Art test from AAA studios, have some questions

D_Choi

Hi all, I recently submitted my first art test to an AAA studio in Canada, and got another test from other studio today. So, my first test was likeness head from a picture reference with texture map in 4 days. I had to work all day but I managed to finish it and they're letting me know the result in this week. Another test I got today, is asking me upper torso of an realistic character model/texture under 3000 tri in unity scene with 20 hours of work time (but sending the model is until next Monday so I have about 5 days of time). I have no experience in Unity so I guess I have to figure it out, but I have few questions as I'm still a noob here. Does upper torso means everything up from the hip area including arms? And I have never done any character with this low poly, I guess hair card is not an option for the hair to make a character in this way, so any suggestion how to do it? For the last, what is it means, [demonstrate a good skinning understanding (can use a pre-made/generic humanoid skeleton)] Are they saying I have to do skinning on the model or just talking about topology?

I feel a bit overwhelmed as I didn't get any concept or an image of what to make, there was just few words of concept description. 

Ashervisalis

I'd contact them back and ask for a bit more info on what they're looking for. Upper torso means the chest and shoulders, yeah? I'd make sure they're not wanting more.

Brian "Panda" Choi

1) About the torso, email them and ask.  If they're reasonable, they will specify.

2) If you're not doing hair cards, you can separate the hair volumes into sub chunks of volume.  For example, a pontyail hair style is two major shells: one onf the scalp, and the one that IS the pony tail.  That's a possible solution based on your description.

3) Ask them for clarification about the skinning since what you described is still hard to understand clearly.

Overall, with these tests, questions are fine and are encouraged.  It's just usual communication in game dev.

D_Choi

@Ashervisalis @Brian "Panda" Choi
Thank you guys, I sent email to the recruiter almost right away. But no answer from them so far. I feel like they don't care much about me already... The studio is very famous company but this recruiter just really not responsive, after first email about they want me to take the test, I had to send multiple email to get actual test document as there was no response for a while. (may be he just forgot about me) And very little information of what to do, or what they want in the document. May be I feel this way because the first company got back to me was really nice and very informative just like what I would expect from a big professional studio. Anyway, It's been a half day since I ask him and still no answer. I guess I'll start sculpting and see what's gonna happen.

Brian "Panda" Choi

It's udnerstandable.  Recruiters are talking to more than one person; they're fighting a different war of many leads in the hope of that one works out.

slosh

Many large studios will be completely unresponsive.  A recruiter doesn't really have the answers either.  They would have to ask the team, get an answer, and then respond back to you.  And that's assuming the recruiter knows who to even ask within the studio about your questions.  There's several layers of people the information has to go through and that always takes time...even more so in gamedev.  Hopefully they respond but in the meantime, definitely get started.  If it's a well known AAA, I would avoid hair unless you really have time to do it right.  Better to just give them a bald guy that looks awesome than a dude with mediocre hair.

D_Choi

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

It's udnerstandable.  Recruiters are talking to more than one person; they're fighting a different war of many leads in the hope of that one works out.

Right...that makes sense. Thank you for the comment, I'll start working and see what's gonna happen  

D_Choi

slosh said:

Many large studios will be completely unresponsive.  A recruiter doesn't really have the answers either.  They would have to ask the team, get an answer, and then respond back to you.  And that's assuming the recruiter knows who to even ask within the studio about your questions.  There's several layers of people the information has to go through and that always takes time...even more so in gamedev.  Hopefully they respond but in the meantime, definitely get started.  If it's a well known AAA, I would avoid hair unless you really have time to do it right.  Better to just give them a bald guy that looks awesome than a dude with mediocre hair.

Thanks, 
About the hair... it's quite tricky because I was told to make a realistic female character upper torso under 3000 tri. I'm just assuming I work for whole upper body of her for now. And for the skinning part, I still don't know what they wanted to say by mentioning 'The applicant should demonstrate a good skinning understanding'.

slosh

Well if they are asking for it to be under 3000tris, i'm guessing its not next gen AAA.  In that case, definitely use a more cap shell method.  I would recommend taking a look at a game like guild wars 2 and how they do hair.  It's much lower poly work but still looks good.  You can probably do this and still achieve a more realistic look with how you texture or sculpt the hair.

D_Choi

slosh said:

Well if they are asking for it to be under 3000tris, i'm guessing its not next gen AAA.  In that case, definitely use a more cap shell method.  I would recommend taking a look at a game like guild wars 2 and how they do hair.  It's much lower poly work but still looks good.  You can probably do this and still achieve a more realistic look with how you texture or sculpt the hair.

Just checked out the reference, and I can see the picture of how it should looks like. Thank you for the recommendation!

PixelMasher

Another option would be to look on artstation/linkedin/twitter for the lead character artist at the studio and send them a DM politley asking for clarification. gives you the opportunity to start building a relationship as well. They will know exactly what they are looking for.

in general, I avoid working with 3rd party "recruiters" for exactly that reason, they are so focused on getting a commission they usually dont give the right amount of personal attention because they are too busy shotgun blasting away to 300 potential candidates at once. If only they would focus on going deep instead of wide, they would probably get better results. It's ok though, they will be arbitraged out soon enough anyways.

ArNavart

My guess on the skinning part  is that they want to see that you can make a low - poly body that also deform in  a decant way. I'd built a pure FK basic skeleton, only for the body parts that are present , paint the weights and show that the body deforms decently with some rudimentary animation / movement.

Here is low poly body I've done last year for the use in Unity, the whole model is 4000 tris in total, texture is 1K: