Unity art asset pipeline
Prepares textures, meshes and animations for a Unity project's target hardware. Preserves asset references and artist choices while choosing import settings based on actual visual and resource needs.
unity-art-asset-pipeline
Agents using this skill
When is it useful?
Use it when importing a new asset set or changing many import settings without breaking scenes and prefabs.
What does it help you do?
- Preserves metadata GUIDs and serialized asset references.
- Chooses texture, mesh, animation and LOD settings by target use.
- Previews scoped repeat-safe batch imports without overwriting authored overrides.
Try asking this
Import a modular village kit for a mobile Unity build. Compare texture sizes, compression and mesh detail at the intended camera distance. Preview any batch changes before applying them, preserve hand-tuned material overrides and verify that reimporting the kit does not break prefab references or increase memory unexpectedly.
Detailed documentation
Read the skill’s original instructions, examples and checks in their authored language.
Show less
Art Asset Pipeline and Authoring Tools
Discover the asset contract
Inspect source formats, importer settings, Unity/pipeline versions, platform overrides, folder conventions, prefab/material references and existing Editor tools. Identify units, axes, scale, pivot, UV channels, normals/tangents, skeleton/rig binding and expected texture channels before changing import behavior.
- Preserve
.metaGUIDs and serialized references. Do not regenerate metadata or rename/reparent assets blindly. Keep import/authoring APIs in Editor assemblies. - For textures, distinguish color, masks, normals and HDR data. Choose size, mipmaps, compression, alpha handling and platform overrides from the use case and target; estimate runtime residency, not only source file size.
- For meshes, check scale, vertex splits, topology, UVs, tangent basis, bounds, skinning and blend shapes. Evaluate LOD transitions at the intended screen size; triangle count alone does not define the rendering cost.
- For animation, check rig type, avatar compatibility, root motion, clip boundaries, looping and compression. Preserve bindings and coordinate motion ownership with the controller.
- Scope batch tools to an explicit selection/path set. Provide a preview, count and reversible version-controlled changes before applying broad edits. Make repeat execution idempotent and avoid recursive reimport loops in AssetPostprocessor callbacks.
- Preserve authored overrides rather than overwriting every importer on every scan. Separate validation/reporting from mutation and report unsupported or skipped assets.
- Check generated assets into the expected location with stable naming and dependencies. State whether runtime generation is required or authoring can bake the result.
Verification and handoff
Use representative assets to check import, material/animation bindings, prefab references, runtime memory and a player build when available. Include a clean-import check for dependencies that might exist only in the local Library cache. Report asset counts, settings changed, validation findings and remaining platform checks.
References: Unity asset workflow and the exact Editor's AssetPostprocessor API. Read installed importer/package documentation before writing automation.
Included files 1
SKILL.md