WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 Hi guys, welcome to Version Control! In this video 2 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.000 we're going to talk about what Version Control is, why you would 3 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:12.000 want to do this, and how to change Blender's Save Versions, 4 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:16.000 and finally look at some of the other options that we have. 5 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.000 So let's hop straight over into Blender! And we've got our wedge in front 6 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.000 of us. Now, at the moment, I hope you have been 7 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.000 saving as you've been going along, but as you've been saving, Blender's 8 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.000 default is to just save one prior save, one version 9 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:36.000 previous. Now I know that the task coming up, 10 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.000 for what we're about to start doing to this periscope, 11 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.000 will actually be almost unrecoverable. I know we're about to 12 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.000 make some fundamental changes to that mesh. Now, it is 13 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.000 important that if you are about to try something 14 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000 with your model that you don't mess it up, 15 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.000 that you can always get back to this deviation point that you're 16 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.000 about to do. So first of all, let's explore Blender's 17 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:08.000 system. So if we go up to File 18 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:12.000 and go to your User Preferences, underneath the File 19 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:16.000 tab we have Save Versions. 20 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:20.000 Now you'll notice mine is set to 0, that's because I use a different way of 21 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.000 keeping track of all the changes I make. However, 22 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:28.000 you may want to set that to something like 5, 23 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:32.000 maybe even a few more, not too many more. And the 24 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.000 reason for that is, it's difficult to 25 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.000 distinguish basically what the versions are. You basically get your 26 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.000 name.blend 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. depending 27 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:48.000 on how many versions you have. They're not very descriptive 28 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:52.000 unfortunately, so you can end up being in a position where you're not quite 29 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.000 sure how far you have to go back, so that's a good reason not to have too 30 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:00.000 many of those. So I would recommend that perhaps you set that to 31 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.000 3, 4, maybe even 5 but no more than that, 32 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:08.000 because it will be a mess to try and get back to. 33 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.000 The other option for you... I'm just going to set that back to 0 for myself. 34 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.000 The other option for you is to be more descriptive. You're about 35 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:20.000 to make a change to your model, you're not sure if it's going to work or not, but you want 36 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.000 to try it, so you can always go to File and 37 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Save As. Now you can see here 38 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.000 that's where I started, Vertices, Edges and Faces (Start File) 39 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.000 .blend. Well I could change that 40 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.000 where it says (Start File), I could now change that to saying 41 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.000 something like... What are we talking about? We're talking about 42 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.000 Version Control, so (VersionControl). I haven't 43 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:52.000 actually changed anything of my model, but when I click Save As Blender File, I now have 44 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.000 a new start point to go on. And if I muck 45 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:00.000 up this periscope, whatever I'm going to do to it next, then at 46 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.000 least I can fall back to the previous save point, rather than 47 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.000 worrying about what's going on or how do I get back to this model! 48 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:12.000 Obviously this periscope's a very simple model, it's only taken us a few minutes to get here. 49 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.000 However, if it was a much more complicated model, the last thing 50 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.000 you'd want to do is lose a ton of work because you didn't have a 51 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.000 version you could jump back to. It's all very well saving as you're going 52 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:28.000 but you do need to branch sometimes, to make sure you can always get 53 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:30.800 back when you start to experiment. 54 00:03:30.800 --> 00:03:33.933 What other options are there out there? Well, 55 00:03:33.933 --> 00:03:37.933 for instance, you could use Dropbox. I 56 00:03:37.933 --> 00:03:41.933 use Dropbox for many things, and the great thing about 57 00:03:41.933 --> 00:03:45.933 it is it keeps versions, as long as they've synced, it 58 00:03:45.933 --> 00:03:49.933 keeps versions of your files for up to 30 days. So if you're working 59 00:03:49.933 --> 00:03:53.933 on a project, you can extend that with their extra packages, but 60 00:03:53.933 --> 00:03:57.933 if you're working within the 30 day time frame, you can always go back 61 00:03:57.933 --> 00:04:01.933 in time 30 days. After that, those version changes start to be deleted, 62 00:04:01.933 --> 00:04:05.933 but for most models, you may find that is enough to keep 63 00:04:05.933 --> 00:04:09.933 you protected. So there are a couple of ways that you can 64 00:04:09.933 --> 00:04:13.933 keep your versions, the versions of your models, under your 65 00:04:13.933 --> 00:04:17.933 control and not having them wonder off on you. Take care! 66 00:04:17.933 --> 00:04:21.733 See you in the next lecture!