# delete or store ?



## Gnome (Nov 23, 2010)

Ok you digital artists, when you are finished with a pic, what do you do with the working file?

i have a hard time just deleting it for fear that i may need to change something or use something from it in another pic. 

yet all these (in my case) .psd files are taking up a ASS LOAD of space pc.

so what do you do ? Delete as soon as the pic is done ? Keep it indefinitely ? Delete after a certain amount of time (please tell how long) ? 
...hummmm, or do you use some sort of online storage...


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## Jw (Nov 23, 2010)

Honestly, I have a portable drive I stash stuff on, and I delete it within three months because I've hopefully improved since then.

But really, there is not a lot of reason in keeping a "finished" working file that you'll never likely use again.


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## Arshes Nei (Nov 23, 2010)

I store my stuff. Portable and online storage isn't that much these days.


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## Aaros (Nov 23, 2010)

I get rid of old stuff. Some of the better stuff I keep, but I have a regular habit of deleting old terrible drawings off my computer and out of my gallery.


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## Eske (Nov 24, 2010)

I just store really large .PNG flattened versions, and get rid of the .PSDs.  The only exception would be if I didn't go crazy with layers like I usually do, in which case I sometimes save them for future use (walkthroughs, etc).  However, I keep all of my art on a 1 TB external hard drive to keep it from eating up all my computer space, which is nice (and makes transferring between computers super easy).  c:


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## quoting_mungo (Nov 24, 2010)

I save them. Hell, I even have _two versions_ of the PSD saved for every single comic page I do. (One full-sized, color only, and one resized, which has the lettering added.) Granted, a large part of the reason I do that is so that I'll not have to recolor the whole page when/if we get to the point of doing a print version.


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## Sigilgoat (Nov 24, 2010)

So far I've been saving them. I'll probably just start saving finished pieces though after a year or two c:


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## Zygorator (Nov 24, 2010)

I still have all my PSD files from when i started using photoshop in 2004. Hell, i also have all my RAW shots, music recordings in WAV, 3dsmax scenes etc. And savegames from the last 15 years of pc games :grin:
I need more space again soon...


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## Aden (Nov 24, 2010)

My hoarding carries over to the digital area too. Thank goodness for 1TB drives for a hundred bucks.


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## Arshes Nei (Nov 24, 2010)

Aden said:


> My hoarding carries over to the digital area too. Thank goodness for 1TB drives for a hundred bucks.


 
Black Friday is selling a lot of 2tb drives for 70 bucks now. TB drives have dropped in price surprisingly and that includes externals (which is usually more expensive). Craziness.


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## Arshes Nei (Nov 24, 2010)

Also on this topic. Having layers is good, but having too many layers is bad. If you're having layers on stuff you're still indecisive on, kill the layer.


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## Catilda Lily (Nov 24, 2010)

I keep it just incase unless I redo it with improvements.


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## Runefox (Nov 24, 2010)

I keep originals. Especially since I do mostly digital to begin with.  I can't stand the idea of keeping nothing but a flat copy, and at the very least, I need a lossless, alpha transparency PNG file. For the lines. And the flats. And the cel.


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## LLiz (Nov 24, 2010)

I'd have to say that I am a compulsive keeper of any art files that or programming projects that I am working on, even the work in progress ones.


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## Taralack (Nov 24, 2010)

I keep every single thing. As a result this year's art folder alone (not counting my comic folder) is already 30+ gb.

If you have problems with storage just get an external harddrive.


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## Centradragon (Nov 24, 2010)

I keep several versions of every single thing I work on.  One of my paintings has 7 different versions (and that ended up saving me when I did something wrong in the later versions).  XD  An extra hard driveâ€”or even a DVD/CDâ€”is pretty affordable if you're having trouble storing everything.

Also, if you MUST flatten: never save as a PNG.  That's not print-quality, it's lossy, etc.  Save as a TIFF.  Trust me on this one.


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## Runefox (Nov 25, 2010)

Centradragon said:


> Also, if you MUST flatten: never save as a PNG.  That's not print-quality, it's lossy, etc.  Save as a TIFF.  Trust me on this one.


 
PNG is only lossy if it's palletized; Otherwise, at 32-bit colour (8-bit per channel + 8-bit alpha), it's lossless, and supports up to 64-bit colour (16-bit per channel + 16-bit Alpha). TIFF offers more metadata options I believe, including (if I'm not mistaken) layers to some degree, but otherwise its quality level is the same. I believe there is one thing that you're right about, and that's TIFF's support for the CMYK colour gamut, the gamut used for printing, rather than RGB, which is what computer screens use. If you're creating for print, working in RGB and then converting to CMYK will cause loss of colour information regardless of the format used. PNG, to my knowledge, does not support CMYK, but for RGB, PNG is lossless. For me, I work exclusively in digital, so CMYK is almost never a concern for me.


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## Kawaburd (Nov 25, 2010)

Stash.  Along with all roughs.  Granted I almost never actually open a 'stopping point' file, like one where the base colours just got finished, but a 50mb file doesn't really get in the way when we're talking terabytes.


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## Chak (Nov 25, 2010)

I keep absolutely everything. I never really go back to previous images, but it's nice to look back and see what you use to do and how much you've improved.


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## mapdark (Nov 26, 2010)

Gnome said:


> Ok you digital artists, when you are finished with a pic, what do you do with the working file?
> 
> so what do you do ? Delete as soon as the pic is done ? Keep it indefinitely ? Delete after a certain amount of time (please tell how long) ?
> ...hummmm, or do you use some sort of online storage...


 
I use an external hard drive to store these files. 

and psd and sai files is also a proof I made the thing.


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## KrayTSAO (Nov 28, 2010)

I'll store them for about a year before deleting them.


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## Kushaba (Nov 29, 2010)

i usually just trashed the Psd or Sai file when i was done with it. but when i go back and look at my images i see things i could have done better and that allways cheese me off that i can't go back and fix it.


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