Breakdown: How to Model & Texture a Cozy Magician's House

Introduction

Hey, my name is Raashid Ifill, but I also go as KeyFrame. I come from the island of Barbados, located in the Caribbean. I actually got into 3D when I was 13 from some random website online. The first 3D program I used was Rhinoceros 3D. Not only was I a teenager, but there was no way to make a living off that back home at the time. This did not stop me from exploring.

After doing small freelance gigs for local television, I dived into the 2D industry for years to come. This would be how and why I migrated to Canada. Only “messing with 3D” in my free time inconsistently over my long 2D career, a friend encouraged me to give Think Tank Training Centre a try, and I dived all in, applying for the 64-week program. It was a real leap of faith. I became an alumnus last month and have no regrets.

About the Magician’s Abode Project

The original concept was created by kui hu on ArtStation and was called “Leaf Village,” but my mentor, Ben Kelly, was actually the one who suggested it to me. He decided to keep an eye out for stylized environments that were whimsical, charming, or otherwise bright or hopeful. I could not have asked for a better choice.

After the concept was confirmed, I immediately started scheduling and looking for references simultaneously. This image shows my final reference board:

Blockout

I started by using fSpy to create a camera-matched scene. While it helped, I think I ended up just matching it myself in Maya, which was quite the challenge. Once that was done, I hammered away at it over the following week. It seems I got in a flow because that part felt very smooth. This video on my YouTube channel goes into my thought process while creating the blockout:

Modeling

My workflow generally involved locking blockout geometry as a guide and modeling over it. On occasion, I would retopologize the blockout geometry (what I did for the base of each roof), but there were some areas that required a lot more care, e.g., the front door design and the roof tiles. I did, however, cover the modeling of those in the following video:

Unwrap Everything for Texturing

Maya has long since grown on me for UV-ing, and since I don’t have to leave the software I’m modeling in, it also helps with speed. I did not do any unorthodox UV-ing, just time and patience. I packed some of the smaller objects’ UVs and, for everything else, used a 1:1 scale with a texel density of 1024 pixels, i.e., for every 1 square meter of real-world space, 1024 pixels of texture resolution will be used. This gave me the flexibility to double it where necessary to get more resolution and (in rare cases) half it to get even more efficiency and performance!

Texturing

For the texturing of the environment, I split up the task generally into two sections: tileables and hero textures. For the tileables, I used Substance 3D Designer, and for the hero textures, I used Substance 3D Painter.

Here is a video explaining a lot  of the process for quite a few of the textures in the environment for both tileables and packed/hero textures.

Camera & Overall Polish

There were decisions I made for the final scene that strayed away from the concept. From things like excluding the chimneys and the hanging vines to spacing out the front-door tree trunks and the color of the whole environment.

As suggested by my mentor, I often thought about the final images from the beginning of the project. We had a few sessions where I figured out where the cameras that show the best parts of my scene were going to be. Nearing the end of the project, these angles simply had to be tested once more and subtly animated.

Lighting

I love the lighting. In the end, I used only one light throughout the scene, with the exception of Camera Angle 4. For this, I used a different directional light as the key and two fill lights to light up the steps. You can see the before-and-after effects of that change in the images below.

I made the main light far brighter than it needed to be because I really wanted that sunny, happy, bright autumn day feeling to the scene. It was important to me that the viewer feels the scene, instead of just seeing it. To that end, the PostProcessVolume in Unreal was used to increase all indirect lighting, boost the shadows, sharpen and add a bloom effect within Unreal as well to push it even further.

Using color theory, even slightly, can help drive home a feeling to the viewer. I chose to ignore some of the concept’s colors and cast a stronger orange and yellow tone for that overall look of warmth and positivity. However, I did a color grade at the very end, bringing a cooler blue into the shadows, adding chromatic aberration on the edges, and a second slight sharpening to bring it all together in After Effects.

Summary

As a student at the time, the feeling of having to do everything becomes overwhelming, especially for your final graduation project. I mean...it’s the thing that’s going to get you a job! I struggled to get out of my own head and stop focusing on my weaker skills, missing deadlines, or even just having a bad day.

With that said, I have learned:

• To take long, guilt-free breaks when things are feeling heavy, i.e., walks, exercise, et cetera.
• The value of brute force and how just doing something the simple, hard way can save you days or more of your time and end up being faster than the “fancy technique.”
• Overcoming a struggle in a project does not happen just once.

And finally, to my fellow artists: If you don’t already, go outside more often and be kind to your mind. Punishing yourself when you fall behind or fail may seem like the right thing to do, but try honesty with compassion instead.

Actually, enjoy yourself, please! I hid a cat in my scene. I did that for myself (and some colleagues), and it brings me joy every time I see it.

Raashid Ifill (KeyFrame), 3D Environment Artist

Interview conducted by Gloria Levine