3D Rendering, video editing, storage, & file management

Looking for a little advice on workflow and file management. I'm creating a longer-form 3D animation, and the files are really eating up my storage. I have a PC with a 1tb boot drive, and a 2tb storage drive, but the 2tb drive is getting pretty full. My workflow is to compose animations in iClone and output to FBX or Alembic, import those into C4D, render out to tif files, compile the tif files in After Effects (with enhancements), export as mov files, and assemble them in Premiere with sound effects, etc. I'm sure that rendering from C4D to an SSD drive is the way to go, but I'm wondering what other people do in terms of file management. Right now, all these files are ending up on the 2tb SSD, but I'm wondering if some of these files could live on a really big HDD instead, and I could keep the 2tb SSD mostly clear? When it comes to rendering C4D files to the SSD, does the C4D file have to be on the SSD as well to maintain SSD speeds, or could it live on an HDD and render to the SSD from there? I'm curious what other people do.

PS: I built my PC a couple years ago almost exclusively with advice from CG Director, and that worked out great!

TAnim8r said:

Right now, all these files are ending up on the 2tb SSD, but I'm wondering if some of these files could live on a really big HDD instead, and I could keep the 2tb SSD mostly clear? When it comes to rendering C4D files to the SSD, does the C4D file have to be on the SSD as well to maintain SSD speeds, or could it live on an HDD and render to the SSD from there? I'm curious what other people do.

Click to expand...

Yep, pretty much. Most people have an archival drive/NAS, which is mostly HDDs. Only active projects remain on the SSD.
Build a NAS or just add more HDDs to your system. A NAS is the preferred way to go if you need a ton of storage because it offloads one process and your workstation doesn't need to bother with it. However, if you're only adding a few Terabytes of archival storage, just add an HDD to your workstation directly.