Pre-Production

Concept

The walkthrough video for The Hilltop at Brenham was designed to do more than visualize a future RV resort—it needed to sell a lifestyle before ground was even broken. The directive from day one was clear: create a photoreal 3D experience that blends architectural accuracy with cinematic emotion. Pre-sales were on the line, and that meant every frame had to carry both technical clarity and a sense of place. 

From the start, pre-production was detailed and constantly shifting. The client delivered a library of evolving assets: site plans, floorplans for the lodge and cabins, drone flyovers, and hi-res photo references for things like signature oak trees. These materials arrived in waves as the site layout changed, so we built a flexible visual development process—refining continuously as files updated. Beyond architecture, the client provided design inspiration for materials, lighting, and overall tone, giving us a hybrid challenge: stay architecturally precise, but stylize it just enough to elevate the dream.

We grounded everything in three non-negotiables: terrain had to match real elevation data, textures had to reflect Texas Hill Country (from limestone to sun-faded deck wood), and all major amenities—RV pads, trails, fire pits, water features—had to feel fully integrated, not composited props. The visual rhythm was slow and elegant. We used aerials, hero trees, and the lodge itself to anchor the experience and guide the viewer through the space with a cinematic lens.

Rapid Prototyping

The Rapid Prototyping (RP) phase for the Hilltop at Brenham walkthrough was a major undertaking—layered, technical, and foundational to everything that followed. We kicked things off in Unreal Engine 4 and later transitioned the whole production into UE5 midstream. This wasn’t your basic animatic. It was a full-blown environment build: terrain shaped from real GIS data, systematic asset placement via blueprints, vegetation mapped out by zone, and a full cinematic camera setup. This phase also marked the beginning of Unreal Engine becoming a permanent piece of our pipeline.

Terrain Construction Using Real-World Geospatial Data

To get the terrain right, we pulled elevation data straight from USGS and brought in infrastructure from OpenStreetMap. That gave us an accurate starting point inside Unreal, where we refined everything by hand. We laid satellite imagery over the 3D landscape to lock in natural features like tree lines, creeks, ponds, and manmade structures.

Using UE’s sculpting tools, we graded roads, leveled RV pads, and deepened water basins. This wasn’t just for show—it was engineered to match how the site would actually be built. Trails were widened, pads flattened, and grades adjusted with future construction in mind. The terrain didn’t just look buildable—it was buildable, logically and spatially.

Landscape Materials and Procedural Vegetation

We developed a layered material system that allowed us to paint textures across the environment with precision. Each layer—forest ground, sand, lawn grass, wild grass, gravel—came with its own physically-based material set: normal maps, roughness, ambient occlusion, and macro texture blends that held up at any distance. These weren’t just surface visuals. The materials drove procedural foliage behavior in real time.

Painting a gravel trail didn’t just apply a texture—it suppressed grass growth. Lawn areas automatically triggered a tighter grass mesh with denser coverage. Forest zones generated wild, irregular forest ground clusters. Artists could fine-tune everything on the fly—adjusting foliage, terrain materials, and logic all in one pass.

For visual fidelity, we blended Quixel Megascans with custom Substance materials. Each zone—firepits, recreation areas, trails—used a unique mix of painted textures and foliage masks. Niagara systems and wind logic were already live in this phase, adding movement and realism early on.

Blueprint Systems for Site Layout

Managing hundreds of repeating objects across the map required a blueprint-driven approach. RV sites were some of the first assets we systematized. Instead of manually placing every object, we created intelligent blueprints that included everything: pad, picnic table with benches, charger, drainage, and fire pit.

Three different site types were built and placed using spline-based blueprint tools. These allowed for precision placement along roads and fast global updates. When the client changed layout drawings midstream, we updated one blueprint and the entire site adapted instantly. That level of responsiveness saved a ton of time.

Other site elements—from entrance gates and fences to trails and water features—were also converted into modular blueprints. The pool area included blueprint modules for everything from cabanas to umbrellas. Even lighting rigs were set up with toggles for golden-hour and nighttime logic.

Asset Development and Importing

The RP phase demanded a major asset push right out of the gate. We modeled the lodge and tiny cabins from scratch using architectural plans and elevations. Textures were created in Substance Painter, exported in 4K UDIMs, and assembled into Unreal master materials with added logic for gloss control, weathering, and ambient occlusion.

RVs, trailers, SUVs, golf carts, and service vehicles were either built or sourced, then optimized and rigged. We animated an RV pulling into a pull-through site and set up a tow rig with a camera pass. None of this was fluff. Asset placement followed real RV park logic—driveway flow, hookups, and orientation were all on point.

The signature oak trees required a custom approach. Off-the-shelf assets didn’t cut it, so we turned to the UE marketplace and found specific tree forms that matched client photos. We dialed in trunk sizes, canopy shapes, and wind responsiveness. These trees became key visual anchors across shots—from poolside to the lodge to creekside zones.

We also built out assets for the dog park, splash pad (later removed), fire pits, game courts, and various lawn games. Even if they didn’t make it into the final cut due to construction changes, everything was fully modeled and implemented during RP.

Camera Planning and Sequencing Logic

We structured a master level sequence inside Unreal, with nested subsequences for individual shots. This gave us control over everything—lighting, camera moves, object visibility, post-processing—on a per-shot basis. Each segment could override specific elements to fine-tune mood and focus.

Camera animation was treated cinematically: dolly moves, crane lifts, side glides, and slow orbits. We used tracking shots to explore trails, lateral glides across water features, and aerial shots to show site scale. Every transition was intentional—shifting between close personal moments and wide spatial awareness.

The emotional tone drove the camera logic. No sharp cuts, no whip pans. Everything moved gently and purposefully—meant to draw the viewer in and make them feel grounded, calm, and connected to the landscape.

Performance Optimization During RP

Because of the landscape’s size and complexity, optimization was baked into RP from the jump. Foliage systems used culling distances and material-based LODs to cut down on performance drag. Grass responded to distance-based blending logic, so we weren’t over-rendering low-priority zones. During scene blocking, we toggled foliage visibility and ran the editor in leaner modes.

We tested World Partition for zone streaming, but it didn’t give us the shot consistency we needed—so we went with blueprint-based visibility toggles instead. Final MRQ settings were intentionally scaled back to keep things moving fast for client previews without blowing out GPU resources.

Early Visual Styles Explored

Our lookdev focused on natural light and atmospheric realism. We used Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen for lighting because it outperformed UE4 in light bounce and soft falloff—especially critical for making trees, grass, and surfaces behave believably across different times of day. 

Foliage was one of the biggest opportunities—and one of the biggest technical hurdles. The site called for dense vegetation, but performance couldn’t tank. We used procedural foliage volumes and disabled visibility during editor work to keep things smooth. In the materials, we built in culling and dithering controls to manage draw calls. Around the cabins and RV pads, we swapped to detail-optimized grass meshes and tuned shaders to preserve clarity at camera range.

Post-process volumes were tuned shot by shot. Bloom, color temperature, vignette, exposure—all locked to guide mood. Night scenes included fire pits using Niagara VFX, with embers, sparks, and soft lighting baked into the world. The pond was built using a dynamic water shader—wind ripples, depth falloff, and reflectivity all reacting to time of day. Later, when the client confirmed the seasonal creek would be dry, we swapped out water for a painted sandbed with dry pebbles and soft scatter shading to reflect real conditions.

Prototyping Animation Concepts

To test pacing, structure, and visual beats, we rendered RP sequences using low Movie Render Queue settings. These were fast enough for regular feedback and helped us dial in shot length, movement, and transitions. They also revealed where camera paths needed adjustments—whether a pan was too sharp, or a crane-up lost the viewer’s sense of scale.

Client input during this phase was frequent and actionable. They updated entrance gate text, adjusted RV site orientation based on hookup logic, and re-prioritized game zones based on shifting construction plans. We implemented each change directly, keeping the RP cut aligned with real-world site decisions.

One of the most emotionally critical shots—lifting above the lodge into a golden-hour panorama over oak trees—went through several iterations. We layered in volumetric cloud rigs, lens fog, and a slow camera rise to maximize emotional payoff. Another moment—a poolside sunset—got dynamic light shafts, wind-driven tree rigs, and warm environmental glows to drive home the mood.

The guiding principle wasn’t just to show terrain and structures—it was to build emotional clarity into every shot. No voiceover. No text blocks. Just cinematic motion, guided by light and space, that communicated what the future of this resort could feel like.

Client Feedback Shaping Direction

The client remained highly involved throughout pre-production. Feedback was detailed, fast, and engineering-driven. RV sites were tweaked repeatedly to reflect accurate pull-through and back-in configurations. Gate signage was revised based on branding updates. The pond was split into two bodies of water and bridged with a walking path. Tree layouts around the lodge were reshaped for better canopy presence, with hero trees hand-placed to match drone photography.

As the scope shifted, so did the visuals. When the splash pad and guest bathroom were pulled from the final construction plans, we removed them from the animation and re-sequenced shots accordingly. When new SKP files arrived for the gate area, we rebuilt the model in UE5 based on the updated geometry.

One key insight from the client reshaped the tone of the entire project: this video wasn’t a flat site tour—it was a lifestyle teaser. That meant we pulled back on overheads and leaned into immersive motion: walking trails, gliding between cabins, intimate views of shared spaces. The shift moved us from an architectural flythrough to a cinematic film with purpose.

That directional clarity—rooted in strong client collaboration—set the tone for the rest of production. Every lighting cue, every camera move, every material pass was built around a clear mission: show the viewer what it’s going to feel like to be there. And do it with field-accurate realism and zero fluff.

Full Production & Post-Production

Look Development and Scene Refinement

Moving from Rapid Prototyping into Full Production in Unreal Engine 5 was the turning point—from system-building to polishing visuals. With the groundwork already laid (terrain sculpted, blueprints running, logic built), the focus shifted to pushing every element to final-render quality. This is where UE5’s lighting, materials, and post-processing were pushed to their limits.

Each walkthrough shot got individual attention. Lighting was fine-tuned using sublevel sequence settings. Some sequences leaned into golden hour warmth, others focused on soft midday contrast or full-on nighttime ambiance. Lumen's real-time global illumination handled the heavy lifting, especially for indirect light behavior on wood siding, asphalt, water, and reflective surfaces like windows.

Master materials were reworked with high-res UDIMs and custom shaders. The lodge’s exterior was dialed in to show aging wood, subtle color variations, and real sunlight response. Glass materials added grime and interior reflections. Concrete gained depth from micro-normal tiling and world-aligned texture projection. We split water materials into pond and pool shaders—each with unique refraction, surface movement, and dynamic reflectivity.

Foliage was fully finalized. Hero oaks were strategically placed in high-dwell camera zones like the pool and firepit areas. Their motion was tuned to sway gently in the wind—adding life to otherwise static shots. Wildgrass and lawn grass were differentiated by density, mesh type, and how they blended into the terrain, both visually and physically.

Camera Animation and Cinematic Motion

Camera paths from RP were preserved but upgraded. We cleaned up keyframe easing, refined depth-of-field pulls, and smoothed transitions between sequences. Some scenes had to be re-lit to better match emotional pacing—like the golden hour lodge pan and the pond-side closing crane-up.

Each camera setup mimicked DSLR behavior. Focal length, aperture, sensor size, and ISO were dialed in for realism. Depth of field was applied only when needed—used to reduce background clutter without artificial blur. Movement stayed deliberate and controlled—no shaky cam, no whip pans. The goal was a clean, meditative cinematic tone.

Everything ran through Unreal’s Master Level Sequence with nested camera subsequences. That gave us hyper-localized control—tweaking actor visibility, lighting, and effects per shot. For example, the night firepit shot triggered a Niagara fire simulation, while the day version disabled it for clarity.

Environmental Storytelling Details

While the walkthrough’s main visual punch came from architecture and environment design, a critical layer of the final experience was driven by environmental storytelling—subtle, human-scale choices that made the resort feel inhabited and believable. These weren’t just decorative objects—they were purposeful narrative cues, placed with intent to suggest real people had just stepped away.

Around RV sites—especially those shown in close-up—we placed clustered props based on how actual campers use the space. Fold-out chairs circled the firepit, a cooler sat on a picnic table and a towel was casually tossed over a railing. These assets were either sourced or custom-built, then textured with weathering maps to kill the showroom shine. We used blueprint arrays to introduce slight randomness—changing up chair layouts, umbrella colors, and prop angles—to break up repetition and keep things feeling natural.

At the lodge, outdoor seating followed the same lived-in logic. Tables were arranged as if just used—chairs pulled back, cushions slightly off-center, nothing too perfect. These micro-decisions gave the impression that guests were around, even if they weren’t shown. We dropped in lounge chairs and stray towels along poolside paths and the firepit area—just enough to suggest recent activity.

The power of this layer was in the subtlety. Nothing screamed for attention, but the details were there for anyone looking. They reinforced the mood without pulling focus—environmental storytelling that stayed quiet, but did the work.

Blueprint-Driven Environment Logic in Final Output

Throughout Full Production, blueprint systems made the project scale without breaking. Every RV site, structure, and prop was tied to a modular blueprint. This let us respond fast to client revisions—when site layouts changed or updated assets were dropped in, everything downstream updated automatically.

We used blueprint arrays to create variation at scale. RVs, trucks, golf carts, Airstreams—each asset randomized logically to keep the environment looking lived-in and authentic. Pads varied between back-in, pull-through, and Class A configurations.

Game zones (even the ones later cut) were originally placed using blueprints for consistent grouping and fencing logic. Trails were spline-based, letting us blend terrain textures and drop meshes on clean paths between cabins, dog parks, and amenities.

Fencing for zones like the dog park used instanced meshes with vertex blending. The entrance gate was rebuilt from a final SKP model, retextured, and integrated using blueprints. 

UE-Specific Enhancements, Engine Optimization & Troubleshooting

UE5 gave us new power and new challenges. We brought in volumetric clouds for natural sky movement and layered atmospheric fog systems for added depth—especially in wide shots.

Optimization had to be baked into every step. We disabled live foliage in-editor, leaned hard on LODs, and used material logic to cull foliage intelligently. On complex shots like the lodge and pond, we toggled off distant assets to reduce render strain.

World Partition was tested for layout zones, but wasn’t stable enough for consistent rendering—so we only used it for terrain streaming. MRQ (Movie Render Queue) settings were maxed out: multi-pass anti-aliasing and Lumen GI at high bounce thresholds. 

Post-processing added the finishing touch. Chromatic aberration, film grain, subtle lens flares, and color grading created a tailored look for each scene. The firepit night scene leaned into warm tones; daytime shots used a cooler, desaturated palette with soft curves to highlight foliage.

Optimization Strategies & Performance Debugging

Given the size and foliage density of the Hilltop at Brenham site, optimization wasn’t a side task—it was a core part of Full Production. Final render quality was never compromised, but under the hood, we ran a constant loop of performance management to keep everything stable and efficient.

The first layer of optimization was all about foliage. Every grass and tree material was built with distance-based culling using opacity masks and shader switches to cut down on overdraw as assets moved farther from camera. For dense foliage areas, we deployed Hierarchical Instanced Static Meshes (HISM) to collapse draw calls and boost efficiency. During layout and animation, foliage visibility was toggled off entirely—only turned back on for render passes to protect viewport and editor performance.

Movie Render Queue (MRQ) became our main render engine, dialed in with custom presets. Anti-aliasing was set to 8x using Temporal Super Resolution. We enabled sub-sample warm-up frames to stabilize Lumen global illumination before capture. Preview clips were rendered with downsampled passes, while final outputs were 1080p with chromatic aberration, motion blur, and film grain embedded via post-process materials.

To pinpoint performance bottlenecks, we used Unreal’s Stat GPU and GPU Visualizer tools. These flagged high memory loads in dense foliage scenes. The fix: mid-ground meshes were downgraded to lower LODs, while foreground elements kept their detail. Props like picnic tables, vehicles, and signage got custom LOD chains—enough detail up close, leaner assets farther out. This struck the balance between visual fidelity and memory efficiency.

A lot of this optimization work spun off repeatable systems: foliage toggle templates, shot-level visibility controls baked into Master Sequences, and global environment variables for lighting and performance. These tools now form part of our permanent internal pipeline—making this project a benchmark for scaling real-time cinematic work in UE5.

Post-Production: Compositing, Grading & VFX Enhancement

Once renders were complete, we moved into After Effects for post. Each image sequence was layered and graded. We matched exposure, balanced LUTs, and tuned color curves for cohesion across the varying times of day. Glow passes were added where needed—pool lights, firepit embers, lodge lamps—to create warmth without blowing out the frame.

For the firepit night sequence, we composited a falling star and added ember particles for visual interest. Chromatic bloom was isolated to key reflective areas like water and lamps, to enhance depth without softening the whole image.

We exported 4K stills of key scenes for use in digital and print.

Music, Audio & Final Delivery

Final audio work was done in Premiere Pro. We chose a calm, ambient music bed and synced it to camera motion and scene shifts. No voiceover—intentional silence between sequences let the visuals do the work. Sound effects were kept minimal and natural: wind, birds, fire crackle.

Final deliverables included a 1080p H.264 version for web, and 4K stills for marketing. The piece was designed as visual storytelling—no captions, no narration, just a cinematic, immersive walkthrough. The end product wasn’t just a preview—it was a cinematic digital twin. A fully realized future space, grounded in real-world elevation, procedural logic, and architect-grade fidelity—brought to life through UE5.