LogInIntroduction
Hello everyone! My name is Nicolas Bargès, and I currently live in Lyon, France. I'm a freelance 3D props and environment artist in the video game industry. I had the opportunity to work as a 3D Props Artist for GFactory on the game Palia. I've always been passionate about art, video games, cinema, and comics.
I've always been fascinated by the environments and worlds where characters evolve, and by everything surrounding them. I also love working with different materials. That's why I enrolled in a private school specializing in 3D art, where I learned the basics. However, I developed most of my current skills through personal projects and curiosity. Later, I joined GFactory, first as a Render Artist, then as a Props Artist.
Dungeon Sword Project
I decided to create this personal Dungeon Sword project, based on a concept by the talented Philip Karlov.
I admire the work done on the Wayfinder project, and achieving a mix between hand-painted style and PBR is one of my artistic goals. I started this project mainly to improve my hand-painted texturing skills and deepen my knowledge of Unreal Engine 5.
To stay organized, I gathered a lot of references from Wayfinder and other similar projects, using PureRef like many artists do. I think it's very important to work with lots of references, photos, and materials, even when creating stylized art.
Base Mesh
To start the modeling, I placed the reference image inside Maya to get the right dimensions. I also used Unreal's basic mannequin to ensure the sword would be correctly scaled according to the concept.
Then I created a base mesh for the sword, making sure to follow the concept closely and separate the different parts. I also decided to model the two pieces of fabric horizontally to later simulate their movement in Unreal and bring a bit more life to the object.
High-Poly
I sculpted the high-poly version in ZBrush to define the different materials. I interpreted the blade as metal and the base as stone.
I took a lot of inspiration from the artists who worked on Wayfinder, especially Guillaume Provost and Seth Baldwin.
Following the concept, I decided to make some parts symmetrical, like the blade, pommel, and candleholders, to save time and UV space without making the symmetry too obvious. Starting from the base mesh proportions, I worked on defining the materials.
I used a lot of references to capture realistic details while still respecting the stylized concept. I first defined the main shapes and breaks, using masking and the Move tool to create movement in the stone. I also used Orb Brushes, which are excellent for sculpting stone surfaces. I made sure elements didn't intersect unnaturally, for example, by creating hollows where the blade enters the stone and bevels to make everything feel physically placed and separated, like stones lying naturally on the ground.
Topology & Unwrapping
I returned to Maya to create the low-poly model and unwrap the UVs. I didn't want the polycount to be too high, but I still wanted to retain the major shapes from the sculpt and avoid visible polygons.
As with the high-poly, I mirrored the sword blade and candleholders to save UV space. I allocated more polygons to the fabric pieces to prepare for animation later on.
Texturing
For texturing, I used Substance 3D Painter. Following my Wayfinder references, I aimed to create more color variation in the stone.
I started by hand-painting shadows and highlights, using a fake light setup in Substance 3D to bake lighting into the Base Color. I painted subtle color variations into the stone, like shades of khaki and brown, to add life and richness to the surface. I added hand-painted highlights to emphasize hollows and cracks in the stone.
For the metal parts, I also hand-painted color variations, especially on the Roughness and Metalness Maps, to give the material more character. I used a similar approach for the leather wrapping around the handle. The goal was to find the right balance between hand-painted style and PBR workflow, giving special attention to both Base Color and material properties like Roughness and Metalness.
Workflow in Unreal Engine
For the final scene, I first staged the elements in Maya to respect the initial placement, then imported everything into Unreal Engine. For the ground, I used an alpha plane painted in Photoshop to get a more organic shape instead of a simple square plane.
I created a camera with a slightly squashed focal length to match the concept art's perspective. To create a magical light effect around the object, I used a plane with painted emissive textures and animated the UVs in Unreal, making the light swirl around the sword
For the floating particles, I used Unreal's Niagara particle system, tweaking the parameters to get the desired motion.
To simulate wind on the fabric pieces, I applied a cloth simulation and added a Wind Directional Source in Unreal to control the wind's direction and strength.
I also used RVT (Runtime Virtual Texture) in Unreal, which allows recording and projecting information from the ground (such as color or height) onto the grass. This technique helps better integrate the grass into the environment, making it react dynamically while also optimizing performance.
Lighting
For the lighting setup, I used SkyAtmosphere for the global lighting and added ExponentialHeightFog for atmospheric depth. A Directional Light served as the main light source.
I also placed a spotlight near the ground to simulate candlelight bouncing onto the grass, and positioned a tree with leaves between the sky and the scene to break up the lighting and add realism through subtle shadows.
Conclusion
It's always challenging to translate a 2D concept into a 3D model because the design isn't necessarily thought out for all angles. That’s why I chose Philip Karlov’s brilliant concept, it's very effective and easily adaptable to 3D.
When translating a concept, it's important to find a balance between following the 2D and obtaining a suitable result in 3D. As props artists, we must interpret and complete the design to maintain consistency from all angles.
This project allowed me to explore different Unreal systems, like Niagara particles and alpha planes, and pushed me to learn more about Unreal Engine's potential. I'm very happy with the final result, even if it’s not perfect, but this project taught me a lot and helped me grow as an artist.
And most importantly: enjoy the process! Every new project is a new opportunity to explore, learn, and push your limits.