How to Sculpt and Texture Props and Foliage for a Stylized 3D Scene
Sam Ailura spoke about the workflow behind the Cabin in the Woods project, explaining how she modeled each piece individually to assemble them, how she sculpted stylized props for the first time, and detailing how she managed to make the trees look fluffy and cute.
Introduction
Hello, my name is Samara Ailura! I always loved playing games, but more than that, I enjoyed walking over the map and exploring the forests, the vibes of the ambience, and the visuals. Although I spent hours on it and forgot to really play the game, I never thought that someone could actually work on it full time, or I thought it was just too out of my reality, never crossed my mind that someday I'd be actually learning how to do environments and could be working in the game industry. I started my environment course that was supposed to be only Blender-focused, but as I was making the fourth project, I discovered my passion for making environments; it was my "Il Vicolo Fiorito" project.
As I was searching more about the environment career, I decided to make a project to learn all the software that was needed and show my skills with environments and props with previous knowledge that I had with modeling and texturing. It was my first time using most of the software, such as Unreal Engine, Substance 3D Designer, and SpeedTree. I was very inspired by Genshin Impact and other stylized games, since I grew up playing Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, etc. For this project, I used concept art made by the amazing artist Juliana Braga.
Cabin in the Woods
I tried to preserve all the lighting and composition of the original piece, respecting the author's work. The giant trees brought that magical fantasy feeling, while the warm lighting and the analogous colors added coziness and a visually pleasing harmony.
It was very hard to find the exact place for the camera to match the building, trees, and the depth of the scene. I had to find the best angle, aperture, and ISO, but after a lot of tries it eventually worked. As you can see below, I changed the camera in the middle of the process, remade the landscape, grass, and foliage cause I wasn't happy with the result. I learnt a lot in this process; in order to have the best result possible, you have to be resilient and not be afraid of starting over if you have the time for it.
I started the blockout inside Unreal Engine to make it easier to match the angles. After that, I imported the whole scene into Blender so I could start modeling it. I modeled each piece individually and imported it again into Unreal Engine so I could assemble them just like the reference without changing too much after that.
After modeling, I started building the tileable textures and trim sheets, such as the wall, roof, and grass. Here's one example of the materials I made; this one was for the part of the wall that was made out of rocks. It was made in Substance 3D Designer. I had to make three different materials so I could reach the final result that matched the concept the most. It was a lot of trial and error since it was my first time using Designer, and my goal was to have very Ghibli-ish and stylized textures and materials.
Prop Modeling
The prop modeling was my favorite part cause I felt more comfortable, as I already had experience in making assets. Though I had never done hand-painted textures before in Substance 3D Painter, it felt very natural for me. I respected the flow of the sculpting that I did in ZBrush and followed the lines of the woods and carvings to add more details in the texturing. I had never sculpted stylized stuff before either, but it was very cool and chilling.
I could sculpt woods for hours and hours non-stop; it is so fun to see the sculpt gaining form and telling a story with shapes, deformities, and scratches. After the sculpting and texturing, I retopologized in Blender, and some UVs were made with the help of RizomUV, cause it's easier to open them and see where it is stretching or deforming.
Foliage
As for the foliage, I hand-painted it in Photoshop, and then they were assembled with the foliage mode of UE5. Trees were sculpted in ZBrush and were placed manually inside the engine since they had to be in a very specific position to match the concept. I used a blueprint material with the help of Viktoriia Zavhorodnia's YouTube channel and made a material instance to configure the moss and blend it with the tree material.
To make them look fluffy, cute, and Ghibli-ish styled, I used the vertex normals technique to point them outwards with a sphere shape: you have to copy the sphere's vertex normals into the normals of your trees' and bushes' leaves; it's simpler than it seems. (See the picture below:)
Post-Production and Lighting
To finalize the scene, I had to match the light of the concept and keep the magical mood, so I spent a significant amount of time on post-processing and light setups. To simulate the God rays, I added a few light beams from UE5; for the general light setup, I used UE's directional light with some spotlights to enhance the sun hitting the cabin and floor. I also had to work a lot on the fog to preserve that scene's mystical feeling; for that, I used exponential height fog with the configurations to match the concept.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I want to encourage those who are still learning. Sometimes we self-sabotage and believe we'll never be capable of learning something new, but with patience and persistence, you can achieve results that make you proud. Take it at your own pace, learn something different every day, even if it's simple. Big achievements come from small, consistent steps. When you look back, you'll realize how far you've already climbed. So don't give up, and feel free to reach out if you have any doubts!
