This is a personal project I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I wanted to primarily learn how to use RailClone, so a brick façade was a no-brainer.
I used ZBrush to create the bricks and distributed them in three different patterns using RailClon. Due to the limitations of RailClone Lite, I could only use 3 segments (or 3 unique bricks) per RailClone object, which was challenging at first, because I didn’t want to see repeating bricks on the building. The workaround was to use transform nodes in RailClone to rotate each segment several times in 90 degree increments. This way I could get 4 unique sides from each brick, and ultimately get 12 unique looking bricks instead of 3. Using procedural and triplanar texturing techniques helped out even further to get a more random, natural look.
I also personally took the backplate photo, which proved to be extremely helpful because I had all the information for the camera matching afterwards.

I’ve had this reference photo for years now, and I’ve always wanted to recreate it in 3D because I thought I could learn a lot from it.

My goal was to improve my workflow, get familiar with Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer and ZBrush, and enhance my post-processing skills. I had many challenges along the way, but by the end of the project I got very comfortable with modeling assets from scratch and tweaking simulated fabrics and models from Marvelous in ZBrush. Substance Painter was essential to get the damaged, rustic look on some of the furniture pieces as well as the damaged floor planks.

I have to also thank Bertrand Benoit for his inspiration and excellent workflow videos which helped me out more than once in this project, especially with the throw blanket.