Category: Sculpting

Hidden Tavern: Final Model

The final Maya model for the whole tavern includes a door surrounded by pebbles embedded into the wood. I modelled and unwrapped the door in Maya, whilst the pebbles are a duplicated OBJ I sculpted in ZBrush and unwrapped in Maya.

I hoped to make the ‘tavern’ design more apparent through this, as it is supposed to be hidden, but still visible. I also intended to strengthen the organic style I had chosen for the tavern by adding more natural aspects to it.

I am quite happy with how efficiently I finished this; I have now finished most of my asset list below:

ZBrush: Final Tavern Sculpture

Initial Version
Modified Version

This is the final base body of the tavern – I aimed to make it seem as if the house’ walls were also part go the tree bark, which proved to be a challenge; ultimately, I think I have succeeded at making it seems as organic as possible, whilst also holding true to my style inspiration and keeping it relatively stylised.

I also had to slightly remodel this, as the initial model did not work well once imported into Maya; the second tree had not merged well with the rest of the sculpture, so I had to delete most of its body that overlapped with the body of the house, and connect them again. Once I did this, the model worked fine in Maya.

I now need to move onto modelling the skewed roof and door, as well as the rocks lining it. I have for the moment put the squirrel holes aside, as I was more focused on getting the base form of the tavern ready first.

ZBrush: Hero Tree Sculpting

Tree For Game using ZBrush – YouTube

Initial Model
Sculpted PolyMesh

I moved onto modelling the main tree into Zbrush, and watched the above mentioned tutorial on YT to gather information on how to do it.

I found using ZSpheres a lot more comfortable than building it up form a cylinder using Clay Buildup. This technique helped me gain a lot more control of the shaping of the tree branches and roots, and allowed me to really customise it to fit my desired design.

Once I started to actually sculpt it, I found that using the Trim Dynamic brush really helped create the bark-like texture I aimed the tree to have. I am planning to add squirrel holes and more intricate texture details, and to attach the body of the house (as well as the other tree) to this initial sculpture.