Under the Hood - Sculpting

An important aspect of creating realistic virtual representations of cities and towns in Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator is not only the road networks and buildings, but also the recreation of important and unique landmarks in those areas. One such common landmark is statues, which are created from scratch by our talented digital sculptors, whom we've had the pleasure to talk to and share more about their work with you today!

We spoke with Martina D and Věra Š, both of whom work in our Asset department and they create many of the statues along with a variety of other custom assets. We will let them introduce themselves!

"My name is Martina D. I joined SCS Software about six years ago as a Map Designer. After three years, I transitioned to the Asset department, where I continue to work today!"

"Hello, My name is Věra Š. but I´m also known as Bee! I work as a 3D Graphic Assets Designer and my specialty is statues. I´ve been working at SCS Software for over 2 years."

A real-life reference of The Homesteaders statue located in Enid, Oklahoma

We're interested to know, how did you get into sculpting? Was it something you learned at school, or did you teach yourself at home? "I always had a strong artistic background," Martina tells us. "Since elementary school, I have been attending art classes twice a week. When I was 14, I discovered the world of digital painting, which made me even more obsessed with creating art. When I started working at SCS, I became interested in the process of creating assets, so I began experimenting with 3D programs. Sculpting quickly caught my eye. It’s like painting, but with a third dimension, and it somehow felt so much more satisfying than painting. I completely fell in love with the process."

Věra also shares her answer "As a lover of figures such as Warhammer, or video games, and classical historical statues, I was mesmerized by such art forms and wanted to create something on my own, so I downloaded Blender and started my journey. Thanks to YouTube I learnt the basics of 3D sculpting and couldn't stop creating."

A 3D Digital Sculpture of The Homesteaders statue

When creating digital sculptures for ETS2 or ATS, what kinds of tools and software do you use? "For sculpting, we use the ZBrush software from Maxon." Martina shares "It is the leading and the most efficient sculpting software on the market. As for hardware, I use my big non-screen Huion graphic tablet and a short keyboard that will fit next to my tablet and allow me to use shortcuts comfortably".

The process of creating and integrating a digital sculpture or asset into a game is far from quick or simple. It requires multiple steps and the use of specialized software. Věra explains, “First of all, I start with a block-out. In this step, the main goal is to create a simple shape that resembles the general form of the sculpture. After that, we can start sculpting, which is my favourite part since we’re playing with all the details. At this stage, we use ZBrush, which is excellent for sculpting organic forms.”

Martina agrees on the importance of starting with the basics, saying, “Everything starts with good proportions. I use the most basic shapes with the lowest polygon count possible. Each time I feel satisfied with the proportions, I increase the polygon count. It’s always good to work with lower polygon counts initially because I