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Stylized Environment Creation for Games

Creating Stylized Assets for Unreal Engine with Rodrigo Brea

Description

In this beginner-to-intermediate-level workshop, Rodrigo Brea shares various professional techniques and approaches for building stylized environments. This 5-hour guide covers topics including how to analyze a concept and create a breakdown; how to set up a basic scene in Unreal 5; different ways to create a variety of assets, from grass/foliage/trees to a hero piece; as well as how to texture and create a reusable Substance Smart Material.


Rodrigo utilizes a few key software choices, including Unreal Engine 5, Blender, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Photoshop, TreeIt, and Autodesk FBX Converter. Using these tools, he offers an industry-insider’s perspective to tackling and approaching the creation of stylized assets for professional games.


You’ll see how the final scene is set up, and learn Rodrigo’s approach for lighting, as well as a few simple methods he uses to render out beauty shots and a video for presentation. The techniques taught will be not only helpful for creating a scene from a concept, but will also be applicable to any stylized environment you may want to create.


By completing this workshop, you’ll have a better understanding of the workflow professional game artists use for creating stylized environments, and you will know a variety of ways to problem solve and approach different results.


Accompanying this workshop are two downloadable folders; one includes Rodrigo’s completed Unreal 5 Project including all its assets; a second folder offers Rodrigo’s working files from the various software packages utilized in this workshop.


Duration: 5h 08m

Format: HD 1920x1080

Rodrigo Brea

Senior Environment Artist at Retro Studios

Rodrigo Brea graduated from the Digital Production Program at Gnomon School, where he specialized in Modeling and Texturing for Games. He has worked professionally in video games for over 5 years since graduation. He has worked on various platforms, from PC/console to VR, and in various art styles. Rodrigo loves making art for video games and sharing his techniques with other aspiring artists whenever he can.


Follow Rodrigo’s career on LinkedIn.


  • When Rodrigo joined our team, he instantly elevated our game. His work is clean and high quality, but he also was a huge contributor to our company culture. He takes feedback amazingly well; he's kind, patient, and always happy to help someone through a problem. Artistically, he came up with a lot of great solutions for problems that we encountered, and he has a lot of flexibility beyond 3D modeling skills.

    - Izaak Moody
    Art Director at Humanoid Studios

  • Rodrigo is the type of game artist who understands the steps of creating a compelling environment from grey box to final look and polish. He has a lot of technical knowledge that he applies to his workflow, which is extremely valuable to any art team. He also mentors and supports others and lifts them up to do their best.

    - Denis Osmanbegovic
    Principal Environment Artist at Free Range Games

  • I’ve had the pleasure of working with Rodrigo; he is an energetic and inspiring team member. He has an excellent sense of planning, set dressing, and making game environments eye-catching. He has consistently contributed ideas and constructive feedback to make the game levels more appealing and interactive. Rodrigo is always there to help a fellow co-worker and is forward-thinking on how to make the project better. I learned a lot from Rodrigo’s guidance and experience as a senior environment artist.

    - Clarence Lowe
    Environment Artist at Illfonic

  • Having worked with Rodrigo for over two years, he brings a certain infectious positive energy. Not only is he talented and eager to assist anyone on the team from mentorship to a helping hand. It's his positivity that is one of his strongest attributes. He is a great member of any team and a friend to anyone in need. His eagerness to dive into any program or problem presented to him can also not be understated. Rodrigo fully commits himself to whatever task is presented, gains a certain mastery, and then assists in training those around him.

    - David Lichtinger
    Lead Environment Artist at Illfonic