Shovel

Goals with this project

 Shovel – small and simple, yet a lot of space for expression. It has clear material definitions yet space for subtle, deep detailing. The damage/warping in the wood and the metal’s nicks and rusting give large canvases to express your vision.

This shovel is a smaller prop that is part of a larger ship I’m working on. The project as a whole is inspired by a model made by Katoya01 on Twitter.

I started this project as my internship was coming to an end and I wanted to prioritise smaller bits and pieces of the project to be able to show what I have learned while working in the AAA space.

The idea was to start with the smaller props hanging off the ship to split the project into small bite-sized pieces. So in short: Keep the shovel simple but high quality.

I’d like to shout out my mentor Gustav Larsson for his guidance and for pushing me to elevate my textures on this project.

Tools

This project was made using Blender, ZBrush, Substance Painter and Unreal Engine.

Blockout & Modelling

Before I start, I always study the item in question if it exists in real life. If it’s sci-fi or fantasy props, I try to find real-world equivalents. It’s important to have clear material references to see how a material functions.

Can it erode? What properties does it have if damaged? How does the object/material collect wear and tear?

I try to have some answers to these questions before I start my project.

I do my modeling in Blender and start with the blockout. As this is a fairly straightforward model, I primarily wanted to check the scale and see what type of shovel I wanted on the ship.

I landed on a shorter shovel inspired by something that would be brought when traveling. The main inspiration is a Finnish infantry shovel.

Although this is a somewhat simple prop, the ways I use to approach the modeling stay the same as if it was a much more intricate one. I start out with creating the silhouette.

Once the basic shapes are set, I start refining my blockout. I use sub-d modeling to create a middleground that can both be sent to ZBrush to create my high poly as well as make my low poly.

Sculpting

When I sculpt wood, I use a technique that uses this method that Dmytro “MykhailykArt” Mykhailyk teaches in his tutorial about wood sculpting. I highly recommend studying the techniques as they are easy to approach.

What techniques I would add outside of the aforementioned ones in Dmytro’s tutorial is that the deformation > contrast tool really helps to add that rough wood effect.

Just be careful not to overdo it as it can cause geometry to intersect and cause issues with the bake.

On top of this base sculpt, I add detail using wood alphas to enhance the wood texture on the highpoly. This is important as I want as much detail as possible to bake it down later.

Unwrapping & Baking

Since this model is mostly flat surfaces and cylinders, there is not much happening in the unwrapping stage. Here I tried to fit the metal in one UV and then adapt the texel density of the wood to be the same as the metal.

I try to stack and mirror as many minor details such as the head of the nails and the handle’s exteriors.

The baking was done in Substance Painter and done as an exploded bake for everything except AO as I do that separately with the mesh put together.

Texturing

A first step regarding all projects is to set up the asset in a render environment as early as possible. I recommend “blocking out” the textures with Substance Painter smart materials and exporting them to your render engine.

I use Unreal Engine or Marmoset Toolbag, depending on the project. As different programs give different results, it’s good to see the texture in its end destination as well as start looking at potential angles for renders.

I have at this stage caught errors that slipped through. At this stage are easy to fix, but could potentially cause a headache later in the process.

The smart materials are deleted as I start working on our textures, but it’s a good starting point to get a quick overview and see where we are going. On more intricate props this also helps with splitting pieces by material.

part that was envisioned as plastic might work better as a different material if the asset is based on a concept.

Creating a Smart Material

I have always loved to texture rust. There is a lot of action in all layers of the rust and it’s a very organic reaction that blends in on these hard surface parts.

To create the rust on the shovel I created a smart material through anchor points. This lets me paint in the rusted areas with a proper gradient of the bleed that rust creates.

Although generators will get you close to the result, I always go in and handpaint to get the exact result I want. Be open to experiment but be careful with layer bloat and try and get as much as possible out of your layers.

Rendering

When rendering, I use a three-point lighting setup but I don’t stray away from adding small spotlights to give extra highlights. In UE I prefer using the movie render queue and getting an .EXR file.

For these types of asset renders where I only present an asset in a vacuum, I add the backdrop in post.

I use deferred rendering, anti-aliasing set at 512 for spatial sample count and the temporal count to 1.

In-game overrides, I use the default settings as it helps with any issues of UE trying to LOD the asset.

Image 1 as it came out of UE and Image 2 is after some slight editing with grain and sharpness.

This is two closeup renders duplicated and simply me having fun in post. Don’t be afraid to play with composition and form. If the asset is mundane, it’s important to try and do something different or extra.

My default steps to add a bit of effect is to add a slight noise to the image and then sharpen just for the final pop.

Result & Reflections

I’m very happy with the result and proud I managed to outdo previous personal work in terms of texturing. I think it’s important to hold on to these thoughts and feelings of achievement because it’s important to keep in mind how far you’ve come.

Especially as you start dissecting your work and look at what could be improved for next time.

I make sure to write down what I want to improve as I start on my upcoming project but don’t forget I’m only looking at the next hill because I just climbed the one I’m standing on.

Thank you for reading and I hope my article was both informative and interesting.