Table of Contents

Summary

Terminology

General

• Pipeline: a linear sequence of specialised modules to deliver a piece of work.

• Workflow: sequences of processes through which a piece of work passes.

• Data flow: data generated by the processes through which a piece of work passes.

• Asset: one unit of work with a deliverable.

• Sanity check: predefined checks which verify if an asset is “sane” for publishing.

• Publishing: the process of making content (in our case assets) available for use.

• Deliverable: one unit of the end product, exists out of one or more assets.

• Workspace: an area where work is done on assets that provide the deliverables.

• Tool-belt: software specific tool kit for artists to interact with the pipeline.

• Task: a piece of work that needs to be done.

• Language: more precisely the jargon of the project, the common ground to communicate about work.

• Context: the setting of statements that provide the terms in which something can be fully understood.

Project

• Project: the software specific workspace where work is done on the assets. (For example: a Unity project)

• Scene: project file that contains the assets. (For example: a Unity scene - .scene , a maya scene - .ma)

• Script Scene: a subdivision of an act in the storyboard or script in which the setting is fixed and the time continuous.

• Prefab: a unity asset that can be instanced and reused in a scene.

• Time Unit: a time based operation.

• Reel: a group of one or more sequences.

• Sequence: a group of one or more shots.

• Shot: a group of one or more frames.

• Container: a locator that has an asset referenced underneath.

• Placement: a container that is linked to a Time Unit, mainly used as an asset override/extension of the current environment(s) or placement on a shot. Environment assets that are moved or hidden based on a shot or have another shot based override.

Steps

• des: Design

• mpt: Matte Paint

• scu: Sculpting

• mdl: Modeling

• grm: Grooming

• tex: Texturing

• shd: Shading

• rig: Rigging

• wbx: Whiteboxing

• drs: Set Dressing

• edi: Editing

• lay: Layout

• ani: Animation

• mgx: Motion Graphics

• lgt: Lighting

• fxd: Effects

• fin: Finalizing

• trk: Tracking

• cmp: Compositing

• pfb: Prefab

• dev: Development

Tasks

• Design: Designing an asset in 2D

• Concept Art: Drawing or painting the art for an asset

• Moodboard: Collecting images and references for an asset

• Level Design: Designing the layout of a level for a game in 2D

• Matte Paint: Creating 2D elements to serve as background of a shot

• Sculpting: Creating 3D meshes by pushing, pulling, smoothing, and shaping digital "clay"

• Modeling: Creating, optimizing and unwrapping 3D meshes

• LOD Modeling: Creating additional decimated meshes for distance-based switching

• Grooming: Adding hair or fur to a mesh

• Texturing: Creating 2D bitmaps or procedural textures for materials

• Texture Assignment: Assigning textures and materials to meshes

• Shading: Assigning (newly created) materials to an asset and tweaking their look in Unity

• Rigging: Creating a skeleton, control rig (and blendshapes) and linking them to meshes

• Whiteboxing: Designing the layout and functionality of a level with simple 3D placeholders

• Set Dressing: Decorating an environment with models

• Editing: Empty task to publish the renders of the offline/online

• Layout: Placing cameras and assets in accordance with a script/storyboard/animatic

• Animation Prep: Preparing layout exports for (external) animation

• Animation: Manipulating controllers to create asset animations or move assets in a shot

• Animation Integration: Importing and manipulating (asset) animation exports inside a shot

• Motion GFX: Animating 2D elements inside a shot (screen replacement, title ...)

• Lighting: Placing and manipulating the properties of lights in an asset, environment or shot

• FX: Creating effects and/or integrating them in an asset, environment or shot

• Finalizing: Iterative stage at the end of a real-time project where all final tweaks are done

• Tracking:

• Compositing:

• Precomp:

• Rendering: Task used for the estimate of the rendering times

Asset Types

• deco decors: static assets that are part of a set (e.g. a house's interior, a table, a vase)

  • static, not animated

• props props: animated assets that a character can interact with (e.g. a door, a chair, a hammer)

  • rigged, animated

• vhcl vehicles: vehicle assets

  • rigged, animated

• char characters: character assets

  • rigged, animated

• mats materials: Substance Designer or Unity materials

• atls atlas: textures that are a combination of multiple other textures

• trim trimsheet: textures that are used to unwrap mutliple meshes on

• dcal decal: textures that are projected on top of other geometry in Unity

• effx effects: FX assets

• mtpt matte paints: 2D matte paints

• huds head-up displays: 2D HUD and UI elements

• sets sets: built from containers which can reference all other asset types

• envs environments: built from containers which reference sets that fit together

Assets

Naming Conventions

For our general naming we use camel casing, for example ApartmentBuilding. We define multiple variants of assets by a letter, for example A, B. This can be used to define day and night versions for example. Publish Types are derived from the department where the deliverable is created.

• {AssetName}(+{2 digits}): an asset name is composed of a name in camel casing with optionally two digits at the end. This is when multiple assets are not different enough to warrant an entirely new name.

  • Examples:

    • OldMan

    • KitchenWardrobe

    • PortHouse01, PortHouse02, PortHouse03, …

    • MarketStall01, MarketStall02, MarketStall03, …

• {AssetVariant}: is a capital letter going from A to Z. A variant is a variation on an asset with minimal change. For example a change of clothes on a character, windows that are broken on a house after an explosion, a vase that gets cracked. Variants often use the same model and/or rig.

Examples of valid composed asset names:

• {AssetType}_{AssetName}_{AssetVariant}_{PublishType}

• deco_ApartmentBuilding23_A_tex

• prop_GoldenVase02_C_mdl

Filenames for the assets follow the same system, with the exception of the version number. Examples of valid asset file names:

• {AssetType}_{AssetName}_{AssetVariant}_{Department}_v{3digits}.extension

• deco_ApartmentBuilding01_A_tex_v012.ma

• prop_BottleOfWater01_A_mdl_v001.fbx

Difference between AssetName increment and Asset Variants

Examples:

• SimpleMesh01 vs SimpleMesh02 vs SimpleMesh03:

  • SimpleMesh01 is a cube

  • SimpleMesh02 is a sphere

  • SimpleMesh03 is a pyramid

• Cube01_A vs Cube01_B vs Cube01_C:

  • Cube01_A is a cube with a green material applied.

  • Cube01_B is a cube with a scale of 1.5 on the Y-axis with a green material applied.

  • Cube01_C is a cube with a red material applied.

Exceptions

1. Environments: These only use camel casing for naming the asset. No digits in the names.

   • Examples:

     • SpitPort

     • YourlandDesert

     • YourlandBigOcean

2. Unity Effects: Don't use a version number and have an additional effect variant in their naming.

   • {AssetType}_{AssetName}_{AssetVariant}_{EffectVariant}_{Department}.extension

   • Prefab: effx_Cloud_F_01_pfb.prefab

   • VFX Graph: effx_Cloud_F_01_fxd.vfx

Directory structure of 601_library

This defines the following library structure for assets:

An example:

Unity Structure (Hierarchy) of a Project

How to organise Unity Effects

Time Units

Naming Conventions

Timelines are made in unity and utilize the nesting feature. The general naming convention for timelines are defined through the following time units:

• [Reel]: Reel → proj01 → bott01

  • naming: proj + 2digits

    • regex: (bott\\d{2})

  • Testing Can be: proj + 1digit + 1letter ex. bott0a

    • regex: (bott\\d{1}[a-z])

  • filename: {Reel}_v001.ext

    • regex: (bott\\d{2})_(v\\d{3})

• [Sequence]: Sequence → 0320 → bott01_0320

  • naming: 4digits

    • regex: (\\d{4})

  • filename: {Reel}_{Sequence}_v001.ext

    • regex: (bott\\d{2})_(\\d{4})_(v\\d{3})

• [Shot]: Shot → 00010 → bott01_0320_00010

  • naming: 5digits

    • regex: (\\d{5})

  • filename: {Reel}_{Sequence}_{Shot}_v001.ext

    • regex: (bott\\d{2})_(\\d{4})_(\\d{5})_(v\\d{3})

Unity Structure (Hierarchy)

Object & Filename

Cameras

Object & Filename

Unity Structure (Hierarchy)

Director Approved Published Camera (Backup)

Object & Filename

Example

Unity Structure (Hierarchy)

Example