Old Western Wagon Tutorial Full Process

An old western wagon, built across seventeen and a half hours and three modelling applications. Blender, 3ds Max and ZBrush each take the part they are best at — box work, hard-surface precision and sculpted wear — which makes this the most useful tutorial in the shelf for anyone working in a mixed pipeline who wants to see where the handovers actually happen.

What is in the seven files

• ✓Five video parts covering modelling, texturing and rendering
• ✓A separate unwrapping-phase video, supplied as MP4
• ✓An archive of the reference images used
• ✓Over 12 hours of modelling in Blender, 3ds Max and ZBrush
• ✓Over 4 hours of UV work and texturing
• ✓A highpoly bake onto the lowpoly, start to finish

Twelve of the hours are modelling, and the subject earns them: a rigid chassis and wheels that want precise, repeatable geometry, sitting under timber and ironwork that want sculpting. The tutorial moves between applications rather than forcing one of them to do everything, and it is clear at each crossing about why the mesh is being handed across.

The unwrapping phase is packaged as its own video instead of being buried inside a numbered part, which makes it easy to come back to. UVs are laid out in Rizom UV, the highpoly is baked down onto the lowpoly, and texturing runs in Substance Painter with each section given the treatment its material asks for. Marmoset Toolbag handles the final presentation: materials from the baked maps, then lighting and camera.

Pitched at intermediate users, with the prerequisite being able to navigate the applications rather than prior experience of vehicles. The finished wagon and the working files are not supplied, so this is a build to follow rather than an asset to open. None of the video is narrated and there are no subtitles.