https://polycount.com/ Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:59:42 +0000 en northman — polycount https://polycount.com/discussion/238514/wip-the-northman-interior-environment-cult Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:19:29 +0000 3D Art Showcase & Critiques stefanWilliams_C 238514@/discussions
I have started up another Environment project, this time a runestone interior!
So I haven't done much hard surface interior environment work before and I saw this concept from Ioan Dumitrescu that was made for The Northman. (https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LeXBKR) The scene is set under a longhouse where the local ruler worships an underground Odinic cult. The mood is dark, mysterious and brutal, which I think that captures our popular concept of the viking age very well. 
My goal with this one is to base the environment off the main concept then make tweaks where I see fit, for example in terms of set dressing and storytelling in the scene as I think that is more up to interpretation in the concept. 

I have set up a reference board with style, material and detail references that I think will be useful. This is a living board that I'll keep up to date throughout the project of course  

For stylization, I am mainly following God of War Ragnarök and AC Valhalla. Valhalla more for the realistic proportions and level of set dressing then God of War for the very mythological-feeling lighting setup and materials/clear shape language. 


The runestone is the biggest challenge for me as I am mixing a tileable organic rock workflow with the painted iconography workflow. It will be an interesting challenge! For now my idea is to have the rock tileables as seperate in a tileable UV sheet on the runestone mesh, perhaps with some masking for edge wear and AO/color variation. Then for the iconography I have decided to have a straightforward RGB mask, splitting each element of the paintings into R G and B. This way I can control color for each element and tweak things like wear and damage. 
This will be my priority as I start this project!

Here is the composition I have in my Unreal scene right now. Put some characters in for blockout reasons and will decide if they stay in the final shot later, but I like having the scale reference whilst I work and I can follow the reference easier this way. 

Excited and motivated for this project now as it's something new and challenging for me! 
Feedback and thoughts are super appreciated  ]]>