Crafting Richly Detailed Medieval House Inspired By The Witcher 3 With ZBrush & UE5

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Angelina. My journey into 3D art began about 2.5 years ago when I started learning how to create props. From the beginning, I've always been fascinated by game environments and all the details, atmosphere, and storytelling they bring to life. This naturally led me to shift my focus from props to environment art, where I could combine creativity with technical skills to build entire worlds.

To strengthen my skills, I had the opportunity to work under the mentorship of Sergei Panin, who provided guidance and a solid foundation to grow as an artist. Outside of art, my hobbies include traveling, photography, drawing, and gaming, all of which fuel my creativity and inspire my work.

Currently, I'm working as a freelance environment artist on several projects, but I'm actively looking for opportunities to join a studio and take my craft to the next level.

The Medieval House Project

I drew a lot of inspiration from The Witcher 3, particularly the Blood and Wine DLC and the stunning region of Toussaint. The fictional region of Toussaint showcases a vibrant, sunlit landscape filled with vineyards, rolling hills, and medieval architecture.

My main goal with this project was to tell a story through various elements of the environment, from textures to overall design, and create a believable medieval setting. I also approached this as a valuable learning opportunity, experimenting with different techniques to enhance my skills.

Reference Gathering

As with any project, I began by collecting references and searching for the perfect concept. This stage is always one of my favorites because it lays the groundwork for everything to come.

I enjoy gathering references during my travels: it's a great way to connect with an area and gain a deeper understanding of its structures and materials. I highly recommend this to anyone who has that opportunity!

I had the chance to visit Italy and take some reference photos, which was incredible. I believe the developers of The Witcher 3 may have drawn inspiration from similar sources, making the connection between Toussaint and real-world locations like Italy even more fascinating.

Blockout 

With my references in hand and a clear concept in mind, I moved on to the blockout/whiteboxing stage in Maya. This phase is all about laying down the foundation of the scene.

I created modular pieces and props, ensuring they fit seamlessly together. To maintain consistent proportions, I used a mannequin as a scale reference: an essential step to avoid oversized elements, like staircases, which can throw off the believability of the entire scene.

Once I was confident that all the pieces were correctly scaled and aligned, I transitioned to Unreal Engine. I set up an empty level, established my camera shot, and began assembling the scene. This stage was crucial for finalizing proportions and ensuring that the composition felt balanced and realistic.

After finalizing the blockout, I moved on to creating the modular parts and unique props step by step. I like to start with the largest forms and gradually progress to smaller details. This approach not only allowed me to see results more quickly but also helped build a sense of the overall scene early on.

Content Creation

Once I figured out my modular kit, unique elements, and props, I transitioned into the sculpting stage, my favorite part of the process. While it may seem like a lot of work, sculpting allows me to add personality and history to objects, turning them into storytelling elements. Spending time in ZBrush allows me to craft unique, realistic silhouettes that elevate the overall scene.

To enhance my skills, I took inspiration from Ivanna Liittschwager's sculpting tutorial, which explores workflows for creating wood, metal, and brick. Her techniques were incredibly insightful, and I highly recommend this resource to anyone seeking to improve their sculpting:

During this project, I embraced a combination of techniques to achieve my desired results. For example, I applied Nanite Displacement in Unreal Engine to bring all of the details to the brick floor and dark stone walls as well as landscape. 

For some assets like the side walls of the building or stone fence, I used Unreal's modeling tools with the displacement feature to add depth and variation efficiently. 

However, the walls with windows were a focal point, so I decided to give them extra attention. Sculpting damage and wear directly in ZBrush added a layer of authenticity and visual storytelling to the architecture.

This project was an exciting opportunity to explore different workflows and experiment with techniques. By combining sculpting, displacement, and modeling tools, I successfully achieved the look I envisioned.

For this scene, I chose to use foliage assets from Megascans and the UE5 Marketplace. This allowed me to focus on showcasing my other skills, such as sculpting and modular design. I customized the foliage by editing the color and roughness parameters to integrate them seamlessly into my scene, ensuring they complemented the overall aesthetic.

Topology

For retopology and UV unwrapping, my approach varied depending on the asset type. Some meshes had a proper low-poly version created, while others were decimated and cleaned up to fit the scene's requirements. When it came to UVs, I used overlapping UVs in some cases to maintain a consistent texel density across assets, ensuring a cohesive look throughout the scene.

The process was relatively straightforward, focusing on efficiency rather than complexity, as the UVs were primarily designed to support the texturing and tiling workflows I used.

Texturing

With the UVs finalized and the models ready, I moved on to the texturing stage, a crucial part of bringing the scene to life. My approach to texturing is rooted in realism, with scans serving as a foundational element for achieving a natural and believable style.

I focused heavily on roughness variations, as I find that adding fine details to roughness maps can significantly enhance the realism of surfaces. Another great trick is to make albedo textures slightly brighter and less saturated than they might initially seem, as this helps achieve a cleaner and more realistic look.

For this project, I used a mix of techniques and resources. Some textures were based on Megascans assets, which I heavily modified to match my artistic vision. Other textures, such as those for hero or custom assets, were created from scratch in Substance 3D Painter and Substance 3D Designer. I relied on high-poly to low-poly bakes to capture fine details and started texturing right away once the baking was complete.

One of the highlights of this project was the creation of wagon trail decals. To achieve the desired level of detail, I sculpted the trails in ZBrush and extracted a normal map. I then converted the normal map to a height map using Substance 3D Designer and used Substance 3D Painter to add color, roughness, and opacity maps, creating a versatile and realistic decal. Decals, in general, played a significant role in my workflow. They're great for breaking up repetition, adding storytelling elements, and grounding the scene with subtle variations.

For the modular parts of the scene, I used tileable textures along with vertex paint techniques. This classic approach adds natural variations and details in textures while ensuring the assets fit cohesively into the overall design.

Composition

Once the textures and materials were finalized, I shifted my focus to composition, which plays a critical role in shaping how viewers experience the scene. Composition is about guiding the viewer's eye, deciding what they should see, in what order, and how they should interpret the environment.

The main focus of my scene was the house, so I ensured that all other elements supported and enhanced this central idea. While the original concept lacked a background or landscape, I decided to expand upon it. Adding a background allowed me to frame the environment and provide a greater sense of scale and context.

To achieve a cohesive composition, I paid close attention to guiding lines throughout the scene. Features like the pathway, tree branches, ivy, fences, and props were strategically positioned to subtly direct the viewer's attention toward key areas of interest, particularly the house. These elements not only enhanced the visual flow but also contributed to the storytelling aspect of the scene.

A helpful technique I often use is transitioning the scene to a black-and-white image during the composition process. This allows me to evaluate the balance of light, shadow, and contrast more effectively, ensuring the composition guides the viewer's attention while maintaining enough detail in the surroundings to inspire exploration and engagement.

Lighting & Rendering

Lighting was an important element in creating the mood and atmosphere for this scene. For this project, my goal was to create a cozy, warm, and fantasy atmosphere that invites players to explore this location further.

To achieve this, I used Lumen for realistic and dynamic lighting. Lighting also serves as a guide for the viewer's eyes, directing them toward the main points of interest. I carefully balanced the highlights to emphasize focal areas, such as the house, while ensuring the shadows didn't feel overly dark or distracting. Shadows are essential for grounding the scene, but they need to remain subtle enough to avoid pulling attention away from the main subject.

I configured it as a warm light source to enhance the inviting feel, while the shadows were given a slight blue tint to mimic the natural light and shadow seen in real life. This was further refined using the Post-Process Volume to control the exposure and subtly lighten the shadows, ensuring they remained detailed without being overpowering.

To add depth and atmosphere, I incorporated Volumetric Fog and fog cards, which helped soften the background and enhance the fantasy-like quality of the scene. These elements worked together to blur distant objects, creating a sense of mystery and drawing focus to the midground and foreground.

Lighting requires constant iteration, and I spent considerable time adjusting the Directional Light, Global Illumination, and Exposure to find the perfect balance.

Conclusion

The entire scene took around 5 months to complete. There was no rush: I treated it as a learning experience, experimenting with a variety of techniques and approaches. Feedback from other artists played a huge role in shaping the final piece, and I want to thank everyone who took the time to share their thoughts and ideas with me. Your input was invaluable and helped push the project to the next level.

My advice for beginner artists? Don't be afraid to ask for feedback, that's how you grow and improve. Stay curious, keep experimenting, and enjoy the journey!

Good luck on the path!

Angelina Pronina, Environment & Prop Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine