After reference gathering, I begin to break down my scene into its primary assets. For this environment, I knew the cave structure would play a major role in my scene’s creation; requiring huge chunks of rock and ice. Originally I chose to make six rock variations but during the process, I found that narrowing down to three double-sided crystals with a world-aligned material applied (so I could re-scale without the need to re-UV) was an improved idea.

Once key references and a rough plan are established I’ll start the process by going straight into Unreal with basic geometry. Composition and scale always look different in a 3D space (especially when working from a 2D reference). The plan is then to gradually start replacing the block-out with final 3D assets, slowly refining the scene.

[Tip: start modeling the largest assets first and placing them. It’s daunting starting a new scene and I find this helps motivation as progress is more defined. ]