Monday, May 12th, 2025 Posted by Jim Thacker

Tutorial: Hard-Surface 3D/VR Mech Design


The Gnomon Workshop has released Hard-Surface 3D/VR Mech Design, a guide to concept sculpting in Substance 3D Modeler, recorded by Visual Development Artist Corey Gooch.

The beginner-friendly workshop provides seven and a half hours of video training, primarily in Substance 3D Modeler, Adobe’s desktop and virtual reality sculpting software.

Discover a virtual reality workflow for designing and sculpting a mech
In the workshop, Gooch explores how to design and sculpt an autonomous mech in VR.

He begins by introducing Substance 3D Modeler, exploring its VR sculpting tools and setting out techniques for creating organic and mechanical forms.

He also discusses how to balance form and functionality, and strategies for placing key design features.

Gooch then switches to ZBrush to optimize the model for rigging and texturing, and adding fine details that cannot currently be created in VR alone.

In the final part of the workshop, he moves to Blender to provide a brief high-level overview of the process of rigging, texturing, animating, and preparing models for 3D printing.

As well as his technical workflow, Gooch shares his artistic decision-making process, which focuses on functionality and effective problem-solving.

Viewers of the workshop can download project files including the Substance 3D Modeler .smod file for the raw sculpt, and Corey Gooch’s ZBrush .cfg file.

About the artist
Corey Gooch is a Visual Development Artist and 3D Specialist at Studio Artilus.

A freelance concept designer and 3D generalist with a background in both aviation and illustration, he enjoys offering private mentorships to other artists.

Pricing and availability
Hard-Surface 3D/VR Mech Design is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.

Subscriptions cost $57/month or $519/year. Free trials are available.

Read more about Hard-Surface 3D/VR Mech Design on The Gnomon Workshop’s website


Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon.