Alba Zamora Ruiz - 3D Environment & Prop 2022-2023

Hi everyone!

Alchemist Desk

A complete challenge for me, especially facing a stylized prop being used to the realistic style.

Reference by Konstantin Kokkas

Let's see the process.

After the blockout is successful (I changed the design of the central ring to make it more interesting), the model is detailed in Zbrush (High Poly) to get the necessary details that will be projected in Substance Painter (Low Poly).  

Detailing: In my case, I made a breakdown of the model to detect those parts that, even though they were repeated, I could work with one of them and later duplicate and work the variation in the texturing phase.

In the case of the wooden planks, as they are larger parts and detectable in case of tiling, I chose to make 2/3 variations in terms of details to make a more fluid and imperfect composition.

Example:

Final composition High Poly model:

Fabrics: I worked on the base structure of the fabrics in Marvelous Designer and then detailed them in ZBrush to achieve the stylized effect.

Final High Poly Model:

Once we have the HighPoly model, it's time to get the LowPoly model (in my case I spent a lot of time on the blockout so I could reuse 70%, being necessary the general polycount reduction and the retopology only in more organic or irregular parts of the asset that I slightly modified in ZBrush).

Low Poly final model:

Well, having finished the previous point, we proceed to package the UVS. 

For this, we will avoid leaving large spaces and always making sure that we maintain order and concordance.

Remember to make as few cuts as possible in the geometry and try to make them in a logical and unnoticed way whenever possible.

Detailing: In order to fit all the pieces in the UV quadrant, I overlapped some of them always following a logic and thinking in the texturing phase.

After finishing the UVS phase, it's time to bake.

In my case, I separated all the pieces by clearly named groups so that there was no contact between them to avoid unwanted AO (Marmoset).

Baked maps: Normals, Curvature and  AO.

TEXTURING PHASE (Substance Painter)

In this last phase I bake the remaining maps, place the ones I got in Marmoset Toolbag and...

Time to give color and life to the model!

Without a doubt, this was, in my opinion, the biggest challenge of the whole process.

I have never textured a stylized model and I wanted to venture into applying handpainting techniques with a mix of realistic workflow.

Tests and trials with different color palettes based on the 2D concept and creative ideas led me after several days to the final version.

Once the texturing is finished, I present it in an attractive way in Marmoset Toolbag playing with different lights and highlighting different areas of the model.

Finally, I proceed to improve the render in Photoshop.

For this, I enhanced the colors using 'Camera Raw Filter' and an iris blur.

What's the case?

Storytelling: Focused on a realistic style, our professional private investigator Beatrice Williams, and her canine assistant Thruman, are back to solve one of the many cases that await this city.

Back to the disastrous rentals, the unsolved questions, and the thousand and one nights over coffee.

What will be the case they face this time? We don't have enough data yet, but I'm sure that this not very casual team will be able to face everything that is put in front of them.

It has been a great challenge to improve my skills, especially in Unreal Engine 5.1.

Detailing: I used free libraries such as Quixel Megascans and Polyhaven for some of the models shown in the project.

In the case of the dog, I used the free model by Frank.Zwick (Sketchfab).

All the assets I worked on for the scene were composed on an independent level within the same project as you can see below.

Final images (Original):

Final images (Black and White):

Lighting

This step was the most complicated.

The objective here was to achieve a lighting that breathed mystery, disorder and curiosity (worthy of a detective of the time) while involuntarily capturing certain ghostly airs.

To do this, it was necessary to collect several references and make a study of the psychology of color based on films of the thriller genre.

Color palette reference for final illumination (Image from Brian Leleux artwork):

Illumination process

Original Reference: unknown author

Final Words

The projects presented here are the beginning of the search for new challenges and professional horizons.

Remember to always be curious, eager to learn new things every day and above all, to keep dreaming.

Thanks to all those friends, colleagues or teachers who were able to contribute by giving me their opinion at some point in the process.

See you soon!

Alba Zamora Ruiz