Forest Shrine

The main centrepiece of my environment was going to be the shrine. Everything within worked to lead the viewer's eye towards it. The trees opened up, the lanterns light along the path, the warm welcoming light from the shrine all lead the viewer towards it. I then wanted that illusion of safety and warmth to be destroyed suddenly by the black smoke bursting from the shrine. The final shot was all about the symbolism of the eye. No matter how far you run from the shrine the black eye can be seen for miles, ominously in the sky. 

I took the time with this project to try and learn a few new techniques and tools that I've wanted to learn for a while. These included things like - UDIMs that I used for some of the wood parts of the shrine. - Vertex painting that I now have implemented into my master material that I can use for future projects. - Decals that I can use to further break up my larger assets. - Destruction using Unreal's chaos destruction as well as caching and keyframing them. - Creating particle systems using Niagara.