RefShelf
RefShelf is a free piece of software that is in live development. It was originally created by an CG artist, who also understands programming, as a tool for internal use in order to cover its own needs in Reference Images management.
During development and usage, it becomes clear that created tool is quite self-sufficient and can serve well for any other who worked with a lot of images from different sources. The possibility to easily add or to have instant access to a lot of files, with a different kind of graphical information, without a need to go to the dozens of different folders will be really useful not just for the CG artists.
The gathering and management of reference images are important things, but almost always these processes plays a secondary role in your workflow. So, save your precious working time. Make your work with the references easier by using this advanced tool. The easier the secondary processes, the more time you have for the passion.
Used Technologies
The whole application based on the NW.js JavaScript framework, so the RefShelf is a web-to-desktop application hybrid. To implement some of the complex functionality, the following npm modules are currently used: sharp as a main image processing module, @simonwep/selection-js for Cards selection tool, sweetalert2 to popup modal windows, fontawesome-free for UI decoration and request for downloading images from remote resources. Inno Setup is used as an RefShelf installer for Windows.
The source code of RefShelf is compiled, but if you have any any related questions, feel free to contact developer.
Author
Anton is acting CG artist with the more than 10 years of experience, who mainly works as a freelance Digital Content Creator (DCC). His main toolset is the 3ds Max, V-Ray, Substance Painter, ZBrush, Photoshop and After Effects. He also has a degree in Software Engineering and actively developing in this area. So far, the main technologies stack is HTML5 + CSS, Vanilla ECMAScript, Node.js, NW.js, React, GraphQL, MongoDB.
Feedback
If you have any RefShelf related questions such as how to use, or maybe you found some issue, maybe you want to see some features in future, please feel free to contact.
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