Alright, let me walk you through how I put together this wood textured shard thing, kinda inspired by that whole ‘Wuthering Waves’ aesthetic I’ve been seeing around.
Getting Started – The Idea
So, I was messing around, thinking about creating some simple environmental props. You know, stuff that looks like it’s been through a bit. The idea of a broken piece of wood, maybe from an old structure or ship, caught my attention. Something sharp, fragmented – a shard. And I wanted it to feel weathered, maybe windswept, hence the ‘wuthering’ part in my head. Felt like it fit that slightly desolate, fantasy vibe.
Making the Shape
First thing, I jumped into my 3D modeling tool. Didn’t need anything super complex. I think I started with a basic cube or maybe a plane, stretched it out a bit.
- Breaking it up: Then I used some cutting tools to slice it up irregularly. Wanted those sharp, broken edges. No clean cuts here.
- Adding some wear: I pushed and pulled some vertices, trying to make it look less perfect, maybe slightly warped or bent, like it’s been exposed to the elements. Gave it a bit of a twist here and there. The goal was just an interesting, jagged silhouette.
Didn’t spend ages on it, just enough to get a shape that felt like a believable piece of debris.
Dealing with UVs
Ugh, UV unwrapping. Never the most fun part, right? But you gotta do it. I basically laid the different faces of the shard out flat in the UV editor. Took a bit of adjusting to make sure the pieces weren’t too stretched or warped. Just needed a decent base to slap the texture onto later.
Finding the Right Wood
Next up, the texture. This part’s pretty crucial for the look. I needed a wood texture that looked old, maybe a bit damp or bleached by sun and wind. Not shiny new furniture wood.
I dug through my texture library and also browsed online for some royalty-free options. Found a nice, weathered wood plank texture. Had some good grain detail, knots, and discoloration. Perfect. Might have tweaked the colors slightly, desaturated it a touch, made it feel a bit more grey and grim.
Texturing the Shard
Okay, time to put the wood onto the model. I imported the texture into my software and applied it to the shard’s material.
- Placement: The first application always looks a bit off. So, I spent time in the UV editor, scaling and rotating the UV islands over the texture. Tried to get the wood grain flowing in a way that made sense with the shard’s shape. Like, along the length of where the original plank might have been.
- Adding Detail Maps: Just the color texture makes things look flat. So, I also generated or found matching roughness and normal maps. The roughness map helps define which parts are duller or slightly shinier (like wet patches or worn areas). The normal map adds those tiny bumps and grain details, making it catch the light more realistically. This really helped sell the ‘wood’ look.
Final Touches
Almost there. I looked at the shard in a preview render. Felt it needed a little extra.
Edge Wear: Added some subtle highlights or slightly different coloring along the sharp, broken edges. Makes it look like the wood is splintered there.
Grime (Optional): Sometimes I add a dirt or grime overlay, especially in the crevices, just to make it look less clean.
The Result
And that was pretty much it. Rendered out a few images, or sometimes I’ll just drop it into a basic scene in a game engine to see how it looks with actual lighting. It came out looking like a proper piece of weathered, broken wood. That shard shape combined with the rough texture gives it that harsh, ‘wuthering’ feel I was aiming for. Simple piece, but adds a nice bit of detail to an environment. Yeah, pretty pleased with how this little practice run turned out.
