Serpentine Shield | 40 Scale Geometry Study with Blender Geometry Nodes

I used marmoset to map each of the geometries, but creating a material ID was more complicated

After a long time without publishing, I wanted to share a small portfolio piece focused on tool development, procedural workflows, and real geometry experimentation.
This project started as a study around 40 custom scale geometries, created to explore how sculpted ornamental elements could be reused across different workflows for modeling, texturing, sculpting, and procedural asset creation. The final presentation takes the form of a fantasy shield, but the main objective was to test a flexible system for generating tileable scale patterns using Blender Geometry Nodes.
I usually create this kind of surface detail through texture maps in Substance 3D Designer, but for this piece I wanted to work directly with real geometry instead of relying only on height or normal information. The goal was to build a workflow where individual scale meshes could be arranged, repeated, and adapted procedurally while still preserving the sculptural quality of each element.
The shield was used as a practical showcase for this methodology, combining procedural geometry, material testing, and presentation rendering. I used Marmoset Toolbag to bake and render the different geometries. One of the main challenges was creating clean material IDs for the generated pieces, which I solved using the Set Connected Vertex Colors addon.
The final textures were refined in Substance 3D Painter, where I adjusted surface details, color variation, roughness, emissive areas, and material separation to create a more complex fantasy asset presentation.
This piece is both a portfolio artwork and a workflow test, connecting tool creation, procedural modeling, PBR texturing, and real-time presentation.
Tools used
Blender
Geometry Nodes
ZBrush
Substance 3D Painter
Marmoset Toolbag
Leveraging an addon Set Connected Vertex Colors https://remesher.gumroad.com/l/PtjXN?recommended_by=library

Marketplace resources:

40 Scales for Sculpting, Texturing, Modeling and More
https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/MGpM3/39-complete-scales-and-armor-pack-for-sculpting-lowpoly-texturing-modeling-and-sculpting-new-zbrush-blender-substance?utm_source=artstation&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=homepage&utm_term=marketplace
40 Horns IMM Brushes for ZBrush + 40 Blender Geometries
https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/OyKyv/40-horns-imm-brushes-zbrush-new-and-40-geometries-blender?utm_source=artstation&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=homepage&utm_term=marketplace

SEO Keywords
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