Go through any steps you need in order to plan out your project. Jot down some story ideas, gather references, or use the Learn Squared Brief Builder to come up with different possible scenarios. Once you’ve decided on an idea, build out a mood board for your references, and choose a few asset packs you might want to use.

What you come up with here will guide you as you move forward, but it doesn’t need to be perfect. You can continue to build on your references, ideas and chosen assets as you keep building your scene.

Note: You can visit the free Learn Squared Brief Builder at www.briefbuilder.app

Using only primitive shapes, lay out the basic idea and composition of your scene. Don’t worry about things like sculpting the landscape, lighting, effects or assets, as they will all come later. Try to stay playful, and experiment with different camera angles and shape placements. 

Take your early blockout a few steps further by sculpting in your landscape, and adding in a few more detailed blockout shapes. You still want to stay simple at this stage, so that any compositional tweaks can be easily made.