How to Create Winter Cabin in the Middle of Nowhere with Unreal Engine 5

Introduction

I am Damien Peinoit, a freelance artist specializing in the creation of full CG environments from start to finish. Currently collaborating with Blur Studio as my main client, I've been fortunate to contribute my skills to renowned companies such as ILM, NVIDIA, and more. My portfolio boasts movie credits, TV shows, and numerous game cinematics, the latter holds a special place in my heart.

Originally from France, I've set up my creative base in Canada, the time zone sync with North American studios just makes life easier. Apart from my regular gigs, I get a kick out of sharing what I know. Tutoring in schools and mentoring students on the side, seeing them reach their goals? That's the good stuff.

My professional 3D adventure kicked off in 2005, but I'd been self-discovering 3D before that (creating Half-Life mods, etc.) If numbers could speak, they'd say it's been a heck of a ride so far!

The Winter Cabin Project

I first dipped my toes into the intriguing world of Unreal Engine 4, but the process didn't quite click for me initially, so I took a step back. Balancing personal projects with the demands of work and personal life proved to be a formidable challenge, like for many of us. I found myself caught in the whirlwind of busyness. But, taking a break from my own projects, I started feeling the frustration creep in as an artist, there's this itch for personal art. You know, the ones where you can let your creativity run wild, with no rules from the outside. "The Cabin" It's my way of saying, "Screw it, let's create for the heck of it." It's my little hideaway, a spot to mess around with new skills and just enjoy the process.

With everything happening around us and the rise of AI, I was fueled on a new journey of creation. My obsession with creepy, abandoned places, fueled by my love for horror and years of urban exploration, planted the seed for this project. I'd never done anything snowy or Icelandic before, but considering my love for abandoned vibes, making a cabin in the middle of nowhere seemed like a good idea. I also wanted to explore smooth rounded mountains as it's something I never did before.

My go-to references? Good ol' Google and some YouTube videos of Antarctic expeditions. I also used some of the references from the show "Katla" for the lighting and "The Thing" for the mood. As I dug into abandoned cabins and the Icelandic landscape, my vision started shifting. I'm all about contrast, so picture this: dark soil and sand, a white cabin, and a white sky. That was the plan!

For the blockout, I used RailClone and 3ds Max of course, I am a big 3ds advocate. I am so used to it that I can model everything I want and need in a very effective and fast way.

First things first, I got my metric measures in check. I aimed for those giant hills/mountains to be somewhere between 200 to 500 meters, so I plopped a blockout in that range. Standard cabins? 8 by 3 meters.

Then, I played around with the cameras, found an angle I liked and it was good to go. I've always been a fan of getting the camera down low, making things look way more massive and spooky than they really are. Once the initial blockout was sorted, it was time for the modeling.

Sure, I could've used a scan of a cabin, but where's the fun in that? Plus, I don't have all the fancy equipment for it. Google Images to the rescue, just type "cabin Iceland abandoned," and you're good. Gathered some textures, shapes, and destruction references and dove into the creation.

RailClone is the perfect tool for building wall sidings, windows opening, doors, and roofs. Speaking of roofs, I slapped together mine using two Megascans textures mushed up and modeled on top, being as fast as possible was my goal here. After that, collapsing the meshes and making them damaged is the fun part. Did some UVs and the house was ready to be sent to Unreal Engine through standard FBX export, I could have used USD but no point in there.

The mountains were made with Gaea, it's the easiest way to create realistic elevations. I based both of the mountains on my Obj blockout using the OBJ2heighfield so I knew they would have the same 'shape'. Used an RGB mix to actually texture directly in Unreal Engine using the RGB mask. And for the rest, it's a combination of personal props from random projects and a sprinkle of Megascans for the ground.

Then, of course, the cabin itself is a hero asset, so using procedural texture? Not really. Procedural texture is fast but looks... procedural. I wanted something more organic and went with a Substance 3D Painter approach. I used lots of photo references with custom homemade and purchased brushes (made from photos of leaks mostly, simple and easy.)

The big news here was doing the assembly in Unreal. Lumen and Nanite are an incredible technical prowess from Epic and without them, I wouldn't have even bothered with the switch. Nanite is my polygon-craving savior, a dream for folks coming from cinematic or VFX.

Plus, having an interactive viewport is slick. I tested my cabin on a cheap crap janky VR set, and it was mind-blowing! Can't wait to dive more into VR.

Lighting

To take full advantage of Unreal Engine 5, make sure Lumen GI and Reflections is activated. Why not go with a path tracer? In that case, why leave V-Ray then? No, I wanted to stick to something fully real-time and game-ready.

I wanted the lighting to be as realistic as possible and stick to a viewport approach. This means as little as possible of comp. I aimed for a physical-based lighting setup with real camera values. There are quite good documents on Wiki about this like Overcast rules and ISO conditions. 

Before digging into the values I also wanted to stick to my cinematic experience: exterior scene, no need for too many lights, HDRI will do with one direct light. 

Set my ISO to 100, F-stop to 8, and EV-100 to 13. Then, I played around with HDRI values, gave the overcast "Sun" a little tweak, and messed with the camera settings until I landed on this sweet overcast vibe. This is my go-to setup moving forward now.

I also love working with levels, as in Layer in 3ds Max. One level for all the geo and meshes, one for the lighting, one for the FX, and so on.  I focused on the camera, too, I didn't care about what was outside of the view.

To be honest, I was very impressed by how fast I was able to set this up, not like in pre-render when you change one value, hit render, wait, change another value, and repeat. This is a game-changer, I'm super pumped about it. Life is easier for us artists now!

Also important here, no fancy post-processing tricks. The only thing I did was shut down the Auto Exposure with my Set EV values. When I work on a 3D piece, my render (or in this case, the viewport) has to be closest to that final stage vibe. DaVinci's job? Strictly to be the cherry on top. Otherwise, we're in for another round of comp tweaks.

Last thing, shoutout to Blender Guru for sparking some inspiration with his latest Shining piece. I used to be all about sharpening my renders, but now it feels kinda off. I am aiming for 4K renders, why would I add a sharpener? I actually used the idea of adding a little bit of Gaussian blur and slapped that on right before tossing in my film grains. It made the scene look filmed with a real camera.

Lumen played a pivotal role in this project, bringing some serious magic to the table. I wanted realistic lighting, and Lumen delivered by creating natural and dynamic lighting effects. One of the major advantages was the interactive viewport. Unlike traditional workflows where you tweak, render, wait, and repeat, Lumen allowed me to see changes in real time. It's like having a direct line to instant feedback, making the creative process much smoother. Lumen worked seamlessly with Nanite. The interactive workflow significantly reduces the time spent in the trial-and-error cycle that I used to do all the time when lighting.

William Faucher's EasyFog Plug-In 

I did the Epic Fellowship for world-building and I met the Incredible Vladimir Somov. Before William's plug-in dropped in, Vlad showed us the magic of using Billboards. Those planar with moving or nonmoving textures simulate fog, sky, and atmosphere effects. We used to do that a lot in VFX, either from Nuke/DaVinci/After Effects. But, let's be real, it's a hustle. Tracking shots and placing planars in comp, make sure the cloud or fog is masked by other elements. It's not a fun part.

I was a bit lazy to create my own but when I got my hands on Faucher's ready-made ones, I was stoked. The fog in unreal is very powerful but you still miss the deepness of the cloud falling from the sky and his plugins fixed that for me.

But I also want to mention Ia Scatter because this is another tool that will be important in the future of my pipeline. Scattering in Unreal? Not the most thrilling thing. When you're coming from Forest Pack, nothing really compares. Sure, you can throw Houdini into the mix, but then you're in for a two-month rollercoaster to create a simple scatter. Ia Scatter, though, it's a game-changer. Does everything for you, and the simplicity? Lifesaving. I know we've got PCG and other tools, but they keep evolving, changing. Ia Scatter has my back. I used flow maps to drive the scattering on those background mountains. Those are the plugins I rocked for this project.

Conclusion

Here's what I've picked up along the way: let go of the perfection pursuit, work without stressing, and make it about enjoying the process. For me, it's all about having fun, and whatever rolls in afterward it's a bonus. Don't be afraid of using new tools, I ditched After Effects for DaVinci and it's the best thing I ever did. Same for using Unreal as a new scene assembling tool. It's not easy, but the reward is worth the pain. The lesson boils down to a simple mantra: dive in, drown out the noise, and create for yourself. The results? Whether you gain a following or not, the real deal is keeping that creative journey alive. Put yourself first and watch the surprises unfold.

The golden rule? As long as the process is a blast, you're on the right track. And let's not forget, 3D is fun and always will be! I am working on more pieces like this and hopefully will increase the quality the more I produce. I would love to do a new short film, but it takes time, and balancing life and CG is always a big challenge. That's why I am focusing on this format for now. In the meantime, I remain committed to providing educational insights and mentorship opportunities on the side, and I like to answer questions artists ask me. Anticipate an upcoming masterclass, stay tuned for further details and updates! 

Big thanks to 80 Level for this interview, and an even bigger shoutout to everyone else for reading and the incredible support. See you!

Damien Peinoit, 3D Artist

Interview conducted by Theodore McKenzie