How to Create Realistic Foliage Using ZBrush, SpeedTree, & Substance 3D

Introduction

Hello! Today I’m going to discuss how I explored the complex topic of creating foliage in 3D. I’ll share my failures, the workflow that worked the best for me, and the approach I found most efficient for a game-ready pipeline. I hope you enjoy it!

About the Artist

My name is Anna Dalmau Forcano, and I am an Environment Artist. I’ve always known I wanted to work as an artist. Creating makes me feel free and at peace.

I began my journey studying Set Design and graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree from ENSAV in Belgium. After that, I decided to pursue a career in the film industry and studied in Vancouver Film School, where I received a Class Achievement Award in the makeup design program in 2016. 

I then worked as a Prosthetic Artist specializing in painting for eight years. I was fortunate to work on shows such as “The Last of Us” S1 & S2, “Game of Thrones” S8,...  In 2021 I received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Effects Makeup. In 2024, I decided to bring my creativity into the 3D world. That’s when I fell in love with environment art and chose to study at Think Tank Training Centre in 2025. Discovering a non-destructive workflow made me feel more creative than ever.

Inspiration

I’m a very visual artist, so having strong references is essential to my process. When I decided to work on this plant study for an upcoming project, I started by spending time in the forest, carefully observing everything around me. What I love most about nature is that even the simplest elements reveal incredible complexity in color, shape, and structure when you look closely. This is exactly why creating foliage in 3D is so challenging. Making something look natural and organic requires a lot of attention to detail.

I collected leaves from the forest floor and gathered a large amount of reference photos. From there, I selected the images that resonated with me the most and organized them in PureRef. I prefer keeping my PureRef boards clean and organized, as too many images can become overwhelming. A strong selection saves time and helps maintain a clear vision.

The Study of Plants Begins

While researching how to create 3D foliage, I found it difficult to understand the entire process from start to finish. I followed several tutorials, but often had to restart from scratch because the results weren’t what I was aiming for. Eventually, I decided to build a workflow that worked the best for me, based on everything I had learned.

Falling Is Moving Forward

The more I experimented and failed, the more clarity I gained. Each mistake helped me better understand the process. 

Steven Bartlett said: 

"There is no failure. You either win or you learn."

Today, I'm sharing a step-by-step breakdown of my Forest Foliage pipeline.

The Workflow That Worked the Best for Me

1. ZBrush

The first step was creating a plant atlas. Before sculpting, I sketched the leaves on paper to plan how many plants I could create using only three atlases. I sculpted several leaves per plant in ZBrush. 

The key was keeping the leaves straight, introducing size variations, and leaving enough space between them for easier use in SpeedTree.

Those were the brushes I used the most:

Once I was happy with the sculptures, I ensured the canvas was square and exported the Normal and Opacity maps rendered directly from ZBrush.

2. Substance 3D Painter

I used Substance 3D Painter to texture the leaves using the Normal and my Opacity maps. 

Since Substance 3D Painter's default lighting doesn't match Unreal Engine, I adjusted the Display Settings to better match Unreal. This helped maintain color consistency between software. 

At this stage, variation was important in colors, roughness, and surface detail.

I exported the Base Color, Opacity, Normal, and Roughness maps.

3. SpeedTree

After creating the atlas, I imported all texture maps into SpeedTree. I chose SpeedTree because I wanted a non-destructive workflow and the ability to create multiple plant variations using a single atlas.

This is where each leaf was cut into separate meshes. The goal was to keep the geometry low-poly while maintaining enough subdivisions to allow for natural bending.

This was the first time using SpeedTree for a project. It was challenging at first. However, thanks to really good tutorials available online (that I listed at the bottom), I quickly became comfortable with the tool. After using it on this project, I now consider SpeedTree essential for foliage creation.

I also experimented with Nanite Foliage in Unreal 5.7. Since it's still experimental, I believe SpeedTree remains a great foundational tool. Learning SpeedTree beforehand helped me understand the new Nanite Foliage more quickly due to similarities in their non-destructive workflows.

4. Substance 3D Designer

For the forest floor, I created a custom material in Substance 3D Designer. I wanted a dense, busy surface that would complement the foliage. To do that, I first watched a video on YouTube, and from there I created my own version. The link to the video is attached at the bottom of this interview.

5. Unreal Engine 5.7

This is the vegetation kit I created in SpeedTree and imported into Unreal Engine 5.7.

After importing the meshes and textures, I set up a Master Material. Since the plants use an Opacity map, I made sure the Blend Mode was set to "Masked." From the Master Material, I created instances and assigned them to each plant mesh.

I used the Foliage tool for initial placement and density, then manually adjusted some assets to achieve a more natural look.

For the lighting, I used four light sources, mixing cool and warm tones to enhance the atmosphere. I rendered the scene using two cinematic cameras. One on top and one from the front. I did one last render with only a couple of plants, as well as the same lighting.

Final Presentation

I rendered high-resolution images in Unreal 5.7. For the final presentation, I brought the renders into Photoshop and added a frame for a cleaner, more polished look.

Looking Back

I didn't expect foliage creation to be this challenging. This plant study took about one month to complete and resulted in my Forest Foliage project, which will be used in an upcoming environment. 

This experience made me realize how much I truly enjoy creating vegetation, and it’s something I want to continue exploring and improving in future projects. 

Tutorials that helped me:

ZBrush:

Foliage: a tutorial by Tyler Smith

Substance 3D Painter:

SpeedTree: tutorials on the official SpeedTree channel and those from MOT Studio

Substance 3D Designer:

Unreal Engine:

Finally, I'd like to thank Amber Rutherford for giving me this opportunity. Being able to share my work at 80 Level is a huge privilege, and this platform is an incredible resource for the 3D industry. 

Thank you so much for reading. See you around!

Here are my ArtStation and LinkedIn.