- Model a small asset to a written spec with clean, intentional topology under a stated poly budget.
- Lay out non-overlapping UVs that respect a texel-density target with sensible seams and packing.
- Author a small material set (albedo, roughness, normal) that reads correctly at gameplay distance.
- Light the asset so form and material both read, then import it into Unreal Engine 5.8 with correct scale, no errors, and a working material.
- Work unaided and finish inside a fixed time box — the professional baseline studios still test for.
Mon 2:00 · Exam brief The rules, and what earns the marks
Read this once, then commit — the clock is real and there are no extensions inside the session.
The rules
This is an in-class, hands-on exam. No AI agents of any kind — Claude Code, Codex CLI, Copilot, chat assistants, or Unreal MCP bridges are all banned and closed for the duration. No internet reference: work from the printed spec sheet and the offline hotkey/reference sheets provided at your station. You may use Blender, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine 5.8 only. Phones face-down and away. If a tool crashes, raise a hand — we recover your file, the clock is paused for you individually while we do.
What you are making
A single small prop to spec — think a lantern, a crate-with-hardware, or a hand tool. The spec sheet hands you the silhouette, the poly budget, the texel-density target, and the material call-outs. You are not being graded on creative flourish today; you are being graded on control — hitting a target someone else set, the way a production task actually arrives.
What's graded — and why it's 25%
Five things, weighted toward the craft that does not forgive shortcuts: topology (even, purposeful, budget-respecting geometry that would deform and shade predictably), UVs (no overlaps, consistent texel density, seams hidden where they should be, tight packing), texel budget (you stayed inside the resolution you were given), materials (physically sensible albedo/roughness/normal that read in engine), and lighting plus a clean Unreal import (correct scale and orientation, no errors in the Message Log, material assigned and visibly correct). This exam is 25% of your grade because it is the skill floor: everything AI-assisted you do later assumes you can already do this unaided.
Reported hiring data says AI fluency commands a premium on top of fundamentals, not instead of them — studios still test whether you can model, unwrap, and light unaided. Today's no-AI exam is the floor everything else stands on.
Mon 2:45 · Rehearsal & principles A timed dry run
You do not want Wednesday's clock to be the first clock you have felt. Today is a shortened rehearsal on a different asset, so the pacing is familiar before it counts.
- A half-length run
Same four phases, half the time, a throwaway mesh. The point is not the result — it is finding out which phase eats your budget, while it costs you nothing.
- Name your slow phase
Almost everyone has one. If unwrapping is yours, you now know to simplify your seams on Wednesday rather than discovering it at 3:20.
- Check your setup, not just your skills
Substance Painter licensed and launching, Unreal project template ready, the drop location reachable from your machine. Software problems on Wednesday are your problem, and they are avoidable today.
Wed 2:00 · The exam Four phases, on the clock
One hundred and ten minutes, start to finish. You are given the mesh — a small untextured asset, handed out when the clock starts so nobody can pre-work it. Modeling is not on this exam; it was assessed in Project 1, due at last week's crit. What is on the exam is everything downstream of it, which is the part that cannot be faked.
Budget to the gates. A finished-but-rough asset scores far better than a beautiful texture on something that never reached the engine. If a phase runs over, cut your losses and move on — the last twenty minutes are not optional.
- 2:00 · Spec and handout — 5 min
The spec sheet and the mesh land together. Read the whole sheet before you touch anything: texel-density target, map resolution, material call-outs, and the naming convention are all on it. The mesh already has its transforms applied — verify that yourself rather than assuming it.
- 2:05 · Unwrap — 25 min
Mark seams where they hide, unwrap, and pack to the texel-density target. Zero overlaps, consistent checker density across shells, hard-surface shells straightened so texture space is not wasted. Check with a checker map — do not eyeball it.
- 2:30 · Texture — 35 min
Author albedo, roughness and normal to the material call-outs. Fills, generators and smart materials are all fair game — this is not a hand-painting test, it is a test of whether your maps are physically sane and correctly exported. No pure black or pure white albedo. Export at the budgeted resolution with the naming from the sheet.
- 3:05 · Light — 20 min
A simple key-plus-fill so both form and material read. Treat it as a diagnostic: if your normals are inverted or your roughness is wrong, light exposes it while you still have time to fix it.
- 3:25 · Import and submit — 20 min
Into Unreal Engine 5.8: correct scale and orientation, a Material Instance with your maps assigned, zero errors in the Message Log. Save the level, then submit your file, texture set and Unreal project folder to the drop location. The clock stops at 3:45 — the last five minutes are for collection, not work.
Not because it does not matter — because it is the phase whose time is least predictable, and because you already proved it. Project 1 was a modular kit built to a polycount and texel budget, graded at the Week 6 crit. Testing the same skill again a week later would cost you thirty-five minutes you need for the pipeline.
- UVs have zero overlaps, hit the texel-density target, and pack tightly with hidden seams.
- The texture set stays inside the given resolution, is named to the sheet, and reads at gameplay distance.
- Lighting makes form and material legible; normals and roughness behave under light.
- The Unreal import is clean — correct scale and orientation, Material Instance assigned, no Message Log errors.
- You submitted before the clock stopped. An unsubmitted asset scores nothing.
Wed 3:10 · Crit / share Quick reset and preview
No formal crit today — you've earned a breather. We do a quick reset of the room, hand back Week 6 rigging feedback, and preview Week 8: keyframing a walk and run cycle in Blender using the rig you built. Bring a reference video of a walk you find interesting; the more specific the mood, the better the cycle.
Homework — due before Week 08
| Task | Deliverable |
|---|---|
| Choose and study a reference walk video for next week's cycle. | A saved reference clip plus one paragraph on its mood and weight (e.g. "heavy, tired, cautious"). |
| Skim the 12 principles reference with game motion in mind. | Three notes on which principles you expect to fight hardest in a loop. |
| Confirm your Project 2 rig from Week 6 is clean and animation-ready. | A working .blend with a bound rig, brought to Week 8. |
Resources
- Blender UV editing — the unwrap and packing workflow the exam grades you on.
- Substance Painter first steps — texturing to a material spec at a fixed resolution.
- Unreal mesh import — scale, orientation, and clean import into Unreal Engine 5.8.
- Unreal animation — the 12-principles lens you'll carry into Week 8.