Game Engines

Character Pipeline (Sculpt to Engine)

The stages a game character goes through

Also known as: Character workflow · Game character pipeline · Character art pipeline · Sculpt to game character · Character production steps

Character Workflow Pre-production

Definition

The character pipeline is the sequence of stages that turns a design into a playable game character. It usually runs from concept art and a model sheet, to a base mesh and high-poly sculpt, then retopology, UVs, baking, texturing, rigging and skinning, and finally export and setup in the engine with materials, LODs and animation. Each stage hands its result to the next, so problems that are not fixed early, such as bad topology or UVs, multiply later in the process.

In production

Check each stage before moving on: proportions and silhouette after the sculpt, clean topology and UVs after retopology, clean bakes before texturing, and deformation tests before animation. Keep the same pose, scale and naming throughout, and test in the engine early with a rough version. Know the hand-off points in the team, because artists, riggers and animators depend on consistent deliverables.