The beginning

I can say that I followed a hybrid workflow. I always wanted to start a scene by blocks and replace the items once they ready, but I couldn’t start as this approach. Main focus on this project was to mimic the objects in the low res illustrations of the game to catch people who played the Daggerfall before. And if objects don’t look like the same, project would have no meaning. So, I decided to model the objects first. After modeling half of them, I constructed the scene and placed the rest as they completed one by one.

Assets

I usually create my models on CAD softwares, like Solidworks, Rhinoceros or MoI. But on this project I decided to expand my workflows and tried to achieve my goals with unusual ways than I used to. Main idea on this scene was getting the result mostly with textures, not specific modeling or sculpting. So, I modeled less, textured lot on this one.

Main pipeline was like that: I modeled a basic geometry and make the object look complicated by advanced texturing. I created parametric PBR materials with Substance Designer to get geometric details by maps. SD saved so much time by using it to create stone wall, fireplace, melted candle wax, wicker and crystal materials instead of sculpting them in Zbrush or any other software.

After creating a parametric material, I applied that material on specific models in Substance Painter to get it varied.

Most of the accessories on the scene are simple models. I used lots of displacement maps and material IDs to variate the look on them. It is exactly the materials make them look detailed.

There is even a funny moment about this textured details. After modeling the dagger, I painted many ornament details on the guard part in Substance Painter. When I finished all the painting, I looked to the handle of the dagger and see that it has no geometric detail on it! Not even a grip geometry to generate occlusion or dirt.

Normally when this happens, I go back to Modo, add geometric the details by modeling, unwrap new UVs by not destroying the rest of the UVs because it is important for SP to transfer hand painted ornament paintings onto the new model. And texture again new set. Instead of this long recovery workflow, I tried to add leather stripes and wooden finish by layered materials with different masks onto the simple geometry using lots of anchor technology in Substance Painter and finally it resulted as an acceptable level of detail in half an hour without repeating or destroying the workflow.