Modeling complexe 3D shapes associated with very detailed textures, the process allowed to discover and then refine a workflow between essential softwares for the task : 3dsmax and Substance Painter (a new tool in the toolbox).

Download the 3D model :

All the 3D base files associated with the Bodegas Guell model are available for purchase and download here in CG Trader. The native format is 3dsmax 2021 with components and layers well organized, modeled in real world scale with rather close accuracy.

The impulse of the Bodegas Guell project

Recreating an Antoni Gaudi building is a challenge in itself, one that I have had in mind for a long time. Even looking at the exterior shells, there is always something unique about Gaudi’s architecture, a sort of hand-made quality that is actually very hard to model.

Among his many projects, I always had a soft spot for the Bodegas Guell. Even if it is one of his lesser known projects, there was something about that shape that really inspired me.

Maybe because the building is kind of a monolith, rising from the ground. Shaped like a giant tent, with walls that become roof, it still kept the hand crafted organic shapes Gaudi trademark, especially in the chimneys.

Since the scale of the building seemed quite manageable (for one it’s not the Sagrada Familia), I decided to lock in on this project.

The journey then continues to Garraf, in the south of Spain.

The Challenges

This was also a way to explore the challenge of modeling it with all its specifities : organic shapes all over the building, and especially custom-made textures for the materials.

This didn’t scream Sketchup or Autocad to me, fine, let’s see how to model this in 3dsmax. Although it could possibly be one giant polygon sculpted and modified all the way to become the building, it seemed more logical to approach this bit by bit.

Chimney modeling

The idea was as following : if I can model those chimneys, I can model anything. Going from most to least difficult was a good way to make sure that I could reach the end of the project.

Pureref library

The first step as always is to gather reference images to build a memory bank of the building parts. Pureref software is still the way to go on this one. You try it once, you always keep it. It allows to browse very easily between the reference images with the possibility to organize them per area or viewpoint :

There are 4 kinds of chimneys around the Bodegas Guell. To get started on each one of them, I didn’t jump immediately on the software. I prepared by studying them, by figuring out what kind of primary shapes they evolved from, what were the symmetry axis, etc. That analogical reflexion is key not to get lost in the middle of the software.

The Chimney Pyramid

For instance, for the ‘Pyramid’ chimney, I began by identifying the shape as a pyramid, with 2 different symmetry axis, a few holes here and there and a Turbosmooth on top of everything. That layed the plan for the 3D modeling in 3dsmax. Edit polys, symmetries and Turbosmooth were the main and only modifiers I’ll need on a very simple base geometry.

The method used for poly editing towards a Turbosmoothed result is best described here : https://xwarchitecture.com/3dsmax-modeling-principles/

The same method was applied to all chimneys, once each one was modeled, that marked the first victory in the long process of this project.

In theory, those shapes were the trickiest ones, and I managed to model them. So the rest should be easy.

Well, it wasn’t.

Autocad 2D base

As for any kind of building, the 3D modeling needs a 2D base. In this case, all I could find were 2D elevations and 3 floor plans, but still with pretty accurate scale.

Since the modeling will take part mostly in 3dsmax, all those 2D lines were traced and cleaned in Autocad and then imported and correctly aligned in the 3D space : front view, left view, top view. The peculiar geometry of the whole building made it pretty hard to align them.

Poly editing and more poly editing in 3dsmax

Next step is starting with the main shape that is the tent roof. It will be the primary basic shape on which all the sculpting (= stack of poly editing modifiers as shown on the right of the following images).

Then, it was a long process of adding details here and there, with the right topology to follow those details, before starting to approach the final shape. One necessary step on this one is the use of Proboolean, which is the simplest way to cut openings in the geometry for doors and windows, without messing with the topology.

All small ornemental elements were created separately, which simplified greatly the process and gave more flexibility. Each one of those ornements (windows, balcony, doors, stairs, front building) was purely made by eyeballing the actual pictures of the site.

It was primordial to separate those elements as different objecs in 3dsmax, for reasons we will cover later.

Crafting textures in Substance Painter

Once the 3d modeling was done for all of the elements, roughly 25 hours into the software, came the question of the materials.

Substance Painter

Unlike most of the architectural projects I had made where you just had to apply one seamless square texture all over an object, maybe rescale it a bit, this building would need something way different, and way more complicated. Each tiny corner has a specific look, a specific texture that follows the geometry, especially stone joints and dirt stains.

The only tool that could achieve the result I was looking for was Adobe Substance Painter. With new software, come new tutorials. Luckily, we still have Youtube for that, here’s one channel that was particularly helpful if you wan to start from scratch.

3dsmax to Substance workflow

So, before starting a Substance Painter project, what did I need to do ?

• Focus on one object (not too big)
• Make it into an editable poly with clean topology
• Use the UV unwrap modifier
• Flatten the UVs and reorganize them nicely on a square (here again, thanks for the tutorials)
• Collapse to the unwrapped version
• Apply a material and name it : in this case “Pyramid Chimney”
• Export the object as an fbx

Then in Substance Painter :

• Start a new project in susbtance painter : select the fbx, choose a texture size, like 2048×2048
• Start creating layers of materials : stone, joints, dirt. The use of a WACOM tablet is a serious help here, as a 3D mouse.
• Check in real time at the rendered material
• When finished, export the textures as jpg for Diffuse, Normal and Roughness
• Organize the folder for the textures to save in
• Reopen 3dsmax
• In the material editor, create Vray Bitmaps for the Diffuse, Refl Roughness and Normal maps
• Load each texture previously exported from Substance
• Admire the result (hopefully)

This whole process was very painful in the beginning when everything was new and mostly trial and error. Then it became a little easier to plan and to optimize the workflow once the first textures were exported.

However, it was only possible to proceed material by material and object by object (each one being unwrapped properly). This took an enormous amount of time and was the most demoralizing part of this whole project.

For instance, for the main building which was way too big, I had to cut it in three parts in order to have 3 sets of textures with high enough pixel resolution for all the exterior.

In short, if you want to make it to the end while keeping the same level of detail, hang in there.

Scene creation in Unreal Engine 5

Datasmith plugin, always

Once again, in order to get some nice renders in location (other than a black velvet blanket background in 3dsmax), I had to import my now textured building in Unreal Engine.

The best way still to proceed on this, is to use the Datasmith plugin, which connects rather well all the objects, materials and textures from 3dsmax, into an Unreal Engine 5 project. The name of each object, of each material is transferred smoothly.

However, the only painful part was to recreate the materials inside UE5, as the ones which were created automatically through Datasmith were not as good as they should be. The roughness, normal maps wre not accurately applied, so I had to recreate different materials in UE5, from a Quixel Megascans template and then reconnect the textures.

The advantage with this template : it’s very easy to adjust the parameters in real time and control the final look of the material : wetness, normal stregth, albedo controls for saturation, lightness, etc.

Nevertheless, doing all that for each of the dozens of materials I had created took a lof of time and felt yet again pretty fastidious.

Environment creation

After the mere material update, which was already long and boring, but necessary, came the environment creation around the building.

Landscape

I settled for a nearby beach, much like in real life, because I wanted to associate the view from the campanile with the ocean. The beach geometry, ups and downs, as the small hills and mountains nearby were all made using the landscape sculpting tools in Unreal.

The landscape materials, using layers of sand, rocks and grass, came from the Unreal Sensei landscape material tutorial and were very useful to paint different kind of terrain textures with the paint tool of the landscape menu.

Foliage and dressing

Then a bunch of coastal rocks, pebbles, grass and flowers were added as foliage in the Foliage editor. Here again, it is a lot of trial and error until what you see matches what you want.

Some detailed rocks, mountains and other geometries were imported from the FAB marketplace, some free some cheap, to add to the environment design on top of the landscape.

Ocean

Finally, a water body was added using the water plug in, and some adjustments were made to create a rather calm and clean ocean to look at.

Add another 12 hours for the whole environment creation in Unreal Engine 5.4 at least.

Final results

Finally, after setting up multiple cameras and level sequences coordinated with the ultra dynamic sky settings, I rendered series of png turned into videos in Da Vinci Resolve.

The final animation tour was edited with a sweet Hans Zimmer score to get a virtual feeling of the building, near the beach in the sunset. A lot of possibilities offered by Unreal Engine as camera animations and render quality :

Another small galleries of still Unreal Engine renders, once the cameras and Ultra Dynamic Sky lighting have been set up and all of the beach landscape has been modeled :

Making of the Bodegas Guell 3D model: step by step

To sum up the entire process, which was extremely long and painful at times (especially the texture creation part), here are the main steps in order from beginning to end.

1. Setting the objective : an accurate 3D model of the building, meaning shape and textures
2. Making a reference image library with Pureref
3. Drawing the 2D base in Autocad
4. 3D modeling inside of 3dsmax : main building and everything else
5. UV unwrap of all the objects, material affectation
6. Creation of custom materials and textures for each object in Substance Painter
7. Export of jpg maps : diffuse, roughness, normal.
8. Texture filing organization
9. Application of all the maps into the materials in Vray for 3dsmax, test renders
10. Export of the Datasmith file for Unreal
11. Importing Datasmith into Unreal Engine 5.4 project
12. Material assignment, Landscape and Foliage building in Unreal Engine
13. Cameras and renders from Unreal Engine
14. Choosing the final shots and rendering level sequences with movie render queue
15. Da Vinci Resolve to transform png sequences into video file
16. End result : HD video renders of the Bodegas Guell in front of the beach

Conclusion

Looking back, this project took a whole new processus to model from beginning to end. The attention to detail during the modeling and to the unwrapping of every 3D object in order to texture them was the biggest lesson to learn here.

A good organization, a precisely defined worklfow and a lot of patience were key for the whole texturing phase.

After such a project, I can pretty much approach any kind of shape and any kind of colour and texture on top of it, as I can recall what I went through during the modeling and texture creation from this Gaudi building, from 3dsmax to Substance painter and then back in 3dsmax.

I don’t think I’ll reembark on an another exhausting Gaudi Project, but still satisfied I got to the end of this one. Now, onto the next one…