1 Submit through the Publisher
1.1 Prepare Your Product in Publisher
After you have prepared your model to the CheckMate specification, you will use the Publisher to submit it to the certification queue. You must meet several of the Product Preview standards before the Publisher will allow you to submit. Most importantly, you must choose a native format: 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema4D, Lightwave, or Blender. If you submit and the Publisher detects an issue, you will need to update where the preview does not meet the required standards.
- Go to My Files. For a new product, click Publisher, upload a 3D model product and thumbnails, and fill in all the information as usual. For an existing product, click My Published Products, and open the product.
- To ensure your product is ready for CheckMate submission, make sure you do the following:
- Under Step 1, specify one file format as the native file format, and also specify the renderer used.
- Under Step 1, enter an appropriate price for the certification level. See CheckMate Pricing for accepted CheckMate prices.
- Under Step 1, fill in all Product Information including Poly Count and Vertex Count.
- Under Step 2, upload your Search Images, at least 5 Product shots, 1 Wireframe thumbnail and 1 Turntable in accordance with TurboSquid’s standard publishing guidelines.
- For CheckMate Pro, upload an Unwrapped UV Image under Step 2.
- Under Step 3, enter a Description. For CheckMate Pro, list the texture resolutions as part of the Description.
- When you have uploaded all the required thumbnails and have filled in all the required information, you are ready to submit the product to CheckMate. Under Step 1 of the Publisher, under CheckMate Submission, choose one of the submission options. Please review the CheckMate Certification Terms of Service before doing so. Note that this option is available only to artists who are in the SquidGuild.
1.2 Select CheckMate Submission
Once your product is set up, you will mark it for submission in the CheckMate Submission section at the bottom right of the first tab of the Publisher.
In order to submit, you must first agree to the Publishing agreement for CheckMate content and then select if you wish to submit for CheckMate Pro or Lite. Once these are selected, simply click on Publish, and your product will be submitted to the CheckMate Queue. When you click Publish, you might get a failure message. See CheckMate Submission Failure to learn about this message, and what to do about it.
Your product will be in the submission Queue for a short period of time before it moves into the Inspection process. After the inspection has started, you will not be able to edit your product unless you Cancel the inspection or are directed by the QA Inspectors to change aspects of your Product Preview.
Previously, you would update your files in the Publisher, but with the current system, you will update your files within the new Inspection interface itself. While your Inspection is in process, your CheckMate queue page will link directly to the Inspection interface so you will be able to check on status and work directly with the QA Inspectors to certify your model.
2 Watch for Notifications and Status Updates
When a model is submitted for Inspection it enters a queue before it moves into an an Inspection that is created based on your SquidGuild level and status. You can read more details about rules of the CheckMate Queue.
When there are changes in the status of your model’s inspection, you will receive an email notification that will link you directly to the Inspection. You can also access this through the CheckMate Queue page and the CheckMate Submission section of the Publisher.
An improvement to the notifications and status of inspections will be available soon.
3 Inspect Model
Inspections are iterative processes where you and our QA Inspectors go through a series of tasks to certify a model. We have made it easier for artists for artists to view the stages of their Inspections and to communicate with Inspectors. Your files updates are now located within the Inspection interface, and when the Inspection is completed, the files will be automatically updated in your Publisher.
In order to speed up inspection times, we have introduced some automation for 3ds Max files. Both Native and Non-Native 3ds Max files will be inspected using an automated script and any required fixes will be sent back to the artist as soon as the automation finishes. Any other format besides 3ds Max will continue to be inspected by hand.
3.1 Native Format Certification
After the Product Preview is approved, the QA Inspectors will review your native file to see if it meets the standards of the CheckMate certification level you submitted to. In this stage of the Inspection, you will submit all file changes within the Inspection interface rather than in the Publisher as you did previously. When the certification is completed, your file will be automatically updated in the Publisher.
If you need to make any corrections to your model, you will receive a notification email that will update you about the issue and link to the Inspector interface so that you can to respond to the QA Inspector. If the native file is 3ds Max an automated script will run and return results which outline what needs to be updated.
You would then update your model file based on information provided by QA. Once you complete this, click on Update the file in the Inspection interface to upload the fixed file and then Submit For Approval to send it back to QA for review.
If you feel that there is an error in the QA Inspector feedback, provide a comment that explains why and then click on Submit For Approval to send back to QA.
If you have any questions during the process, feel free to add a comment at any time by clicking on Comment. This will send your message to the QA Inspector.
When your model passes the Native Format Certification, it will automatically move into the Certify Product Preview process for the completion of certification of the product.
3.2 Certify Product Preview
As stated above, the Publisher will automatically detect some of Product Preview standards, but not all will be detected. An Inspector will review how you have published your model and how it matches with the files you have provided. If there are any issues, an Inspector will provide you with directions on what to change. In this stage, you should make your edits within the Publisher. Be sure to have the CheckMate Submission value set before publishing. At this stage, you can also choose to change your submission from Pro to Lite.
If you have any questions about the feedback from the Inspector, you can always enter a comment in the Inspection interface by clicking on Comment and sending a note to them without re-submitting the model.
If you feel that there is an error in the QA Inspector feedback, you would add a comment and then click on Resubmit so that the Inspector can re-review your model.
3.3 Non-Native Format Certification
After the Native Format is certified, the Inspection interface will create new tasks for all of your non-native formats that are eligible for certification. QA Inspectors will review each non-native file individually to ensure that it meets the CheckMate certification level standards. In this stage, you will receive feedback for all non-native files at once rather than individually. You will then need to update any failed formats before you can resubmit the entire product for review.
If there are any issues with the model, you will receive a notification email and the Inspection interface will provide you with the issue and allow you to respond.
You can select more options when working on non-native format failures depending on the CheckMate level being certified.
If you choose to fix the model file based on information returned by QA, you would use the same Update the file action to upload the fixed file. Please keep in mind that Submit For Approval will not be enabled until you’ve processed all of the failed files.
- CheckMate Pro
All certifiable files do not need to be certified for the model to be approved for Pro. However, the files cannot be broken. If interface shows Broken, you can choose to update the file or remove it. Removed files will be deleted from your TurboSquid product when the submission process is complete. If it shows Failed only, you can update the file or choose to Uncertify. This task will then be skipped. - CheckMate Lite
All certifiable files must be approved at the same specification level for Lite. If you do not wish to certify a specific format, choose Uncertify. This will remove the file from the product on TurboSquid when the submission process is complete.
As always, if you think that there are errors in the Inspector feedback, please add a comment explaining why. If you have any questions during the process, feel free to add a comment at any time and click on Comment to send to QA.
Once you’ve defined one of the actions above for all failed files, Submit for Approval to send the model back to the QA Inspectors.
When your model is certified, you will receive your badge and any file changes or removals will be automatically updated on your TurboSquid product.
Post-Certification Changes
After a CheckMate model is certified, you may find that you’d like to change or update your product. Some of those changes may be minor, and those will not remove your certification. Major adjustments will remove the certification until QA can review and approve those changes. When you try to submit a product change in the Publisher, it will notify you if the change will remove the certification. If the changes result in certification-removal, a new Inspection will be automatically created for you.
