The chinese artists work hard but I can see the communication barrier is too great. After a month they still don’t understand normal mapping and after many times trying to explain it they still just don’t get it. All I get are emails “We worked so hard for 2 days on this technique” which winds up totally missing the point and all it accomplished was for me to once again repeat what I already explained.
I have to admit I’m getting annoyed because they have the editor there already. If they simply spent a day experimenting they could have figured it out. Instead they rush forward like bulls with blinders focused on the wrong target rather than spending a minute looking around first. But I understand this is why artists are artists rather than technical people. If I had someone there who was fluent in both chinese and english and could manage them it would have worked out.
If I can I’ll have them properly finish what they can in the time available but it’s a risk to the project to rely on them. So I’m going to go with a professional to do this.