Learn How to Create Control's Mail Room with Blender & UE5

Introduction

Hi, I’m Leandro Grasso, a 3D Environment Artist from Southern Italy. My journey into 3D art began after the COVID-19 pandemic and was inspired by my passion for landscape photography. Initially, my goal was to recreate the environments I had grown up seeing purely for fun. Driven by curiosity, I started teaching myself Blender.

After a month of self-study, I was fortunate to land a freelance opportunity with a Danish studio called Color Blind Films. With the income from this job, I was able to upgrade my outdated workstation, which was struggling to handle the demands of 3D art. From that moment, I was hooked – amazed by the process of creating something entirely from scratch.

After two years of self-taught learning, I decided to refine my skills and clarify my career direction by enrolling in different digital courses. With a lifelong passion for video games that started when I was four years old, I resolved to pursue a career as a 3D environment artist for the gaming industry. My ultimate goal is to turn this lifelong passion into a fulfilling profession.

Planning

For my first personal environment project, I chose to recreate the Mail Room from the game Control. I’ve always been fascinated by brutalist architecture, and this project seemed like a great challenge to push my skills while learning new tools. Additionally, as a fan of the Remedy Universe, it felt like the perfect fit.

Before diving into this project, I began learning Substance 3D Designer, Marmoset Toolbag, and Unreal Engine 5, picking up each tool step by step as the project required. Rather than relying on traditional references or creating a PureRef file, I planned everything dynamically by exploring the game itself. Using the in-game camera mode, I was able to study the environment closely and analyze its design from every angle.

Blockout & Composition

I began by creating basic shapes in Blender to block out the fundamental layout of the room. To ensure accurate proportions, I used the Unreal Engine avatar as a reference, making sure the environment was properly scaled for character movement.

Next, I moved into an advanced blocking phase, creating placeholder assets to better visualize their placement in 3D space. Once the blockout was complete, I exported the scene from Blender and imported it into Unreal Engine 5.

Asset Production Workflow

For the assets, I began by creating a modular kit before moving on to modeling individual props. All the modules and props were modeled in Blender, with a few exceptions where I used ZBrush to add extra detail. For the pillars, I started by designing the basic shape and then created a separate mesh to simulate a Normal Map as a decal for the corners. The details were sculpted in ZBrush and baked into the textures using Substance 3D Painter. I applied this technique to all modules with hard edges, ensuring consistent and realistic detail throughout the environment.

For the props, I started by creating a mid-poly version, which I then used to derive both the high-poly and low-poly versions. Once the modeling was complete, I unwrapped the UVs and imported both versions into Marmoset Toolbag for baking.

In Marmoset, I transferred the details from the high-poly model to the low-poly model, using paint offset to refine the cage and paint skew to address minor baking issues. After finalizing the bakes, I exported all the maps and imported them into Substance 3D Painter to begin the texturing process.

UVs

All UVs were unwrapped in Blender. I used ZenUV to set a texel density of 512 px/m with a texture size of 2048 and then packed the UV islands using UVPackmaster for optimal space utilization.

For the modular assets, I used tileable textures, which allowed me to reuse them extensively throughout the environment. For the props, I followed a unique texturing workflow. To optimize performance, I grouped multiple props – typically 4 to 5, depending on their size – onto a single UV layout. This approach ensured efficient use of texture space while maintaining visual quality.

Texturing

The texturing phase began with the creation of a master material in Unreal Engine 5. I designed a simple material tailored to the needs of my environment. One unique feature I implemented in the master material was the ability to apply a color overlay with a gradient, specifically for the modules on the first floor.

To optimize performance, I combined the Ambient Occlusion, Roughness, and Metalness maps into a single RGB map, where each channel represented one of these properties. This approach allowed me to reduce the number of textures needed for each material by two, streamlining the workflow without sacrificing quality.

After creating the master material, I moved on to developing the main textures in Substance 3D Designer. These were reusable, tileable textures used extensively throughout the environment. Before starting this project, I had no prior experience with Substance 3D Designer, so it was a valuable learning experience.

I created six different materials from scratch, including concrete, wood, marble, and carpet. The first material I tackled was concrete, as shown here.

After completing the main materials, I created a trim sheet of decals in Photoshop to apply to the modeled objects, adding extra detail and visual interest.

For the props, I followed a “keep it simple” approach. I started by preparing the base color for each object with some color variation, then adjusted the roughness values, and finally added micro details using the Normal Map.

Composition

When it came to composition, I aimed to enhance the environment by selecting angles that differed from the original. I enjoyed experimenting with camera placement, searching for the most compelling compositions to showcase the scene effectively.

I dedicated considerable time to discovering fresh perspectives, ensuring the final video remained engaging while thoroughly displaying all the work I had done.

Fog and lighting played a crucial role in the composition, and I worked to replicate the original project’s atmosphere as closely as possible, using these elements to elevate the overall visual impact.

Lighting

I began by working with the PostProcess settings in Unreal Engine 5. I adjusted the Min and Max EV100 values to refine the Auto Exposure and then used a Compensation Curve to smooth the transitions between dark and light areas, achieving a more balanced visual effect.

For the columns, I positioned Rect Light and Spotlight, using a custom mask created in Substance 3D Designer. To implement the mask, I set up a Light Function in Unreal Engine 5 and applied it to each spotlight, enhancing the lighting effects around the columns. I wanted to thank Filippo Romani from Ubisoft for giving me feedback about lighting.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read through the breakdown of my project. Creating this environment took me two and a half months, during which I was constantly learning new tools and techniques. While I faced many challenges at the beginning, the process became much smoother as I progressed.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project for two main reasons. First, I’m drawn to hard-surface environments with dramatic lighting, and second, I’m inspired by what influenced Remedy in creating Control – the works of David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, and brutalist architecture.

This was my first personal environment project, and I genuinely enjoyed the journey. It wasn’t without its difficulties– there were moments of stress, especially when I pushed myself too hard without taking breaks – but the sense of accomplishment when you see a character moving through an immersive environment you’ve created is incredible.

Seeking feedback from other artists played a vital role in the process. It helped me understand what worked and what didn’t, translating those insights into actionable improvements to enhance the final result.

Ultimately, the key is to work hard and stay passionate because when there’s genuine love for what you do, it shines through and resonates with others. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share the breakdown of my project and to be part of this amazing community of 3D artists.

Leandro Grasso, Environment Artist