Creating Kingdom Hearts-Inspired 3D Wizard's House With Dynamic Seasons

Introduction

Hi! I'm Rita Poulus. I originally graduated with a degree in architecture, but I've always had a deep passion for video games and environment design. While working as an architect, most of my time was spent on 2D layouts and blueprints, so I began learning painting fundamentals and color theory, which naturally led me towards 3D art. Eventually, I decided to fully commit and enrolled at Think Tank Training Centre, where I'm currently specializing in 3D Environment Art for games. Think Tank offers a dedicated and focused program that allows me to fully concentrate on improving both technical and artistic skills, and soon I'll be starting my third term.

The Wizard's House Project

The Wizard's House was my intermediate term final project at Think Tank, and I wanted to challenge myself by creating my first full environment in Unreal Engine. We had a five-week timeline, so I needed a concept that was both visually engaging and manageable within that time period. When looking for references, The Wizard's House by Yeonji Rhee stood out to me because I quickly imagined it in the middle of a field, and I wanted to bring that image to life.

Before starting to work on the project, I spent time studying similar pieces by other artists, focusing especially on how they handled composition, lighting, foliage, and stylization. My goal was to understand better how to achieve a balanced composition and how to guide the viewer's eye through the scene. Those references were essential in helping me determine how big I wanted the final scene to be and what elements to include.

Modeling

When I first saw the concept, it immediately reminded me of Yen Sid's tower from Kingdom Hearts, but I wanted to mix it with a Ghibli-inspired atmosphere. I imagined this tower belonging to a wizard who guides you toward your next big quest behind the mountains in the distance. Planning the composition went through many different stages that evolved based on how much time I had left, so while I had a story in mind, I didn't have the final image clear in my mind, so I went through a lot of trial and error throughout the project.

For the blockout, I started in Autodesk Maya by breaking down the concept into modular and unique elements. 

This helped me understand which structures could be duplicated (like simple wooden planks and beams) and which needed unique modeling, such as the clock, the golden eye above the door, and the large bird ornament. By identifying repeating forms early, I could save a lot of time by using duplicates where possible. I followed the low to high-poly modeling workflow, and since a lot of the assets were on the simpler side, I tried to model them efficiently in the blockout phase so I could use that model as my final low-poly later when I started baking.

I kept using the initial blockout for composition tests in Unreal Engine for as long as I could while I tested different compositions and completed the high-poly and texturing.

For the vegetation, I followed an atlas-based workflow. I combined all the flowers and leaves into a single texture sheet in Photoshop, then modeled the shapes in Maya. 

For the grass and trees, I used Viktoriia Zavhorodnia's tutorials on YouTube:

I also used Blender's Sapling Tree add-on to create more types of trees and some bushes using the tutorials by GraphicLine Games as a guide:

Topology

Like I mentioned before, because most of the assets in the concept were based on simple shapes, I was able to model everything directly in low-poly inside Maya, keeping clean topology in mind from the start. Once I had the base models, I brought them into ZBrush for a stylization pass, adding wood details using the Orb Brush pack, bevels, and hand-sculpted details.

This approach made the retopology process much faster, since the original low-poly meshes were already clean and ready for baking inside Substance 3D Painter. Once the high-poly details were finished in ZBrush, I jumped back into Maya for any quick tweaks, then moved on to unwrapping everything inside Maya.

Texturing

For a lot of the wood planks, I relied on a trimsheet that I sculpted in ZBrush, then baked and textured in Substance 3D Painter.

My texturing workflow relied heavily on the baked AO and Curvature maps, which I used as the foundation to build a custom smart material in Substance 3D Painter that I made by learning from many different stylization tutorials on YouTube. I would tweak the levels of said maps, then add color variation by adding grunge maps as masks and playing with the intensity using a slope blur filter. This material acted as my base across most of the assets; I would tweak its color, metalness, and roughness values depending on the surface I was working on. It allowed me to maintain consistency and achieve quick results while keeping the stylized look.

For example, wood, stone, and even the roof tiles all started with this smart material as a base. From there, I hand-painted subtle color variations and added specific details where needed and deleted extra layers.

Cloth was handled a bit differently. I modeled the gold details in Maya and sculpted the folds in ZBrush and baked them in, which gave the illusion of detail while keeping the asset easy to texture and later animate. I also used the same Simple Grass Wind node to animate the movement of the cloth.

For the fire and smoke, I used this tutorial by Gabriel Aguiar Prod.:

As for the seasonal transition, that was actually inspired by other artists I've seen exploring the idea, and I really wanted to give it a try myself. Due to the tight timeline, I limited it to a spring-to-autumn shift. I created a duplicate of the original Unreal Engine 5 level and named it Autumn, removed the flowers, and duplicated all foliage materials. Then I adjusted their base colors to warm autumn tones, shifting greens into soft oranges and reds.

To present the transition, I rendered out identical videos from both levels using the same sequence and overlaid them in Adobe Premiere, creating a soft fade between the two seasons. 

Composition

I moved the project into Unreal Engine 5 right after the blockout phase, which allowed me to start testing the overall composition early. Since the background wasn't fully defined in the concept art, I had the freedom of designing the surrounding environment myself. This part of the project went through a lot of iterations, with feedback from my supervisor and friends helping shape the final composition. In the end, I assembled all elements, including the rocks and the clouds, to lead the eye towards the building, while I used tree leaves to frame the scene and add more interesting shadows.

One of the key changes I made was shifting the roof tile color from the original blue to a more vibrant red. This choice helped the building stand out more clearly against the blue sky and the green of the field, creating a stronger focal point and guiding the viewer's eye. 

To support this shift in color and composition, I tied it into the environment by scattering flowers in complementary colors, and by breaking up the uniformity of the grass with small storytelling elements like a dirt road, wooden fences, a signpost, and some sculpted rocks created in ZBrush that I textures using the same base smart material and used vertex painting to add moss.

For scattering details, I used a mix of Unreal's Foliage tool for broader coverage and hand-placed assets in key areas where more control was needed. This helped me balance the composition and ensure everything felt cohesive.

Lighting & Rendering

I kept the lighting relatively simple and focused on creating a warm, inviting mood. I used a single directional light as the main light source to simulate sunlight, and placed off-screen trees to break up the lighting and introduce more shadows. To soften overly dark areas, I added three Rect lights to bring balance and ensure no important details were lost in shadow.

For post-processing, the few settings I changed in the Post Process Volume were increasing the gamma in both the global and shadows in the color grading section to 1.07 and the global saturation to 1.3.

Conclusion

The project was completed within the five-week deadline we were given for our final. The biggest challenge for me was nailing the composition and lighting; those didn't fully come together until the last two weeks. It took a lot of iteration and feedback to push through that block and get the mood just right.

One of the most important lessons I learned during this process is the value of having a clear vision. It's easy to gather tons of references, but if you try to follow too many at once, it can muddy your direction. Pick a few key references that resonate with the mood you’re aiming for, and let them guide you. And don't hesitate to ask for feedback, sometimes a single comment can completely reshape your scene for the better.

I'm still early in my journey, but my advice to other newcomers is: be open to learning, develop your artistic eye by studying all kinds of art, and, if you're studying in a school environment, take on projects that genuinely excite you. Passion makes a huge difference. Try new things, make mistakes, and most importantly, don't give up.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to share my process and experience. I hope my journey can inspire others who are passionate about 3D art. I'm excited to keep learning and growing, and to see where this path takes me next!

Rita Poulus, 3D Environment Artist

Interview conducted by Emma Collins