VFX Shot Workflow

Noro

Hello everyone ! I'm currently working a vfx diorama, remaking a building in paris with vray. (the overall look is there (pic 2))

I would like to have some advices before going too deep into problems.

I'm thinking about limits and ideal workflow for making it : The pipe i wanna use -> block out 3ds max -> chiseling in zbrush -> back to 3ds for uving with udims -> substance for generating masks for my vray blends.

What bother me is the detailing of surfaces (pic 01, and the accessibility of thoses for texturing (and baking curvature correctly). I don't want to use displacement due of short deadlines.

I'm thinking of using decimation master by i'm not sure of the result for uving & baking and the weight of the scene even if i try to decimate the right amount of polygons, to not have a messy blob (olivier vernay's work is a great exemple of what would be expected for my current work https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8nyPq). The other way would be to send a nice even topo to zbrush and use sculptris with booleans to have decimation only on chiseled /bumpy parts.

Maybe i would use some cloth with really low damping for peeling paint and adding variations

What would be the workflow you did use for it ?

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance if someone have some propositions for me (hope my Explanations isn't that wrong, pls tell me if something isn't clear)