Ember Pipeline is a prop art creation tool that automates a large part of the work
required to create hardsurface props. Artists interact with it through a custom
python interface in Blender. The backend stack consists of Houdini 21 and Substance
3D Painter. ​
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The automated steps include high-poly generation, UV creation, building cage
meshes used for baking and the texture baking process itself.
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The workflow is inspired by the Embark Asset Processor (https://youtu.be/HZd4hQJ2MfA?si=tGIbqMMa4jjjxqus) and the research project included trying to recreate the code functionality of this system.
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The example process shows me modeling a crude version of the "Hornet" from the game Arc Raiders. The entire recorded process took 1:43h, most of that time was spent modeling the low-poly - similarly to a more traditional workflow - and only a couple of minutes of that were needed to add helper objects, send the asset through the processor multiple times - being able to iterate on it quickly - and finally sending the output geometry and baked textures off for texturing.