3D / 2021–25
Windmill Valley
A sunny countryside scene in Unreal Engine 5, taken from my own concept sketch to a finished, lit environment: a stone windmill, a farmhouse and a hot-air balloon.
- Role
- Concept, modelling, texturing, scene building and lighting
- When
- During my BA, 2021 – 2025
- Tools
- Unreal Engine 5, Autodesk Maya, Adobe Substance 3D Painter, Adobe Photoshop
01Brief
A portfolio piece where I took one whole scene through every step myself, from a rough sketch to a finished, lit environment.
02Process
It started as a quick sketch in Photoshop. I modelled the windmill, the farmhouse and the balloon in Maya, textured them in Substance 3D Painter, then built and lit the scene in Unreal Engine 5. The grass, ground and sky are Unreal and Quixel assets.
Breakdown
The unlit, lit and wireframe passes show how much of the mood comes from the lighting alone.
03Challenge
Composition: placing the windmill, the house and the balloon so the picture feels balanced and your eye moves across it.
04Learnings
- Turning a rough sketch into a finished 3D scene while keeping the feel of the original idea.
- Where each object sits decides where your eye goes first.
- How each step of the pipeline, from concept to lighting, shapes the next one.