The Traveling Cart

Over the winter of 2025, I decided I really honestly just wanted to make the Traveling Cart from Stardew Valley in 3D (because it's so cool, obviously!). The goal of the project was to satisfy my craving for a 3D Traveling Cart and show my ability to take an asset from concept to 3D.

My first step was making a concept for the cart. It was relatively hard because the cart is only shown from the front in the game, so I had no reference for its dimensions. But we made it through and ended up with a snazzy concept sheet that I am quite proud of! I drew the concept in Clip Studio Paint, the software I used to make webtoons in High School back when I was obsessed with it.

Then came time to model the asset. The part of the modeling I had the hardest time with was the pink accent pieces on the front of the cart. I had never messed around with sculpting before, so it was definitely a fun exercise to learn something new!

One of the adjustments I made was with the width of the model. I felt that it was good in concept, but when I started making it in 3D, I found that it destroyed the look of it. Overall, I tried to keep the shape language stylized but clean. I'm very satisfied with the outcome, and honestly want to try modeling it again when I get a free weekend! (It was modeled and UV unwrapped in Maya)

After making the model, it was time to surface. I wanted to explore hand-painted surfacing for the first time! It was such a lengthy process and took so much trial and error, especially with the color palette. But I eventually figured out the style I wanted! This surfacing pass used exclusively base color and no other maps. It was done in Substance 3D Painter.

Next time I do a similar project, I would like to be more experimental in my modeling style and add more breakup/variation. In addition, I'd like to learn how to paint normals and incorporate other maps to match the hand-painted style of the base color map, since the effort of painting every single highlight seemed not entirely worth it!

But overall, I think that I gained a lot of valuable experience from this project. And definitely scratched that itch to make something from a game that I love!

P.S. The color palette theme for this website was based on this cart! We love jewel tones!