The first project in a while which I’ve put together outside a mentorship capacity. And whilst that was the case, I received fantastic feedback from TheBaseMesh and Beyond Extent communities, who provided really valuable guidance and encouragement where needed most.

The idea started as just wanting to put something cathedral-based together after seeing an inspiring photograph of Margam Castle. I also knew that I wanted to return to some digital sculpting, aim for a more efficient pipeline, have a minimal amount of assets and work with a minimal palette.

The atmosphere and storytelling of the scene developed over time, and took a darker turn when I decided to randomly drop a skull mesh in there. And the rest, as they say, is history.

One thing was missing towards the end, and after trying a few things I stumbled across an old snow material which I created a while back, so rather than leave it to gather digital dust, I threw it into the scene and never looked back!

Whilst the whole project has taken a lot of energy and felt quite intimidating in places, I think it was a really good set of lessons on how and where to improve in future, and that the power of solid references really does make or break the core structure of a project.

Damages, wear, cobwebs and some base textures were created using these awesome packages:

Spider Webs Cobwebs - Reference Images Pack - Alan Canepa
https://www.artstation.com/junkymation

Trim Brush Damage - Vol 01 & 02 - Amir Kabiri
https://www.artstation.com/amirkabiri/store

Stencil Imperfection - Vol 02 - Parallel Universe Studio
https://www.artstation.com/paralleluniversestudio/store?tab=digital_product

TextureHunt Collections - Spencer Rose
https://www.artstation.com/commonspence/store?tab=digital_product

KizzleFX Pack - Vol 01 - Kai Mergener
https://www.artstation.com/kaikizzle