How to Sculpt a Detailed Environment of a Hidden Temple Using ZBrush

Introduction

My name is Rui Cunha, and I am a Game Artist from Portugal with a deep passion for all the visual arts. I recently finished my Master's program at Escape Studios London, but my path in the video game and 3D field started a long time ago. 

My journey in multimedia arts started in my high school years, to which I dedicated myself to 2D animation, while also starting to learn the foundations of 3D art in 3dsMax. Although I struggled with it, it was at that time that I found the beauty behind prop making and texturing. After completing high school, I enrolled in and attended a bachelor's degree program in animation, which helped solidify my knowledge of the field.

However, it was also during this period that I realized I would not be satisfied pursuing a career in the animation industry, enrolling in a Bachelor's in Sound and Image. This was pivotal for my education, having learned cinematography and film foundations while also learning Unreal Engine and Maya. It was then that I fell in love with UE5 and all its capabilities, creating a small indie game called Bugs for my final group project during my bachelor's.

My love for video games, tycoon, sandbox, and set dressing games, and my passion for 3D and Unreal Engine, finally merged and made me find my professional path and dream career: Environment Art. My first step into the pursuit of this dream started with my enrolment at Escape Studios London, where I learned everything I know about Game Art.

During my Game Art MA program, I concluded my 16-week project called The Hidden Temple in Unreal Engine 5: an ultimate showcase of all the abilities I have acquired, Myth: Wukong (2024). The environments of the game are primarily focused on Chinese temples and monasteries, combining technical realism with an artistic intention.

These are also often decorated by Chinese imagery and statues that enrich these very same locations while also introducing iconographic elements. This characteristic would be perfectly suited for my project, as I intended to specialize in 3D Sculpting in ZBrush and wanted to refine my abilities and showcase them in this very same environment.

References and Blockout 

When deciding upon the theme of my project,  I had already envisioned some sort of temple embedded in a cliff, surrounded by trees, hidden from the eyesight of everyone, and challenging to get to, which worked as a foundation for the creation of my environment.

To refine this concept and having decided on the scope of it, I started gathering references in order to figure out what would be the exact composition of the project as well as better understand the Chinese architecture and its possible integration into the surroundings. 
 
When it comes to brainstorming and the gathering of references, I use the software PureRef, which helps me create an organized moodboard while also enabling the user to lock the window in order to work on different software with PureRef opened, which is perfect for modeling props or sculpting. This is what my moodboard for the project looked like:

I tend to organize my moodboard by separating the references for modular kits, decorative props, texturing, lighting, and specific pieces I feel I need a lot of references for to create and get a large number of images. This really helps when creating your own props, as you can use bits from each reference to create something authentic rather than copying something that already exists.

One of the images that really inspired this project actually came from a different game that I had previously played: The Rise of the Tomb Raider. At the start of the game, there is a temple embedded in a cliff wall that made me think to myself, "I wish I could have done this", so I challenged myself to achieve something similar but with a Black Myth: Wukong twist to it. 

As in all of the blockouts for my projects, I like to keep a certain detail to it and include as much information as I can. I believe a good and detailed blockout is the key foundation to every environment. I created the blockout for the cliff inside Unreal Engine while the temple itself was created in Maya, as it is much more intuitive than the modelling tools from UE5.

At this stage, it's important to keep a certain cinematographic eye when it comes to its assembling and composition, so I started to assemble cameras and define the hero shot of the project. I believe, as in every art form, that it is important to create depth with a distinct foreground and background in order to enrich its composition.

Around the same time, I also realised the amount of rocks and cliff pieces that would be required in order to assemble the cliff wall. I viewed this as a chance for me to learn a new tool, which is greatly highlighted by the game art industry when it comes to PCG modeling: Houdini. This would make the process of creating these assets a lot quicker, saving me a lot of time that I could spend on more relevant assets.

PCG Modeling

My journey through Houdini was quite complicated. Although there are a lot of resources and tutorials on the internet that can definitely help you in the process of creating assets, I had a hard time understanding the logic behind each node. This made me spend more time than I intended learning the foundations of the software, with a lot of help from other colleagues.

The rocks and cliffs I created were inspired by the well-known Chinese granite formations, with tall vertical cliffs with very sharp edges, such as the Huangshan Mountain. As outlined previously, one of the great advantages of the software is the ability to create an infinite number of variations, just through changing the value and dimensions of specific parameters (procedural workflow modelling), which was precisely what I did to implement variation on my own rocks.

I also ended up using my new skills in Houdini to create elements such as mountains that go on the background of the environment, as well as the actual ground that the temple is established on.

Sculpting and Modeling

As previously mentioned, my focus on this project was to perfect my sculpting skills on ZBrush. Having this in mind, I knew I wanted to create sculpted pieces and statues that would not only be able to make me feel more comfortable with sculpting more complex shapes but also showcase my abilities. My workflow for these was basically the same for every piece.  

There is not much detail to report on this process, as it is very much based on slowly refining the mesh until I get a result I am satisfied with. The process begins with blocking out the overall form using the most appropriate ZBrush base meshes, followed by a gradual refinement, mainly using the Clay Buildup brush and Dam_Standard Brush.

Finally, I usually create damaged corners and more natural-looking shapes by adding damage with both the TrimDynamic brush and other brushes from the Orb Brushes Pack by Michael Vincent, which I recommend. Lastly, I opted to create a brush pack based on alphas that I created using Photoshop with images from different textures.

These would be used for micro detailing and to give the sculpt a more textured look, adding small cracks, imperfections, and noise that would otherwise take a lot of time to sculpt manually.

My best advice for those looking to create pieces like this is to gather as many references as possible, as this will give you the knowledge and understanding of the pieces in order for you to re-create them. There are never enough references. Also, I believe digital sculpting is very much about trusting the process.

It will take some time until you sort the main shape out and until things start looking the way you want them to, so it is crucial that you keep working on your piece and don't give up when it is not looking like you first thought it would. With enough refining, you will achieve a good result. Using high-poly sculptures in ZBrush for games requires using and creating a low-poly equivalent of that very same asset.

This is usually achieved by retopologizing each asset manually with a good topology in order to create a solid UV map, which is very time-consuming. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to do so as I had to create a lot of sculpted assets in a short time window, so I had to come up with a solution for that. I used a tool in ZBrush called Decimation Master in order to reduce the polycount without affecting the shape of the asset, while also using DynaMesh to achieve a better topology with quads.

Finally, I separated each part of the prop that I wanted to be a UV island into different poly groups and used the UVing tool of ZBrush to use these same polygroups as UV islands. Although definitely not perfect or optimized, it was a quick fix for a step that would otherwise be very time-consuming. Finally, I hopped into texturing. 

After finishing with these main statue pieces, I worked on the more architectural ones like the rooftop piece, staircase, and many others. The methodology I used for these pieces was essentially the same for all. I started by creating a mid-poly version of these pieces in Maya with UVs, as most of them were used as the actual in-game asset. I would then bring these pieces to ZBrush, where I would weather the sharper edges with the TrimDynamic brush.

On some of these pieces, I also used the Clay Buildup brush to create larger areas of damage, combined with the Dam_Standard brush to create fissures. When it comes to pieces with stone work, carvings, and reliefs, I used images from actual Chinese temples, details, and created alphas in Photoshop by turning them black and white, tweaking the contrast and brightness, and cleaning up some of the noise.

I then applied these to the sculpt with a custom brush and cleaned them up. As a final step, I used the mentioned brush pack I created to add stone, brick, and clay texture for an even more refined high-poly asset. Although I would have liked to manually sculpt all this detailing and carvings by hand, I figured I wouldn't have time for it, and I concluded that I would rather use this method than have a less detailed surface on the assets.

These sculptures were then all baked into their respective mid/low-poly version in Substance 3D Painter, in order to have the maximum features on their surface with a clean and optimized topology.

Texturing

The process of texturing was based on two different steps: the creation of master materials and the individual texturing of each asset with said materials. A major part of the pieces of the environment are constructed with the same material, especially granite, so it would be convenient to create master materials in Substance 3D Painter that I could then use for each asset with slight variations.

My approach for each of them was quite similar: after gathering enough references, I would create the material by working with colour and normal maps from the Substance 3D Painter library and slowly building up a big number of layers, adding finer and finer details to it, finalising with work on the Roughness of the texture.

I believe texturing plays a fundamental role in the storytelling of the assets. Having said that, it is important to always keep in mind the story behind your environment when texturing your assets. Since Hidden Temple is supposed to be a hard-to-reach old building with no maintenance whatsoever, positioned on a high cliff where the wind is stronger, the walls and objects would logically be very affected by weathering and degradation.

To achieve this look, I generally create a noisier and more irregular texture with a lot of marks of scratches and slight color variations mimicking sunlight fading, as well as other maps that build up in order for the texture to look as complex and detailed as possible. Here are some examples of the master materials I created:

One of the materials I spent the most time on was the one for the walls of the temple. I started by creating the bricks that would be the base layer of the wall. I used ZBrush to create a couple of different variations of bricks and then assembled them in a way so the texture would tile when applied to a plane. I then baked the high-poly sculpt of the brick wall into a plane in Substance 3D Painter and textured it, achieving an AoRM, Normal, Base Color, and Height for the brick wall foundation.

This was followed by the next texture- a layer of cement in between the bricks and the wall paint. I reused the same texture I previously created for the cement surrounding the bricks so that these would blend in-engine. Afterward, I used Substance 3D Painter to design a texture for the wall paint.

I wanted the wall to feel like it had endured a lot of time and weathering, like it had been repainted at some point, so you could also see some brush strokes and variations of colors, which I believe I was able to accomplish.

Finally, I created an extra layer of paint with a slightly darker tone of red for some detailing. After gathering all of these textures, I created a master material in Unreal Engine, ready for vertex painting. I used a different approach from previous projects, as I wanted to try the usage of Material Layers in Unreal Engine.

For this, I started by creating a material layer for each texture, where I used Material Functions that allowed me to tweak parameters of each texture map more procedurally, such as intensity of normals, hue of base color, and others. For each texture separately in the final Material. I then created four material layer blends, each one with different characteristics.

Firstly, I created a simple blend for the paint layer with a little bit of noise. I also created a height-based blend using the height map of the brick height map to blend the bricks and cement, and lastly, one based on a noise mask for the final darker paint layer variation, as some finer detailing.

With all the following materials ready,  I created the final master material for the wall, where I organized each layer and used each blend for its respective layer. Finally, I created an instance of that very same material that allowed me to tweak all the properties as I previously mentioned.

Although this workflow might sound confusing, it is quite intuitive once you get the hang of it, and it is very convenient as you get the ability to easily manipulate the blending of all the layers and tweak colors and other characteristics in one unique material.

Lighting and Post Processing 

After getting everything ready and set up in Unreal Engine, it was time to properly light the environment. To me, good lighting is the key to achieving a professional and "cinematic" look that everyone looks out for, so I tend to spend a lot of time tweaking it. It is also the lighting that will showcase the assets that you did in the best way possible, directing the viewer's eyes to key features of your level that you want to showcase, such as hero assets or more worked-on props.

I started by setting the tone for the environment as well as its key light, the sun. For this, I used an HDRI with a foggy ambient light and a Directional Light as the sun, pointing directly to the temple's entrance, using some scatter distribution in order to create a god ray effect that acts as a visual guide to the entrance. After that, I worked on the Height Fog Volume to work on the way the directional light fades with the fog, giving it a more subtle and less contrasted shadow and highlights.

To fill the darker areas, I added a Sky Light, working with the HDRI light as the fill light of the environment. At this stage, I went back to the original hero shot and worked the lighting in a way that would make the foreground darker than the actual temple, to enhance the depth of the overall scene and to highlight it. Finally, I placed traditional Chinese lamps with a warm point light that contrasted with the gloomy blue tones of the environment light.

These not only make the scene feel less flat but also highlight the temple and its entrance, guiding the eye of the player/viewer. After finishing this, we reach the point where the whole scene gets life: the post-production. To me, a good finalized lighting can only be achieved by working on it hand in hand with the Post Process Volume that UE5 offers. In my case, I started by color grading the scene, changing the midtones to blue and lowering the saturation, achieving a more melancholic look.

I then graded the scene again to give it an Orange and Teal look, a way of color grading used inside the film industry, due to them being complementary colors, using the blue for the shadows and highlighting the scene with orange tones, establishing the contrast between warm and cold lights even more. I also added some sharpness and chromatic aberration. With the lighting and post-production look concluded, the environment was now finished.

Conclusion

Overall, this project was a major personal achievement. It made me not only more comfortable with various tools but also to practice the workflow followed by the industry. Although 16 weeks is a short time span for the production of an environment, pushing myself to this level created the need for me to become better each day and to do a lot of problem-solving and work-around techniques to make my advance as much as I could on the pipeline without sacrificing a lot of the visual quality of the environment.

My advice for newcomers to Environment Art is as cliché as one could predict: play a LOT of games. It is fundamental that one walks around game environments slowly and tries to sort out how things were done, what tricks were used to "fool" the player's eyes, texel density, and many other aspects that concern game artists. This will open your eyes to a perspective in video games that surpasses the casual player's vision, and you will then be able to apply those same techniques to your own work. 

The biggest advice I can give, though, is to expand your field of knowledge in all forms of art as much as you can. Being a game artist is not just about games. It's about architecture, product design, cinema, composition, photography, fine art, sculpture, and a lot more. You can't afford to only care about games and 3D. You must get a keen eye for all these, as they will be the key for you to become a better game artist, as all these influence how you build, set dress, and compose your pieces, taking them to the next level.

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as knowing too much, and that this is what will differentiate you from the average game artist. Finally, and more practically, I really advise creating as many things as you can, not all pieces have to be full environments, work on smaller, highly detailed props and dioramas so you can focus yourself in quality and not quantity. Always strive to be comfortable and knowledgeable on the industry's pipeline and workflow. This will be the key that art directors and hiring managers will be looking out for.

It is extremely important that you showcase that you can use the tools and techniques that they use. Above all, don't forget to keep the passion in everything that you create and to always strive to be a better artist! You can check a little bit more on some pieces of the environment on my ArtStation.

Rui Cunha, MA Game Art Student

Interview conducted by Emma Collins