As I have already said, a considerable part of the work has been done in the concept, but I still had questions concerning the materials, the lighting and the color of the scene. That’s exactly what I kept in mind when I was collecting the references.

Blockout, Scale, Planning

Next step is creating a blockout. This phase plays a significant role and impacts the following production. Be attentive so that you won’t have to cry over spilled milk and remake most of the work or even all of it nervously. Usually, I model my blockout forms for walls, floor, and ceiling in 3ds Max and then export everything as one mesh into UE4 to see whether I caught the size and shape. I fix it until I achieve the proper result and only then divide it into modular parts. This time I missed this step and split the whole scene into modular elements at once and used them to put everything together in UE4. It’s not the best or the most convenient way, but again, I could do this due to a very detailed and clear concept.

After I put all modular parts of the house together, it was time to pay attention to all the major medium and large shapes. I modeled assets that were imported into Unreal and gave them a grey base material. I set up at least one camera straight away. Usually, it is for the main shot to understand not only scale and shapes but to get some bearings on what the scene feels like and to see the composition. As I mentioned, planning is the most critical part of your work, and you can’t make mistakes here. Also, this phase is crucial for me psychologically, due to:

I see the future workload

I won’t forget to make any prop

I control scales, shapes, and compositions

I see how I can cheat with non-visible parts later

I am filling the scene with props, trying to make them more detailed, even though it’s only the blockout stage. This facilitates my work further.