STAGE 2: Lowpoly

• Polycount – till 60k tris.
• It’s totally fine to go a bit over in tris, most importantly is to have a nice flow in the topology with logical optimization. Loops around joints is utmost important, shoulders, elbows, knees. Also, avoid spiral loops.
• Some parts, like boots or gloves, can be symmetrized in lowpoly, some UVs can be overlapped for maximum resolution.
• Please add support edges on the low-poly if there is bad shading.
• Make good topology with continuous edge-flow and well-made for animation.
• You could spit model into UV-sets like: Head, Torso, Gloves, Devices.
• You could use alpha-opacity for the thorns and threads on the clothing.
• You could use symmetry on the low-poly stage for gloves and legs but on the textures, the final result should be completely asymmetrical.
• Please create one single group for your character that contains the elements explained above. All elements will have been checked thoroughly for n-gons, will have correct smoothing groups, pivot aligned to 0, deleted history and unused materials, and frozen transformations.
• Do not use thickness for any piece of cloth. E.g.: in the retopology stage we should only use fake thickness, going around the corner and a bit on the inside but not full thickness of the whole element.
• Do not cap geometry such as pants, shirt, scarf only retopologize the edges until it becomes hidden from view.

STAGE 3: UV+Bakes

• As mentioned above, there is a lot of freedom for creating the UVs, make sure you take full advantage of the whole space. Rectangle UVs are permitted.

• You can split your model intuitively into unique UV sets like head, jacket, scarf, gloves, pants, boots, accessories, etc.

• Make sure you respect a sense of direction and keep UV islands clean and straightened in case it’s needed. Avoid chaotic directions for your UVs.

• If you have an element such as a scarf, shawl or simple wrapped around cloth, make sure this UV is straightened as much as possible so the pattern aligns neatly at the texturing stage.

• Make sure that your UV cuts follow the natural seam line of the garments when possible.

• Normal map format – OpenGL.

• Texture size – 4096 x 4096.

• It is permitted to use alpha-opacity map for loose threads.

When reviewing this step we’ll pay attention to:

• UV, texel density, stretches, padding, straightness(for belts and so on).
• Quality of Normal Map, AO.
• Low-poly mistakes (n-gons etc), polycount and topology.

STAGE 3: Texturing

• Within the test assignment you should prepare a full set of maps.
• Use metal-roughness workflow in Substance Painter.
• Texture size – 4096 x 4096.
• At this stage, you need to make the ready asset look as similar to the “Main concept” as possible, with good color variations and good readability.
• For the details use less generators and more hand-painted accents.
• Use of real life references is highly encouraged.
• Make sure to have a variety in your albedo and roughness map, each material should react different to light.
• We are aiming for photoreal quality, wear and tear should be subtle and logical.

Delivery

• ‍Zbrush file, everything is organized in folders with names for each group, E.g., HAT, SATCHEL, COAT, etc.
• Maya file for the low-poly character with all pivots in 0 in one folder named COWBOY. Group your parts by UV sets, E.g., HAT, SATCHEL, COAT, etc.
• Substance Painter File
• All deliverables should be named COWBOY.ztl, COWBOY.ma, COWBOY.spp.
• Provide 1 jpg file with 4 angle good quality screenshots with the textured character.
• You can use Marmoset or Painter for beauty renders.

At this step we will evaluate the following aspects:

• Silhouette and proportions;
• Realistic approach to constructing the HighPoly;
• Cleanliness and good optimization in LowPoly and UV;
• Clean bakes;
• Creation of materials and their properties;
• Working with new or slightly used materials;
• Creating a variety of colors within each material;
• Ability to draw accents, a sense of composition within a single asset;
• Organizing and keeping your project clean.