add a little ear control and then you still have all the animation and the effects and everything you've done so far and they just get updated with that new controller if this is a little confusing that's okay we're here to help if you have any questions you can talk to Noah or I on discord or email us and you'll be able to like we can help understand and explain some of this to you because it's a little complicated um so we're gonna have these two folders never edit your reference file this little guy like never edit this folder you only want to save over it when you're done with your next version always be working in your working folder that's how it's gonna work and every single thing we work on in 3d is gonna have to folders are working in a reference one of the biggest things that you need to make sure you don't do with your reference is change the name because all of these little files they look for this box file based on it the name of it and where it is if you move this to another place or you change the name to box boxes underscore ref they're all gonna break and they're all gonna be like oh there's no box and you have to go back in the folders and you have to find it again and it's just as annoying as if you were importing almost so the big thing is that you can't move it where you can you can't change the name so when we same as we have to make sure we're using the same exact name but that is the idea of referencing and why we're gonna be using an SVN server and that's what it does so it allows everybody to update so somebody could be working on box while somebody else is animating and then one day when I open my animation I'm going to realize oh this box has color now because some other artist was working on that one thing that you do need to be careful of this is let's everybody work together on a lot of different files and then push them all together because back over here with this little like SVN server area you can work you know person one can be working on the box person two can be working on animation person three can be working on lighting lighting all of that totally fine and then when they push it all the changes back up to the server the server will understand it put it all together and everything will be hunky-dory if however person one is modeling the box but person two is also modeling the Box say they're both working on I don't know box texture over here say they're both working on that file and they both put up changes that's where we can have an issue because the server won't know which person to listen to if you have two people yelling at you you know Oh take my take my box and then the other person is like no take my box the server doesn't know who to choose and somebody's work is going to get lost like nothing happened so we do need to be careful and that's why we have such a detailed and organized spreadsheet of who is taking what tasks on the film so we know that no one's going to be accidentally working over somebody else's work or having problems where the server is yelling at you to not know who to listen to that's really the only thing we have to watch out for if you're working on different files like if you're working on one person's working on something than another person referencing that file that's totally fine the estimator is going to be great but you do need to be careful not to work on the same file at the same time okay so that should cover everything for part one that's a basic understanding of what is an SVN server and how does this all work with the film I hope that made sense next we'll start part two which is how do you actually create your folder and start putting your work up into the server so now that we know what an SVM server is how do we set it up and how do we start using it so on the screen that you can see here I'm actually going to be making my own little copy and repository so that you guys could see everything that we're doing and we'll go from there so real quick the first thing you need to do to start using the server is to download tortoise SVN so tortoise SVN is going to be found at this little website tortoise SVN net /downloads and tortoise SVN is a software that is free and you download it so that you can talk to the server at depaul this is how we're gonna actually download files and upload our new changes it's kind of like if you were to use google chrome or some internet browser to view Google Drive and start putting up files and downloading new ones is how you see all the files and everything that you can use I'm also going to be going down this checklist we've made a little checklist I'm gonna show it on the screen here this is a little checklist that we've made for the server so that you understand how to set this up how to update your files how to do everything that we're gonna go over so that if you need a refresher after watching this video and you don't want to go through and like actually we watch the whole video because I know that might be a little long there's this quick little checklist to remind you and kind of get you back to back to speed on things so first step is we're going to download tortoise first thing you need to do is you need to make a brand new folder so you have test folder SVN this is the folder we're going to use so if you right-click on this folder I just happened on my desktop on this other screen there's this little button now there these buttons for tortoise that are they talk about SVN checkout tortoise SVN and if you you get like little menus that is what tortoise will do when you download it so the first thing we need to do to start our new repository is to do an SVN checkout if you click this it will open up this little window this is asking what is the URL or the link of the server that you're using and this is going to be a link that everybody's going to get and this is our it's called 3d capstone and that's our server that's the link to get to our server and to Paul so once you put that link in there and this is the folder that you're choosing which we already set everything else should be all set and you got to hit OK once you hit OK it's going to ask you for some login information like a username and password you should use the same kind of information that you used to login to campus connect your student ID and password that you use the way that we're adding you on to have access to the server is by using your DePaul information your student ID number and things like that so it should ask you for that same login information since I've already done it it's not going to ask me but once you do it once you can click this little checkbox to say remember I like permanently keep my access and that will allow you to not have to log in every time you use the server so once you hit OK it's gonna open up this little box here and it's basically just gonna start downloading everything from the folder and from the server into your little copy so you're gonna see all of these little files start popping up and what it's doing this is downloading all the folders and everything the more we work on the film the bigger this is gonna be so it's gonna be a bit a bit of a big download when you first start because it's gonna have a lot of files but in the future it's only going to download the new stuff so once you do it once everything else will be quicker from then on out okay so then you can click OK and you'll realize that this folder now has a little green check next to it that little green check is tortoise saying it is up to date and you are ready to go so now if you were to click on this and open it up I'll drag this over you're going to see now we have all of these folders and they're all have green checks and these are all the folders that are on the server so if you know Maya well you'll notice these are all folders that happened when you make a Maya file project some of these are new that we've added on our own which is fun but every time you work in Maya which there's gonna be another little checklist about that every time you work in Maya you're gonna set this little folder you made as the project folder and you'll immediately be able to load everything you need from these files but if in each of these files like say scenes which is where all the Maya files would live you're gonna see all of these folders if you remember from the first part to this video you'll remember we have working and ref folders so there are referencing works we have characters references and characters working props reference and props working so if you're working on props if you go into the reference folder this is where all of our different referenced folders that all of the other shots animation lighting VFX will all read later on down the road but when you're actually working on stuff and making changes you're going to be in the working folder and each folder is going to have a folder for all of the assets so in the home folder there's gonna be Bowl curtains kitchen counter picture frames wall lights in the city there's going to be all the things you see in the city and vice versa and this is where everybody's gonna be working on their Maya files alright so now that you've got this all downloaded one other thing that you need to know how to do is update it so well if you've just downloaded this it's probably going to be up-to-date because odds are in the last 30 seconds no one has made any new changes on the server but if you're coming from overnight or you it's been a few days since you've last worked on it before you start working every single time you need to right-click on this folder and hit SVN update that's going to ensure that you're using the most up-to-date files and make sure that you are working with all the correct files that you need to be using if you don't sp an update you could be working with old files and then when you try to put up new changes the SVN server will be really confused and start yelling at you so always SVN update before you start working and when you do that it's just gonna open this it's gonna download anything and then it will be like update finished and you can hit OK and you're all good to go there's three main things you'll need to know how to do how to add new folders to the server how to rename files and then how to move files from one folder to another folder because those are surprisingly a little tricky there's some little little things you need to know so if we have our folder I have this little folder called test files that is in the server you can tell because they all have green checkmarks which means they are on the server and up-to-date so in there there are some little test files that Josh Jones Noah and I have been using to make sure the server is working there's a little like meme that random picture a Pixar picture this little like menu that Josh put up things like that ah say we want to put a new picture on to the server like this little testing picture that I downloaded if I drag it into this folder you'd be like great it's on the server now right no it's not the server doesn't know to actually listen to this file right now it's ignoring it you know it's ignoring it because it doesn't have this little green checkmark that doesn't mean us on the file or on the server so to add a new file you have to right click it go to tortoise SVN and then hit this little Add button that Add button will tell the server hey this needs to go on next time we're officially making all our changes and I'm giving everything over to you add this on to the server and it will be like okay and it gets us brand-new blue czy blue plus like icon and tells you that it is ready to go it is gonna be added next time you you officially push all your stuff to this server the other thing you need to know how to do is how to rename files so if I were to rename this check out underscore zero - if you just rename it normally you would click this little rename button down here and rename it don't do that that is actually not the correct way to rename something on the server because if you rename that the server doesn't know you renamed it it just knows I'm looking for check out version Oh - and now I can't find it so I guess he must have deleted it by accident I'll just keep it on the server and next time I'll just let him he'll redownload it and get another copy of it that's called the check out version or ez underscore 0 - it doesn't understand you've renamed it you need to go up to the tortoise SVN menu here and hit rename this little button here this will tell the server hey I'm renaming it but server listen to what I rename it so that you know not to be looking for the old name so now you can go on here and you can say version 3 ok and you'll see that the new named folder or the new name file has the blue plus that to be added to the server great huh because when the server actually renames a file it's not just switching the name like we'd think they are what it's doing is it's copying it and making a new version of it with a new name and deleting the old version so this is going to add the new version to our server that's a little confusing but just know that you need to hit the tortoise version of rename not the normal rename otherwise you're gonna get a whole bunch of different weird copies of your files that you don't need all right the only other thing is how do you what happens if you edit a file if you change it up so if we were to take this picture here and open it up with paint and then we can just kind of like mark on it like this and then save ok we've changed it's beautiful like that would be the same as adding animation or doing some new you know mesh modeling or whatever you've now changed a file but it's not a new file it's the same one you've just changed some of it well now if you go you'll realize that this has a red exclamation point that red exclamation point means this file is different it's different than the one that's on the server and it could be a newer version it could be an older version I'm not sure but it's different and this lets you know that when this got this little red exclamation point that means next time you officially make all your changes permanent to the server it's gonna change and switch out whatever the version of the server has it's gonna switch it out for this new changed version okay like this is going to become the new permanent version that's what that red exclamation point means okay so that's how all of that happens and how it works so the only other thing you need to know is how to move a folder or a file to another folder say we have this other file that's also in the server how you'd normally move the files you would just click and drag it over here right no don't do that via the same thing like renaming SVN server doesn't know you did that it's just going to say well where did it go I'm just gonna give them another copy because you must have not downloaded it or something what you need to do to move another file somewhere is if I wanted to move this Pixar file there what I need to do is I need to copy it with like ctrl C or I could just right-click it and hit copy and I need to paste it into the new one so now it's in that file what I needed to then do is add it because it doesn't understand see there's no green checkmark you got to hit SVN ad now it's got that blue + perfect and then for this one it's gonna have it in both places if I don't want it in this place I have to go to tour right click on it tortoise SVN and delete it because it's the same thing if I just hit delete it the server doesn't know I deleted it it's just gonna keep redownload in it I have to tell the server delete it okay now everything's gonna be good the last step though is say you're done working for the day and everything is finished you're miles done time to call it a night and you need to make all these changes official because right now they've still got these blue pluses and these red exclamation points to say that they will be changed but they haven't changed yet how do you change and officially what you need to do is you'll realize that there's a red exclamation point on the folder that means that there is some change somewhere that needs to happen if you right-click this then the big folder always do the biggest folder just right-click it you can hit SVN commit SVN commit is committing to those changes it's saying I want these changes to be official and for them to go on to the real server so that everyone else that updates their files is gonna get these files and get the changes I've made so if you hit SVN commit you're gonna get this little box and this little box is gonna show all the changes you've made so you can see that we've got we added a new JPEG to our editing folder called Pixar because we moved it over you can see that we've changed the CG meme file because we drew on it it had that red exclamation point you can see that we deleted check out version two and added the new one check out version three that was what we did to rename the file that makes sense we deleted the old version of that Pixar remember we moved it from test files into the editing folder we deleted the old version and we added a brand new testing picture that little fake Pixar picture that we added in the very beginning we added that new file you can see all of these and if you don't want some of them you can uncheck them or you could check them all but you're gonna see all the changes you've made in this little window once you're like yep make them official you just have to hit OK and it's gonna make them all official and awesome and now you'll see that the folder has a brand new green check mark so that anyone else that goes and they download the folder or they hit SVN update that little download is gonna include all of those changes you've made and everybody else is gonna have the changes you made so if you updated and committed a brand new you know character rig all the people that are animating are now gonna get that version of the character rig you know what I mean so that is the way that you're gonna actually download everybody's files in the folder and how you're going to push up your new changes so to review there is a checklist to go through all that if you just need a refresher later on we've made a checklist that we'll be linking in the discord right here that goes through how to do all those things and what the menus are supposed to look like if you ever get confused you ever have questions don't try to guess and just ask us okay we can help you and if you're just guessing and you're like just hitting buttons and you're like I don't know it's broken then stop ask us you're much better off asking us if you're stuck and then learning how to do it correctly then guessing and accidentally maybe deleting something you didn't mean to or messing up somebody else's work it's it's safer to just ask us for help if you're confused this is a lot of information it's okay if this is brand new to you and it's confusing SBN servers get much easier the more you work with them and they become a godsend they're just a little intimidating when you first start but this is how we're gonna be working on the entire film and how you're going to get started on all the work that you're gonna be working on for the next however long you'll be with us so thank you so much for watching I hope this has helped and if you guys have any questions feel free to reach out to us alright thanks guys bye

Channel: Noah Adamson

Views: 17,256

Rating: 4.8915253 out of 5

Keywords: SVN, TortoiseSVN, Animation

Id: ylVz1rT7pw8

Length: 30min 40sec (1840 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020