LogInPrincipal Concept Artist Edouard Noisette discussed the process of building an imaginary yet period-accurate Gothic cathedral and port city in Blender, sharing his paintover techniques and valuable resources.
Introduction
Hi 80 Level! My name is Edouard Noisette, I've been working in the video game industry for a bit more than a decade. I'm currently working as a Principal Environment Concept Artist at Crytek on Hunt: Showdown 1896, and I've previously contributed to Assassin's Creed Mirage with Ubisoft, as well as several other games from AAA to mobile.
I became interested in 3D during my studies. I learned 3D modeling and animation and graduated in that discipline in 2013. I've been using it ever since in my workflow, often building 3D bases to create complex environment concepts, first with 3ds Max and then switching to Blender around 2018.
I have never ceased working with Blender ever since, and most of my favorite pieces were created with it. Here are some examples:
The Cathedral Project
"The Cathedral" is part of a wider project I have, an illustrated novel called "Ygern" (the title might change) that takes place during the Seven Years War on a fictional island of the English Channel, hoisted to a mysterious (haunted) city. It draws inspiration from gothic games and movies, such as Bloodborne, Castlevania, or Brotherhood of the Wolf. This project has been my way of developing a lot of my personal work and venting between giant game projects. Also, it's a nice way to show my skills without having to wait for an NDA lift! The project was initially called Igrin and was inspired more by Central Europe before I shifted it to its current form, which is closer to the region I live in and less prone to cliches!
The Cathedral is the central building of this city, a towering Gothic edifice dominating the skyline. I've always loved Gothic cathedrals, having grown up with a parent playing church pipe organ, and this one draws inspiration from several of those churches: the apse is based on an idealized version of Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey, the transepts, the nave, and the roses are based on Saint Ouen's Abbey in Rouen, the towers are inspired from Saint-Pol-de-Leon Cathedral, and the crossing tower is based on the former lantern tower of Bayeux Cathedral (a church I know quite well since I live 20 minutes away from it). All those churches are from the same area and time period, which was important to me as I wanted a grounded design.
References & Sketches
Having those real-world inspirations allowed me to gather a lot of reference material and helped tremendously in the conception. Since I wanted to come up with my own design, using existing assets (kitbash or scans) was out of the question, so having those refs at hand allowed me to model precise elements and basically come up with my own kit.
Before starting the modeling, I spent a few weeks doing a bit of pre-production, where I created mood boards and also did a few 2D studies to catch the right mood and have the architectural language in mind when starting with the 3D.
I also did a few rough sketches to have a general idea of the building's shape; even if I changed a few things later in production, it gave me a guideline.
Composition
As I said before, I did a few sketches before starting. I had no precise composition in mind, but I knew which parts I wanted to use and where to use them. I knew I needed to function with a kit logic due to the enormity of the building, and since Gothic architecture is very logical, it was easy to find a few recurring elements (the windows, the arches, the spires) My first idea was to only model the apse, but during production I got carried away and ended up building the whole cathedral!
I went from the rear of the building to its facade and moved up at each step: first, the ground-floor walls, then the higher parts, then the roofs. I started with the apse, then the flying buttresses, then the nave, then the transepts (minus the facades), then the facades, then the front towers, and finally the crossing tower.
Modeling
To build the scene, I started from a 2D plane on which I had put several references that would serve as starting points for the assets and double as textures. Those are quite high-resolution images, usually 4K wide, to allow a lot of details. I try to find references with neutral lighting to avoid having shadows on the model, but if I do have some, I usually work around them with the symmetry tools.
For scenes like this, I often use third-party assets like scans, kitbash assets, and so on, but I avoided this on the main building since I wanted to have full control of the design.
I usually cut the asset I plan to work on, then build it with extrudes, insets, and knife cuts. My process is very messy in terms of edge flow, but since I don't plan to animate any of it, I allow myself to have Ngons and other weird things. The only thing I try to maintain is proper normals to avoid glitches in the texture.
In terms of tools, I mostly rely on the Mesh Edit with some symmetry to save time. I sometimes mirror elements and replace those on the UV mapping to have the same topography but with a different texturing. It's a good way to create variations without spending too long modeling.
On some occasions, I do use a Boolean or two, but I usually avoid it because the artifacts it creates tend to mess with the rest of the modeling. The most complex asset was probably the great rose window, which is a complex flamboyant pattern, rotated and repeated every 60 degrees. Until then, I started from my photo base, but I used this one as a reference only and created the pattern with the symmetry tools.
The other big challenge was the design of the crossing tower. I explored a variety of designs for it, but many looked too fantasy or out of place with the rest of the building. I first had the idea of building a tower with a slate-covered spire, reminiscent of what you can find in churches around Normandy, but it looked too rustic compared to the other parts of the cathedral.
The square design, based on the Mont-Saint-Michel crossing tower, almost made it, as did an octagonal one different from the final one, more akin to what you have on Evreux's cathedral.
I pushed those two, and the next round of designs was based on these, with a square version closer to one of Rouen Cathedral's front towers and the crossing tower based on Bayeux Cathedral you have on the final version. I also added a third option, a simple metal spire like what you have in Notre Dame in Paris or in Reims Cathedral.
I then polled my friends, and the octagonal one was most people's favorite, so I went for it.
Port City
For the city, the buildings are a mix of my own models and some medieval assets found on Sketchfab. I also used a scan of the Mont-Saint-Michel for some background elements but cut it in some parts to adapt it to my needs. The buildings I modeled are the "port building" that I actually produced a year ago, but never found the occasion to use before this. It was one of my first tries with this method of creation, and I based myself on buildings you can find in Honfleur, Rouen (Normandy), Rennes, Vannes, Quimper, and Lannion (Britanny). In terms of architecture, I only used buildings that were present before the 18th century, so they would have existed at the time where the story takes place.
The modeling process was the same as for the cathedral: start from a 2D plane, then push, pull, extrude, and cut until you have a satisfying result.
Paintover
My overpaint process is simple in terms of logic: I extract a variety of passes (combined, ambient occlusion, depth, glossiness, direct and indirect light, albedo, and shadows, plus a clown/ID pass for selection purposes). I then composite the image in Photoshop, use photobash, and digitally paint to obtain the desired result.
I try to break the 3D as much as possible to avoid the concept looking too clean and create this painterly effect that gives it a very different quality. Often, I try to create happy accidents by destroying the layout with tools like the history brush in Photoshop. Another trick that I use is creating a slight blur on the edges to push the focus on the subject. I also do color and light accents where I want the eye of the spectator to look, and I use light contrasts to create strong focal points.
Conclusion
The whole production took around two months, including the preliminary research and the early blockout (the port buildings). The cathedral itself took me a month to model and paint, but since it was done aside from my day job in production time, it's probably way shorter, something around 15-20 work days. The main difficulties came from the complexity of the patterns. I only modeled simpler architecture before that, and I wasn't ready for the intricacies of flamboyant Gothic!
It pushed me to be more fluid in my approach and to rely less on one specific way of modeling and more on a flexible workflow. I now want to test this approach on other styles I love, maybe do some new secular medieval buildings or some art nouveau to change a bit.
Blender has been a reliable tool for this project, allowing me to be very flexible by testing, sketching and quickly rendering my work in progress. And some tools it features are essential parts of my workflow (the loop, cut, and extrudes are my bread and butter)! I think my favorite part of the process was the design of the crossing tower. I had overcome technical difficulties by this point and was able to focus on pure creation.
Most of my approach to Blender derives from Ian Hubert's tutorials; I love his "quick and dirty" way of using the software. Another artist present on YouTube who inspired me on this is Ben Skope, who has a really interesting channel (in French) centered on Blender for architecture.
Outside of this, I would quote Julien Gauthier as an inspiration for city design; his work on Rings of Power was truly a model for me. Finally, the paintover part derives a lot of Gaëlle Seguillon's workflow on her Learn Squared course.
That's most of it; of course, I use many techniques that I picked up alongside my career, so the list above isn't exhaustive. Painterly inspirations such as the German romanticism movement or Lord of the Rings illustrators (like John Howe and Alan Lee) are a big part of my background, but detailing every tiny bit would require a lot more than an interview!