Roles: 3D Modelling Supervisor
Team Size: 7
After several months as a 3D modeller on DesignCar I was asked to temporarily take over as supervision of the 3D modeling. This broke down into a few specific new responsibilities:
- Work with all the artists to make sure everyone had a balanced workload and knew what our priorities were for the cars we worked on.
- Working with our Producer to make sure cars were on track for our timeline, and that we were able to meet the customisation requirements for each car.
- Connecting artists and QA to make sure feedback and revisions were being efficiently handled. As an artist I was also able to set aside and handle minor fix requests so it didn’t interfere with our art team’s workflow and delivery timeline.
- Evaluate new model purchases for quality. We would use purchased base meshes for our team to rework or retopologize. I was responsible for bringing a modeller’s perspective on potential models to make sure we purchased the best ones to work from.
- Prep models for art handoff. Once a purchased model was licensed for use I would strip out unnecessary geometry, normalize scales and rotations, convert the materials to match our project material library, and add the object framework for our parts system.
- Prepare models for handoff to our Quality Assurance team. After our artists finished their work on a car and its parts I would run through a checklist of common issues, and technical requirements to make sure everything was ship shape for QA. This included everything from adding the final wheel system and the final UV unwrap – both very precise tasks, verifying car metrics like wheelbase and height, to confirming naming conventions and material standardization were correct.
- On rare occasions I would on-board a new modeller. In a video chat we would walk through our workflow and standardized systems that the game used. Once they got going I would make sure to stay in touch through their first car to make sure everything went smoothly.
