Starting a fantasy forest scene in UE5 🌿 Building all assets from scratch.
Vibe: abandoned magical place, teal water, morning mist, light rays through willows, an old cottage by the lake #UE5#3DArt#GameDev#EnvironmentArt
Finally, my favorite part of the project: the weeping willow. Made it from scratch using Blender for the base mesh and SpeedTree for procedural branches, leaves and wind animation. Custom AI‑generated bark textures, Megascans leaves, LODs set up and it already runs nicely in UE5.
Starting a fantasy forest scene in UE5 🌿 Building all assets from scratch.
Vibe: abandoned magical place, teal water, morning mist, light rays through willows, an old cottage by the lake #UE5#3DArt#GameDev#EnvironmentArt
Tried Gaea for the landscape — new tool for me. It’s usually for large worlds, but I needed a small forest area. After some failed mask experiments I used a Blender mesh as a base, generated height masks in Gaea, then exported everything to UE5 and did a first texture pass.
House is already in progress.
Started from a blockout, split it into modules, detailed logs and roof, sent unique parts to ZBrush for highpoly and baked maps in Substance Painter. Keeping texel density consistent, using mirrored UVs and manual LODs instead of Nanite.
Generated concept art with SeeDream 4.5 ✨
This will be a playable fantasy forest location in UE5 🌿
Broke it into key elements: cottage with interior, old pier, boat, weeping willow, waterfall, rocks, etc. Adding boat controls, reactive foliage and an explorable interior.