The Basement

"The Basement" was my first project at M3DS Academy. Although I chose an environment, I wanted to practice all the skills that I've learned during my studies, so I put some extra work into making a hard surface machete and sculpting a wood chair in Zbrush.

I started the project by gathering references for the scene itself and the objects I wanted to use. I also generated some AI images with Midjourney to get some extra ideas.

The blockout was very fast since it was a small scene and I knew that I wanted some specific objects on the scene.

Finally, it was time to do some modeling. I started with the objects that were not going to need highpoly and retopoly, so I created the fuel tank, door, TV, pipes, lamp, and some others, always taking care to have good topology.

At this point, I started modeling the machete. I created the shape with good topology flow so I could send it to Zbrush and apply the subdivisions. In Zbrush, I started by applying the booleans on the blade and did the sculpt from the details, mainly scratches and flattening, as well as some cuts with the knife tool.

For the chair, the process was similar but with much more sculpting. I did the blockout in Maya and sent it to Zbrush. Using dynamesh, I started sculpting the chair and finalized it with some wood alphas.

At this point, I went back to Maya to do the retopolgy for both pieces.

After I finished all the modeling, retopolgy, and UV mapping it was time to bring objects to life. One by one, I started to texture them in Substance Painter. I gave a little more attention to the door since It was a really simple form that would have a nice spot on the scene. I used anchor points to give a nice ink-pealing effect.

All the texturing was done with generators, since I didn't feel the need to hand paint anything, with the exception of adjusting some masks. I also used an emissive map on the light, to help lighten the scene.

For the floor and walls, I've used some already-made textures from Megascans to speed up the process.

Finally, it was time to send everything to Unreal 5 and make a nice render. I imported all the files and textures to Unreal, set up the lighting, and made some final adjustments.