Character Art

Summary

The character art pipeline is a multi-stage process used to create high-quality 3D character models for use in various media. UIW's Unified Pipeline is a version of this process adapted specifically for use at the University. The workflows below are designed to streamline the process and ensure consistency in quality across different projects.

Unreal Engine 5

Below is a flow chart of the character art pipeline from Maya to Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). It is expected for you to have the character assets made and are ready to integrate the assets into the engine. Character assets include the in-game geometry, textures, and rig.

Naming Conventions

To maintain organizational consistency and cohesion throughout the production a clearly defined naming convention is needed. As you develop your game the list of assets needed will continue to expand and a strong naming convention will allow for easier file location and prevent potential conflicts from arising. The naming conventions utilized are recommended and derived from Epic's documentation which you can find here: Recommended Naming Conventions

Asset Types	Prefix
Skeletal Mesh	SK_
Skeleton	SKEL_
Material	M_
Material Instance	MI_
Texture	T_

Material Descriptors	Suffix
Standard	_S
Skin	_SSS
Hair	_H
Eyes	_E

Texture Descriptors	Suffix
Albedo	_A
Metallic	_M
Roughness	_R
Occlusion	_O
Normal	_N
Emissive	_E
Transparency	_T
Subsurface Scattering	_SSS

Below is the naming convention for the character art pipeline as well as an example for how you will be naming your character assets.

AssetTypePrefix_AssetName_Descriptor_VariantNumber

• SK_CharName

• SKEL_CharName
• MI_S_CharName
  • T_CharName_A
  • T_CharName_MROE
  • T_CharName_N
• MI_SSS_CharName
  • T_CharName_Skin_A
  • T_CharName_Skin_MRO
  • T_CharName_Skin_N
  • T_CharName_Skin_SSS
• MI_E_CharName
  • T_CharName_Eyes_A
  • T_CharName_Eyes_MRO
  • T_CharName_Eyes_N
  • T_CharName_Eyes_T