[WIP] Norwegian Mountain Cabin - UE4 Game art

OyvindAndersson

Hello!

My first post here on this forum, hopefully the post is well formatted.

I have kicked off a small training-project based on some photos I took to revitalize and improve my 3D workflow/skills.

I would very much welcome critiques and suggestions for workflow improvement, mesh optimization, techniques for stone walls and of course my modeling and material work in general.

My goal is to achieve high quality, game-ready, realistic assets.

I will be using 3ds Max, Mudbox, Substance Painter and Designer, and UE4.

Here is what I have so far:

Photo reference:

WIP Highpoly of macro shapes:

Early scale testing in UE4 (Initial scale testing was done with primitives):

OyvindAndersson

WIP Rough/macro sculpt of the tree-log for the roof.

Going into detailed sculpt; I have a question regarding the process and amount of detailing to sculpt, vs texturing:

Would it perhaps be better to do all the fine detailing in Subtance designer, and rather focus on the macro shapes in sculpting only?
I always wonder what would be best when I need the wood-grains to run around branches and roots.

Is it possible to, say, use some curves/vector shapes in Substance to define these "fields", and conform patterns to them? Would make the process of "testing" textures much faster.