See How You Can Create 3D Model of Old, Used Phone

Introduction 

Hi, my name is Rohit Jangra, and I am a 3D Artist with 7 years of experience. I’m constantly learning and pushing myself to improve every day. Although I studied Fine Arts in college, I was always drawn towards 3D, so I gradually learned the entire 3D pipeline step by step while working.

Over time, I discovered my passion for creating props and realistic assets, and that has become the core of my work. Most of my growth has come from the amazing mentors and colleagues I’ve had the chance to learn from throughout my career.

This Vintage Intercom is a personal project I created to strengthen my modeling, texturing, and rendering skills in Unreal Engine 5, using Blender and Substance 3D Painter as my main tools.

I’ve also contributed to titles such as Silent Hill, Remnant, and other projects.

Vintage Intercom

I wanted to create something very common in Indian offices and homes: old, dusty, and full of history. These vintage intercom phones have a unique charm: yellowed plastic, hand-written numbers, and dirt gathered in every tiny corner. They instantly reminded me of the offices and sarkari (government) buildings I saw growing up. 

To capture this look accurately, I collected many references such as old Panasonic intercom phones, Indian office telephones, close-up photos of aged plastic materials, and examples of hand-written scribbles. Studying these helped me understand the correct proportions, shapes, and all the small details that make these phones feel authentic and true to their era.

Modeling

I followed an industry-standard high poly to low poly workflow for this asset. I began by collecting accurate real-world dimensions of the intercom because I wanted the model to feel precise, true to scale, and faithful to the original reference. Once the measurements were set, I started by blocking out the primary shapes of the telephone, which helped establish the overall proportions. From this blockout, I moved into creating the high-poly mesh using subdivision levels and supporting edges to achieve clean, smooth hard-surface forms. 

For the button section, I wanted the asset to remain game-ready and optimized, so I used floating geometry for the button-hole details and baked those onto the low-poly. This approach gave the impression of depth and occlusion around the buttons without needing to model every hole physically. For the cable, instead of spending unnecessary time modelling it manually, I used the curve-based workflow in Blender, editing curve points, applying a screw modifier, and then extending it along the curve with custom thickness. 

This method is fast, efficient, and works equally well for creating ropes. The biggest challenge in this project was taking a small, everyday object and turning it into something that feels story-rich, detailed, and realistically used. Throughout the process, the constant problem-solving, whether in modelling, detailing, or optimization, taught me new techniques and helped me reach the result I had envisioned.

UVs

For this project, I first finished high poly sculpt, then I did retopology in Blender. I make a new low-poly mesh on top of the sculpt using shrinkwrap and snapping to faces so the mesh sticks to high poly. I just placed quads slowly and followed the shapes, especially the face and big curves. I try to keep loops clean. After retopology was done, I marked seams in places where cuts were not visible, like under arms, back of legs, inside clothes, etc. 

Then I unwrapped and checked the checker pattern to see stretching. If there was stretching, then I would fix the island. I also did an average island scale and packed UVs for good space. I kept the important parts, like the face, bigger. Then, after the UVs were okay, I exported the low poly to Substance 3D for baking and texturing.

Texturing – Storytelling Through Realism

From the very beginning, my primary goal for texturing this asset wasn’t just to make it realistic; I wanted to make it tell a story. Realism alone can make an asset look believable, but storytelling makes it feel alive. I wanted the viewer to instantly get a sense of the personality of the person who uses this telephone every day. So I decided to sprinkle in a bit of cheesy humor and everyday relatability, almost as if the previous user had a playful personality much like mine. That subtle layer of character became the core of the texturing approach. 

Primary Pass

I start texturing by making the basic surface of the phone first. For base color, I do not choose clean or bright colors. I chose pale white with a little pale yellow. With this color, the phone looks old and vintage, like it had stayed many years on a dusty office table under a tube light.

After the base color, I added some roughness and small dirt details. I used many grunge maps but with very small strength, so the effects stayed simple and real. These small imperfections on the curved places make it feel slowly old over time – like it is touched every day, cleaned many times, used again and again.

At this point, the phone was looking used, but still not fully “lived-in.” So I went for the next texturing pass to add more story.

Wear & Tear

The second texturing pass I did was only to show how humans use the phone in real life. I did not put scratches and dust everywhere. I think it's like a real office: if this phone is real, which parts do people touch again and again? That one question helped me in every texture layer.

I use smart masks and also paint with a brush by hand to make the wear look natural only in the correct places:

• The number buttons and speed-dial keys.
• The receiver where fingers hold the phone.
• The curly wire where it always pulls and rubs.
• The writing pad area where people quickly write numbers.

Because I put wear only on the places where real touch and friction happen, not all over the phone, it started looking like someone really used it every day. It looked like a daily office story: calls, hurry, tension, oily fingerprints, long working hours, and rough handling.

Adding Personality – Humor as an Environmental Storytelling

Now the fun part starts: adding humor. I don’t want the phone to look old. I want it to feel like a funny and cheesy person was using it. So I started writing names by hand on the contact sheet and making small scribbles on the phone's surface. These names are like funny characters and slang people say in my area.

I did not put these scribbles in a random place. I put them where the office person will write fast when busy. When someone reads these names or understands the local style, they will smile and feel connected.

With this, the phone is not just an “old object” anymore. It becomes like a story: “Who used this phone?” “What office was this?” “What type of people worked here?” This small humor gives a human feeling and makes the asset easy to remember.

Lighting & Rendering

I kept the lighting setup simple, using a standard three-point system: a strong key light to emphasize the main subject, a soft fill light to balance the ambient illumination, and a rim light to introduce a subtle sheen and make the asset visually pop, enhancing its storytelling appeal. 

For post-production inside Unreal Engine, I applied a combination of bloom, vignette, and color-grading adjustments to refine the highlights, midtones, and shadows for a more visually pleasing result. I also introduced a mild film-grain effect to give the final image a subtle cinematic touch.

Conclusion

This project took me likely less than 10 days: about a week fully invested in modelling and texturing the prop, and the remaining days invested in setting up the asset, including the lighting in Unreal Engine for the final rendering setup.

The main challenges were advancing my hard-surface modelling skills in Blender and attaining the major workflows used by hard-surface artists. I wanted to capture as much as I could to make it a game-ready/cinematic asset—realistic and containing a good amount of detail with a storytelling aura. By “game-ready,” I don’t mean just making it low-poly, but also achieving the feel that the asset looks high-poly and well modelled as a realistic prop.

I enjoyed the whole process of making the prop, to be honest, but texturing holds a separate place in the overall workflow. This is because texturing is the key process that turns a basic shaded model into whatever we want to craft, allowing storytelling to enter through the textures. Later, when everything comes together, the asset looks more than just realistic—it gains life, and that’s why I loved the texturing process the most in the entire workflow.

The major goal was to learn the pipeline between Blender, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine 5. This mini project gave me important lessons in learning hard-surface modelling in Blender, texturing hard-surface assets with storytelling in Substance Painter, and finally rendering them realistically using the power of Unreal Engine 5.

Below is a tutorial I went through to learn some creative tricks for hard-surface modelling.

This Vintage Intercom project was very special for me because it helped me grow as an artist. I learned many new things in modeling, texturing, and lighting and also understood how small details can tell big stories. Every step, from high poly to the final render, taught me something new. I feel happy that I pushed myself and completed this project with full dedication. 

There is still a lot to learn, and I will keep improving day by day. My goal is to make more props like this and keep creating artworks that feel realistic and full of memories. Thank you for giving it a read.

Rohit Jangra, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Amber Rutherford