---
title: "Project Structure"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/ANIMA/124356014/Project%20Structure"
format: markdown
---
This page provides information on how Chaos Anima organizes your projects.


## **Overview**

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Before Chaos Anima, generating realistic and compelling 3D character animations had always been a very complex process that required a lot of time, knowledge, and expertise in multiple technics (like modeling, rigging, skinning, and animation).

Moreover, populating 3D scenes with multiple of those complex characters exponentially increased the complexity and resources needed. Therefore, we decided to create a new tool, Chaos Anima, to try to make that process as **simpler** and **efficient** as possible.


## **Anima Design Principles**

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There are 2 basic concepts involved in the creation of films with animated crowds:

- **Assets**: items involved in the definition of a character (actors, motion clips) or a scene (background geometry).
- **Scenes**: a group of assets with a precise description of the locations where they are used and the parameters that define their behavior.

Both are combined (assets and scenes) inside each project to maximize the optimization of the resources. For example, if the same actor is used multiple times in the same or in different scenes from the same project, it is only stored once and then referenced in each one of those scenes along with the parameters that define its particular position and behavior.  
  
The assets can be stored at the project level or at the application level.  
  
For example, the models from the library can be used in all projects (that is why they are stored in an external Purchases folder that is defined in the Anima preferences).  
  
On the other hand, assets like the collision backgrounds (used to place the actors) are stored at the project level because it is not likely to use the same environment in different films, but it is to use the same background on different shots (scenes) of the same film.


![image](media://0bde325e-8c45-4519-b370-abc20f6c0006)


## **Project Level vs Scene level**

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**Projects** are at the top level and, inside them, multiple **Scenes** can be created which may share some settings and assets with each other. When changes are made in parameters that are stored at the *Project* level (like *units* or *texture quality* or *custom actors pose editions*), they will cascade through all the scenes saving you hours of repetitive work.

To understand which properties are saved at the **scene level** and which are at the **project level** a good rule of thumb is that changes made to the actors or motion clips in the **editing mode** will be saved at the **project level** and will have an effect on other scenes, whereas changes made in **drawing** **mode** are saved only to the currently loaded **scene** and will not have any kind of effect anywhere else.

There are 2 exceptions to this rule, one is the object library **templates**, and the other one is the **collision backgrounds**. Both of them are created in **drawing mode** but also become available at the project level.

Refer to the list below for a more detailed classification:

### **Properties Saved at the Project Level**

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- **Time settings** (playback speed, seconds range, frame range, FPS)
- **Custom Actors Library **(including color variations)
- **Custom Motion Clips Library**
- **Adjustments of the actors’ Pose**
- **Templates**

### **Properties Saved at the Scene Level**

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- **The placement and hierarchy of actors, objects** (tools), and **collision background**
- **Simulation**
- **Parameters of all objects placed in the scene**

## **Project Folder Structure**

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### **Related Topics**

- [Projects](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ANIMA/pages/124651910)
- [Scenes](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ANIMA/pages/124717147)