For this project, I decided to work in big chunks, get all the assets through a step before going to the next. So I got all the assets sculpted first.
I started with the door, since it's the biggest and most detailed asset after the tree. For the wood, I used the Trim Adaptive and Mallet Fast brushes with a square alpha in order to get those uneven edges that cut into the piece of wood, the imperfect and crooked forms of unprocessed wood. For the cracks and lines on the wood I used the Orb Cracks brush. When I started to sculpt the little pieces of wood framing the window, I realized I was putting too much detail that won't be visible anyway, so I tried to keep it to a minimum after that. For the rocks at the bottom I used Clay and Clay Buildup together with Trim Dynamic in order to get the uneven surface. I used Orb Cracks for the cracks. To be honest, the door is the one I'm most proud of, together with the tree.
For the window, fence and stairs, I reused the pieces of wood from the door, tweaking them a bit so the repetition isn't too visible, as well as sculpted some new ones. I concentrated on putting the most detail and attention on the parts that would be most visible.
For all woden assets (besides the barrel) I used the same swirls and spirals to keep the shape language consistent.
I kept the barrel simple. I didn't use the same swirling design, since it's just a barrel, there's nothing really magical or delicate about barrels and the spirals simply didn't fit. Plus, it will be mostly in the background and I didn't want to make the composition too busy and noisy, especially since it is stylized.
I kept the other assets simple, since they are small and not the center of attention:
Then came sculpting the tree. My magical tree that is the hero asset, the focal point of the composition. I took my time with it, putting in some extra care and detail in order to make it look as good as possible.
I mainly used Clay and Clay Tubes, as well as Orb Clay tubes to build the main forms, the texture of the wood bark. I used Orb Cracks to accentuate the indents and draw the pattern of the bark, similar to the wood on the door and window, I didn't want to make it too busy, so I kept it simple. For the rope I used one of the snap brushes to make a tube and snap it around the tree trunk and then sculpt on it. And for the papers with runes on them I just modelled a plane into more irregular shapes and used Orb Cracks to scribble some "runes" on them.
I also made a tree crown, by sculpting three different leaves in ZBrush and layering them in a round shape. I used the same shape language with swirling patterns as in the rest of the scene. I layered it into three to make the shape more complex and the vegetation look more lush, more full.
