I'm lately hugely involved in codinganother animation 2D vector program (open source) and for code control I use git.
Git is a fast version control system for general propose. Although it is widely used in code version control it is perfectly usable in controlling the different versions of the an animation project during its development. This is an example of complex project controlled by git.
Also git works very well with text files allowing to see the file changes by entries in the diff format.
There are lots of version control system but git is the one we use.
Please, instead of save with cryptic names every file version of the project, try to use a version control system. It is pretty easy to create derivative work without loose the current work and everything that is under git control is updated when you move the head of the repository to a different place.
Additionally, it is possible to create remote repositories (even private) to upload the changes and allow development in a collaborative and very easy way.
I think that any professional that want to speed up production should work using a version control system.
I hope this helps.
-G
PS: it can look like a spam post but it isn't. I'm serious guys.
