[Zbrush] How do i sculpt this ?

Abdelrahman

Hi everyone,

I'm currently planning a 3D environment that fuses the dramatic natural setting of Petra (Jordan) with the ornate and rich Levantine architectural style. The vision is to build a narrow canyon path that leads to a large, impressive mosque structure, with a bazaar carved into the sides of the canyon walls along the way.

I've sculpted a few modular cliff pieces (see images below), which I’m planning to use to assemble the canyon walls. They have a worn sandstone look, trying to match Petra’s iconic erosion patterns and scale.

But I’ve hit a roadblock — I’m not sure how to carve the market or individual shops into these cliffs. Should I model the shops separately and boolean them into the cliffs? Or should I resculpt portions of the rocks to integrate the storefronts? I’m also worried about UVs, texel density, and keeping the modularity while making each shop feel distinct and natural.

these are the modular pieces that i made so far...

and this is how i want the carvings to be 

thanks for the help !!! 

Fabi_G

Hi! I would try to get away modeling them and apply tiling textures. Surface variation can then be added through texture blending. Geometric detail through meshes layered on top.

You will probably need to figure out how to blend meshes together, so it all looks like one solid piece in the end. You could use some mesh skirts and strips to cover transitions. Another option world projected textures and modified mesh normals.

Generally, I would do a blockout of the whole environment early, to get an idea of space and along the way identify building blocks and potential challenges and to have a test bed for your assets. If you're planning to use a game engine to render, I'd walk around the blockout environment or setup a camera path to evaluate how it feels.

Perhaps you find some articles relevant to you in the wiki: Environment