Finishing Version Suffixes: Pic, Mix, Grade

Q: Why not `_vfx` or `_online`?

Because those are departments that feed `_pic` or `_grade`, not delivery states. A VFX return becomes the new `_pic` take, or a plate the colourist grades. An "online" is the act of conforming, not a file the client publishes. Four suffixes are enough to stop `_final3`. A twelfth suffix is how you recreate `_final3` with more punctuation.

Q: What if the job has no colourist?

Then there is no `_grade`. `_del` is built from signed `_pic` plus signed `_mix`. Do not mint `_grade` as a courtesy LUT. An unsigned look on `_pic` is still `_pic`.

final2 is not a version. It is an argument that lost. Asset naming tells you what a clip is. Finishing versioning tells you which department last signed the file, and whether anyone is allowed to publish it.

A folder of generated takes can be named well and still be finishing-illegible: sc03_sh020_v3_FINAL_use-this.mov sitting next to sc03_sh020_v3_final2_grade.mov. Someone will upload the wrong one. The grammar below makes that mistake a process failure, not a reading-comprehension failure.

This is a different discipline from naming workflows and projects. That article is about retrieval keys inside Versely: task names, project names, create-versus-update. This one is about the files that leave the building.

Asset names are not finishing versions

An asset name answers "what shot is this." A finishing suffix answers "what state is this file in."

Kind	Example	Job
Asset / shot	`acme-launch_sc03_sh020`	Identity of the hole in the timeline
Take / sample	`v012`	Which generated (or recorded) sample currently fills it
Finishing suffix	`_pic` `_mix` `_grade` `_del`	Which department signed this file

Mixing those three into one trailing word is how final becomes a fourth take, a grade, and a client upload in the same week.

Rules that keep them apart:

Never put a department opinion in the shot name. hero, best, use-this, NEW are not IDs.
Never put final anywhere. If it is the delivery, it is _del. If it is not, it is not final.
Never overwrite a suffix. _pic v012 and _pic v013 are two files. The second does not delete the first.
A new sample increments the take, not the suffix. Regenerating the hero shot is v013_pic, not v012_pic with new pixels. New pixels are a new hash. Handing clips to an editor already tells you to keep version words out of the take name. Finishing adds a suffix after that take number.

If you need a still from a version, pull it from that file. Do not save sc03_sh020_FINAL_frame.jpg as a competing original.

The four suffixes

Only these four. If a file cannot wear one of them, it is not a finishing version. It is a working file and it lives in a working folder.

Suffix	What the file is	What it is not
`_pic`	Picture cut, locked or a signed picture change. Graded? No. Mixed? No.	A review MP4 you posted to Slack
`_grade`	Colourist's return against a `_pic`. Picture of record for layback, before mix is printed on it.	A LUT dropped on `_pic` by editorial
`_mix`	Mixer's return spotted to a `_pic` (or to `_grade` if they mixed to the graded picture). Stems or print, named as such.	Music attached in the editor as a preview
`_del`	Delivery. The only file a client publishes. Built from signed `_grade` + signed `_mix` (or from `_pic` + `_mix` if the job had no grade).	Anything with a note still open

Optional stem tokens sit inside _mix, not as rival suffixes: _mix_dx, _mix_mx, _mix_fx, _mix_pt (dialogue, music, FX, print). If you do not have stems, you have _mix and you are honest about it.

Captions are not a fifth finishing suffix. Burned-in captions are picture and belong in _pic or _del with a note. Sidecar .srt / .vtt files take the same basename as the _del they belong to.

Who owns which token

A suffix is minted by one role. Anyone else who needs a variant asks that role for a new version.

Suffix	Mints it	May request it	May not mint it
`_pic`	Editor	Client approver, producer, colourist ("I cannot grade this cut")	Mixer, client, generator
`_grade`	Colourist	Editor, producer	Editor "applying a look", client
`_mix`	Mixer	Editor, producer	Anyone bouncing a laptop mix over the locked picture and calling it done
`_del`	Producer or DI, after `_pic` + (`_grade` if in scope) + `_mix` are signed	Client	Editor, colourist, mixer acting alone

The generator never mints a finishing suffix. A download from a model is a take. It becomes _pic when the editor puts it in the cut and signs it.

The client never mints _del by renaming something in Dropbox. If they need a recut after delivery, that is a new _pic and the suffix chain runs again.

Producer is the only person who can retire a suffix: _pic v012 is superseded by _pic v013, in writing, on the change-list. Until then both files stay on disk. Revision policy still caps creative rounds. Suffixes record finishing state. They are not a round counter.

A filename grammar

One pattern, ASCII, no spaces, no letters that mean "this is the good one":

{client}-{job}_{scene}_{shot}_v{take}_{suffix}.{ext}

Example:

acme-launch_sc03_sh020_v012_pic.mov
acme-launch_sc03_sh020_v012_grade.mov
acme-launch_sc03_v012_mix.wav
acme-launch_sc03_v012_del.mov

Notes that keep it parseable:

Take number is zero-padded (v012) so v9 does not sort after v10.
Scene and shot are zero-padded for the same reason.
Mix may be sequence-level (sc03_v012_mix) because mixers deliver a reel, not always a per-shot file. Picture and grade stay per shot until layback.
_del is sequence-level. There is no _del per shot. Shots are ingredients.
Extension follows the codec, not the department. A mix print can be .wav of stems plus a _del.mov. Do not encode department in the extension.
Same basename for sidecars. acme-launch_sc03_v012_del.srt belongs to that _del. A caption file named FINAL_captions.srt belongs to nobody.

Sequence-level files still carry the take number of the picture they were built against. _mix v012 mixed to _pic v012. If picture moves to v013, mix cannot stay v012 and call itself current. Either the mixer signs "v013, no change" (same print, new number, same hash recorded) or they mint a real v013.

Put the grammar on the packing list. A metadata preservation clause is about what must remain attached to the file. The suffix is how you know which file that clause is describing. The UGC-scale version of "the folder is usable" is a delivery spec; this grammar is the finishing-scale version.

Keep generation takes in a project as they land, named as takes, not as suffixes. Save to a project is the bin. _pic is what leaves the bin.

Forbidden tokens, in full: final, final2, FINAL_FINAL, use-this, latest, new, fixed, graded (the suffix is _grade, and it is minted by the colourist), master (ambiguous: camera master? online? client master?), deliver (you mean _del).

If you cannot say who minted the suffix, the file is not in this grammar yet. Rename it into a working folder until someone signs it.

FAQ

Why not `_vfx` or `_online`?

Because those are departments that feed _pic or _grade, not delivery states. A VFX return becomes the new _pic take, or a plate the colourist grades. An "online" is the act of conforming, not a file the client publishes. Four suffixes are enough to stop _final3. A twelfth suffix is how you recreate _final3 with more punctuation.

What if the job has no colourist?

Then there is no _grade. _del is built from signed _pic plus signed _mix. Do not mint _grade as a courtesy LUT. An unsigned look on _pic is still _pic.

Can two people mint `_pic` on the same job?

No. One editor of record. If a second editor cuts a variant, it is a different job string (acme-launch-alt_…) or a different take waiting to be chosen. Two _pic files with the same scene, shot, and take number is a collision, not a collaboration.

The client already named everything `FINAL`. Now what?

Rename on ingest into the grammar, keep a column in the map for their original filename, and never send FINAL back out. Their name is a retrieval hint for the first week. It is a landmine in month six. Your suffix is the one that goes on the packing list, the hash row, and the delivery log.