This document is created to provide clarity to all contributors submitting 3D Assets for review by ActionVFX. The goal is to ensure all contributors are following the standards we hold for our own products, thus eliminating many rounds of review or rejection of a collection.

Important:

General

Original Project Files

Geometry

Textures

There should be no trademarked logos used in the design of any 3D model. This ensures there are no legal issues when selling the asset.

Identifiable information such as license plate numbers, aircraft registration numbers, etc., must be fictitious. The use of real identifiable numbers and characters is strictly prohibited.

This will vary depending on the asset but as a general rule of thumb, if the asset is smaller than a car, it should be able to be rendered filling a 4K image, without visible artifacts from the geometry. Larger objects should be able to be rendered with the camera even closer.

Large objects should be able to be rendered with half of the asset filling the frame in a 4K render, meaning the camera will be 2x closer than if the whole asset were visible since medium close-ups of vehicles and buildings are common.

The objects should hold up when rendered full frame in 4K.

The model should contain only quads whenever possible. If tris are needed to not overcomplicate a portion of a model, they can be used to do so but should be used sparingly.

*Quads are not required for photo-scanned assets.

Models should be able to be subdivided without excess pinching, stretching, deformation, or other errors.

Models should be built to their real-world scale.

The model should be centered at the origin (0, 0, 0) and should sit on top of the ground plane without passing through the ground. The pivot point of the overall model (the highest-most Group) should be at the origin.

Objects and Groups should have pivot points that are positioned with animation in mind. They should be located at a position and orientation that allows the object to be animated as it would move in the real world without needing to change the pivot point.

For example, a door on a car should have its pivot point at the hinge of the door and it should be in the correct orientation so that when someone selects the door Group, they can immediately rotate the door and it opens correctly.

For all objects that are not “functional” like doors and wheels, the pivot point should be at the origin or centered in the center of said object. An example of this would be the hull/body of a helicopter model.

Pivot points should be baked before export so they are retained in the FBX and any other supported exports. Note: OBJ do not support this.

All models should have clean UVs that allow a user to easily adjust textures or retexture the element completely.

Face and Vertex Normals should be clean and should point outward.

Holding edges should be present so the model retains its shape after subdivision.

There should be no floating points or geometry in the scene. All geometry of a model should be attached to at least one other object and unused, floating points and surfaces should be removed.

There should be missing surfaces or points which cause there to be visible holes in the geometry.

There should be no additional geometry, lights, cameras, HDRIs, or other unused items in the file/project other than the asset being sold.

All objects should be in a meaningful grouping/hierarchy for easy selection and transformation. Example can be found bellow under Naming Conventions.

Each object and hierarchy should be named with unique, meaningful names that describe the item well.

File Specifications

Textures should always be provided as 16-bit PNG images.

The only exception is for Unreal specific textures. These should be 8-bit JPG images.

Resolution

4K (4096x4096) textures are required for all 3D models being on sold on ActionVFX.

Other texture resolutions will also be accepted but 4K textures must always be included.

Other textures that are allowed to be provided in addition to 4K textures are:

Legally Distributable Textures

All textures must either be custom-made or from a source that allows the legal redistribution of the textures. ActionVFX highly recommends the use of only custom-made textures.

Custom-made textures are those made with texturing software such as Substance Designer and Substance Painter.

There are also resources for textures which allow the redistribution of the textures in stock assets. At the time of writing this (May 9, 2024) Textures.com allows the redistribution of their Regular Images but not their Special Content which includes all PBR Materials on the site. The Regular Images in this case would be allowed to be used in products submitted to the ActionVFX Marketplace. See Article 6 of their terms. If you use their regular photos, you'll need to add the following text to the documentation accompanying the model:

"One or more textures on this 3D model have been created with photographs from Textures.com. These photographs may not be redistributed by default; please visit www.textures.com for more information."

PBR Metallic/Roughness textures are required for all assets. This includes the following texture maps:

Additional maps such as AO, Height, Displacement, etc. should be included when needed.

PBR Spec/Gloss textures are recommended for all 3D models but are not required.

If you are providing Spec/Gloss textures, the following maps are required:

Additional maps such as AO, Height, Displacement, etc. should be included when needed.

PBR Unreal textures are recommended for all 3D models but are not required.

Unreal textures should always be provided as 8-bit JPG images

If you are providing Unreal textures, the following maps are required:

Additional maps such as Height, Displacement, etc. should be included when needed.

Textures must be named using the following naming convention.

[Asset_Name]_[TextureType].[file extension]

Examples:

Canyon_1_BaseColor.png

Canyon_1_AO.png

UDIM Examples

Canyon_1_BaseColor.1001.png

Canyon_1_AO.1001.png

The folder structure for 3D models and assets is as follows. Anything that is underlined is a file. Everything else is a folder name.

There are to be 3 file types for final deliverables that will be uploaded to ActionVFX.com. Additional deliverables can also be provided, but these 3 are the required formats. A separate folder of all texture maps is also required.

This is the full project that contains the textured asset. Maya is the preferred file format but other formats will be accepted.

An .fbx file of the geometry including the textures.

An .obj file of the geometry and an accompanying mtl. File.

A folder containing all texture maps for the model.

In order to showcase the models on the website, you’ll need to provide some high-quality renders. Below are the guidelines to follow for these renders. Note: Your renders cannot contain any URLs and branding to external sites.

Resolution

Renders should be UHD (3840x2160) for all preview images.

Renders should be HD (1920x1080) for all turntables.

Format

Deliver preview renders as a high-quality JPEG.

Beauty Renders

There should be 4 or more images (most of the time more than 4 is needed) that show off all sides of the model in a meaningful way. There are typical camera angles we use, but in some cases, it will make sense to change these angles.

Note: All beauty renders should have the asset filling the frame.

The typical camera angles are as follows:

Wireframe Renders

In addition to the 4+ Beauty Renders, there should also be 2 or more Wireframe Renders. These renders should show the wireframe (the wireframe should be shown on the surface of the model with no textures) of the model to highlight the great topology. The camera angles used here should be ones that are both appealing and show as much of the model as possible.

Turntable Renders

There will be a 360 viewer on each product page that will show each model on a turntable.

This render will be 60 frames long and rendered in HD (1920x1080).

Instructions