Art Asset Guidelines

What is an Asset?

In a production pipeline, (both animated films and video games), art assets are finished pieces that are ready to be used in a scene. Creating an asset is more than making a model and submitting a .blend file. A completed asset involves all of the surrounding work to enable the next person in the pipeline to effectively drag-and-drop the asset into the scene, and have everything just work.

What's expected?

For a 3D game, a finished asset includes:

Art Source Content:

• A .blend source file for the high-res model checked into the `art-source` repository:
  • file in the right place with the correct 'snake_case' naming convention.
  • A collection inside the file named correctly for the asset.
• A .blend source file for the low-res model checked into the `art-source` repository:
  • file in the right place with the correct 'snake_case' naming convention.
  • A collection inside the file named correctly for the asset.
    
    • A "collection exporter" set up for the asset saved with the correct export settings, with the export path pointed at the correct location in the `game` repository.
  • UV unwrapped correctly.
  • Materials assigned correctly.
  • Topology prepared for game:
    • No n-gons
    • Reasonable polycount
    • other validation. - TODO add more about validation.
• A set of input 'mesh maps' saved as .png files in the same folder:
  • asset_name_mesh_id.png - ID map
  • asset_name_mesh_world_normal.png - High-res world space normal (16 bit depth).
  • asset_name_mesh_tangent_normal.png - High-res tangent space normal (16 bit depth).
  • asset_name_mesh_ao.png - High-res ambient occlusion
  • asset_name_mesh_curvature.png - High-res curvature
    
• A textures set of baked output textures channel packed and saved as .png files in the same folder:
  • asset_name_abedo.png - (Color map aka "Base Color")
  • asset_name_normal.png - (16 bit)
  • asset_name_orm.png (Channel packed Occlusion, Roughness, Metallic).

In-Game Content:

• A pair of asset_name.gltf + asset_name.bin files exported into the `game` repository via the "export collection" in the source .blend file.
• One or more materials for the model:
  • asset_name_mat.tres
  • OR e.g:
    • asset_name_head_mat.tres
    • asset_name_body_mat.tres
    • asset_name_armor_mat.tres
• All textures from the model's texture set imported with the correct settings:
  • asset_name_abedo.png
  • asset_name_normal.png
  • asset_name_orm.png
• A scene for the asset:
  • asset_name.tscn
  • Simple colliders assigned:
    • SphereShape3D
    • BoxShape3D
    • CapsuleShape3D
    • CylinderShape3D - NOTE: this is reportedly buggy, we need to test it before approval, use Capsule instead.
    •  If absolutely necessary:
      • ConvexPolygonShape3D
      • ConcavePolygonShape3D
• LODs created or generated for the model.