Creating Hand-Painted Howl's Moving Castle Door with Substance 3D

Introduction

Hello! I'm Grigory, a 3D Artist on a two-year journey through digital art. It all started with a simple thought: 'What if I try making a 3D model?' Now I'm fully immersed in exploring all aspects – from sculpting to hand-painted textures.

My guides have been the Kaino 3D course and 'Industry Entry' by Kuptsov GameDev, which helped me understand not just the tools but industry requirements too. I was particularly captivated by hand-painted texturing - I love where technical skills meet artistic vision.

So far, my experience consists of personal projects where I experiment, make mistakes, try again, and celebrate every new discovery. However, I believe this path of experimentation and persistence will lead me to exciting professional opportunities.

Inspiration & References

I've always admired how Studio Ghibli creates its magical worlds. When I saw Selena T's 3D artwork on ArtStation, it immediately captured my imagination – not just a model but a true hand-painted texturing masterpiece where every detail radiated warmth and character. I wanted to understand this magic and create my own version. Starting from scratch, I developed my own topology and UV mapping while preserving the original spirit but adding my personal touch. The focus was entirely on manual painting – no procedural materials, with careful attention to every gradient and color transition.

Modeling

The work began in ZBrush by creating a low-poly mesh with ZModeler, which is ideal for quick base forms without excess polygons. For texturing, I used Substance 3D Painter with complete manual painting, avoiding smart materials or procedural effects.

The key time-saver was avoiding perfectionism early on. Starting with rough sketches of forms and textures, then gradually refining details prevented endless early-stage revisions.

Retopology & Unwrapping

Since the model was created as low-poly from the start (no high-poly version), I moved it straight to Blender for final topology tweaks and unwrapping. UV work began with manual seam placement along natural model lines (like edges and structural joints) to minimize visibility. For unwrapping, I used the standard Unwrap tool but relied heavily on Live Unwrap for complex areas to see real-time changes.

For packing, UVPack Master add-on efficiently arranged islands while maintaining texel density. Final adjustments used MiO3 UV Editor for pixel-perfect alignment and artifact prevention.

Texturing

I deliberately chose pure manual painting, avoiding procedural materials. The key was organizing layers logically (wood, metal, decorative elements) for isolated editing.

Substance 3D Painter's color picker (sampling from external reference images) was invaluable for accurate hues. For smooth transitions, I used low-opacity soft brushes with layered colors. The main challenges were the following:

• Maintaining a consistent style across all elements.
• Capturing Ghibli's signature lighting accents.
• Preserving hand-crafted authenticity.

Tips for hand-painting:

1. Start with broad color planes, then detail.
2. Use references as inspiration, not strict templates.
3. Take breaks – fresh eyes spot imbalances.
4. Experiment with different brushes.
5. Embrace intentional "imperfections" for vitality. Hand-painted textures aren't about flawless precision but conveying feeling. Sometimes, one deliberate 'messy' stroke brings more life than dozens of perfect layers.

Lighting

For the final rendering, I chose Marmoset Toolbag – perfect for quick, quality hand-painted asset presentation. With all lighting painted manually (pure base color, no PBR maps), I used neutral lighting without harsh shadows to preserve original colors.
In Photoshop, I completed the following steps:

• Added slight sharpening to emphasize details.
• Enhanced saturation in key areas.
• Verified readability at reduced sizes.

The Marmoset+Photoshop combo delivered clean renders with precise texture control.

Conclusion

This compact but intense project took about three days, with most time spent on the rewarding yet meticulous hand-painting. The simple door model took just 15-20 minutes to model, while texturing became almost meditative as each brushstroke brought flat surfaces to life. The main challenges comprised:

• Capturing Ghibli's magical aesthetic (beyond mere color matching)
• Avoiding "muddy" transitions
• Maintaining uniform detail levels

The absolute joy was the painting process itself – watching digital surfaces gain character under the brush. This project proved that 90% of the magic lies in textures, not model complexity.

For those interested, I recommend studying hand-painted assets from League of Legends or World of Warcraft as excellent learning resources.

Grigory Perfilev, 3D Artist