Crafting Wayfinder-Inspired Hand-Painted Sword with Substance 3D

Introduction

My name is Rémy Lauret. I’ve been working in 3D for five years, with almost four years of professional experience. I’m currently part of the team at Gameloft Montreal, working on Disney Dreamlight Valley. I also did some freelance for different companies, and before that, I was at Ubisoft Paris Mobile working on the game Arena Survivor. I attended an art school where I learned the fundamentals. After graduating, I dedicated much time to personal projects to explore different techniques and workflows. Right now, what I enjoy the most is the hand-painting process.

Inspiration & References

First, I usually start by looking for designs online on platforms like ArtStation or Pinterest. When I find a concept I truly love, I dive into researching the style and gathering references to determine the direction I want to take. I collected a lot of references of different swords, as well as detailed references for each part, such as wood, bone, and flesh, to understand how to do it.

For this project, I was inspired by a concept created by André Kent, which you can find on his ArtStation. My main goal for this project was to use a PBR/hand-painted workflow, as Wayfinder was my main reference.

Modeling

First of all, when I create a sword, I usually import the concept into Maya on a plane and use Quad Draw directly on that plane.

It gives me a good starting point, but the result is still flat. Since my sword has a very organic shape, I did a quick blockout in Maya to get the basic silhouette. After that, I moved straight into ZBrush, as it’s easier for me to refine and sculpt the shapes there.

After that, I moved into ZBrush to sculpt everything. On this model, I wanted to push the sculpting work, and I also tweaked the concept a bit. When I work on personal projects, I enjoy making changes.

For example, on the spikes, I used different techniques to achieve this kind of stylization. With the Dam Standard brush, I usually decrease the intensity, activate Lazy Mouse, and set the Lazy Step to around 0.001.

I combine the Dam Standard with the Polish brush, using both negative and positive strokes (holding Alt to switch).

For the metal parts, I followed a similar process, but I used the Orb Flatten brush to create sharper edges. As for the main body of the sword, I sculpted it by adding volume using Clay Buildup and Dam Standard. One thing I usually do when the sculpt starts to look a bit soft or blurry is use the Polish and the Clay Polish features on the mesh.

For the rope and folds, I used the brushes shown here:

For the rope specifically, I started with a rope brush, then modified it to better match my style by using a small Inflate, adding edges, and manually moving some parts to create more variation.

Retopology & Unwrapping

For the topology, I followed a fairly standard process. I imported the high-poly mesh into Maya and did the retopology manually. After that, I exploded the mesh for baking in Substance 3D Painter. Once the bake was done, I placed the non-exploded version of the mesh next to the exploded one to better visualize how the colors and materials fit together. I also used ID maps to make it easier to select specific parts during the texturing process.

Texturing

After that, I started with the base colors in Substance 3D Painter to build up all the essential details, like ambient occlusion, cavity, curvature, color variation, etc.

I applied this process to all my materials.

I also added color variation using a combination of cell noise, slope blur, and directional noise. This creates a nice variation in the color and gives it a painted effect. You can duplicate and layer this setup to add even more color variation.

Once the base was done, I moved into 3DCoat to work on the hand-painted details. I don’t have a lot of specific tips for this stage because it mainly takes time and practice. However, having good references is extremely helpful. Also, don’t forget to add variation, especially along the edges. You want to avoid something too straight or uniform; it’s important to vary both the lightness and thickness of the edges to keep it interesting.

After the hand-painted phase, I returned to Substance 3D Painter to add the final PBR touches, mainly working on roughness and metallic maps to give the asset the PBR look.

For the render, I used Marmoset Toolbag. I set up some simple lighting to add a bit more contrast – and voilà!

Conclusion

It was super fun working on this project. I enjoyed pushing both the hand-painted style and the sculpting process further. I’m still learning a lot about the hand-painted workflow, and I truly love it.

My advice would be to take on personal projects and experiment with different techniques. There are plenty of free tutorials on YouTube that can be incredibly helpful. Don’t hesitate to use them! Also, when doing personal work, you don’t always need to aim for a huge environment. Sometimes, focusing on a single prop can be more motivating and allows you to put all your effort into one asset, which often leads to better results.

Rémy Lauret, 3D Environment Artist