Legend has it that deep within a hidden mountain lies a forgotten ancient tomb. This tomb belongs to an ancient sorcerer who fed on human souls and forged the “evil essence” capable of controlling life and death and altering the fabric of reality. To prevent the malevolent spirits from wreaking havoc, the imperial court sent an elite team to join forces with Taoist priests to seal the evil spirits within the tomb. However, the spirits did not give up. They hid the “evil essence” inside the tomb, and anyone who enters and makes eye contact with it would have their mind bewitched and become a slave to the evil spirits. To prevent future intrusions, people placed numerous traps and protective barriers to safeguard the seal. For centuries, no one has dared to step foot into this cursed place.
Concept art
My initial concept inspiration came from the underwater tomb of King Wu, where he was buried alongside his most cherished 3,000 swords. Among them, the most renowned, the Fish Intestine Sword, is revered as the supreme of all swords. Eternally sealed within ancient vines, it rests alongside King Wu in his eternal slumber.
However, in the subsequent design process, I am dissatisfied with the sword elements. I created several different sword models, but none of them yielded satisfactory results. This led me to reconsider whether I should replace the sword with other elements.
I want to replace the sealed object from a sword to particle effects, which are referred to as “Essences” in the story. The narrative revolves around these Essences, telling the tale of an ancient sorcerer who crafted a power capable of controlling life and death and altering the balance of the world. To prevent the evil spirit from wreaking havoc, the imperial court sealed it within an ancient tomb hidden deep in the mountains.
The container that seals the “Essence” is designed with bird feathers. This is because its power to control life and death, and alter the natural order, reminded me of the ancient Chinese phoenix, which also symbolizes the ability to reverse life and death and achieve rebirth through nirvana. Therefore, the overall design of the container draws inspiration from the phoenix’s wings and feathers.
For the character choice, I want to use a character from a game I really love called Naraka. She is the blind swordswoman from the western Kunlun, the beautiful and dangerous red-laced snake. Her concealed eyes make her immune to the corruption caused by evil forces. In my setting, the evil essence within the ancient tomb can control a person’s mind through their eyes, so this character, who is perfectly immune to it, makes a great protagonist. In the future, I will collect the official concept art and create the model by myself.
- Camera concept
Reference
I gathered some reference materials for scenes, mainly to study and draw inspiration from the lighting setup and atmosphere creation. These references not only helped me understand light and shadow effects but also provided inspiration to enhance the overall visual quality and depth of the composition.
Preliminary layout
After completing the concept art, I used simple block models in Maya to lay out the basic structure of the scene.
Next, I set up the basic lighting, fog, and camera angles in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). I also replaced some of the block models with assets to give the scene a more refined and immersive look.
Modeling
I modeled the container. The process involved creating a rough model in Maya, then importing it into ZBrush for sculpting, adding forms, cracks, and other details to enhance material texture and realism.
- Character model
Perform detailed character modeling while designing and creating clothing models that align with the character’s setting, focusing on both intricate details and overall aesthetic harmony.
- Unwrapping UVs for the character model
To enhance UV precision and make the character appear more detailed, I used a multi-tile UV (UDIM) approach to unwrap the character’s UVs.
- Create textures for the character.
- Perform rigging for the character.
Initially, I bound the character and clothing together to the skeleton, but I found that this method caused the clothing to inherit weights, leading to deformation during movements.
So, I separated some parts of the fabric from the clothing, bound the character first, and then created the animations.
Then, using UE’s cloth system, I created a cloth asset and painted weights to precisely control the fabric’s drape and dynamic behavior.
The video shows the cloth effects in UE, including the fabric’s drape, dynamic reactions, and interactions with character movements.
Scene lighting setup
To make the scene appear more layered, I rearranged the lighting. I identified the primary light source and the auxiliary light sources in the environment, as well as how they contribute to the indirect illumination of the scene.
Since the scene is set underground, it is not possible to rely on UE5’s default environmental lighting. Therefore, almost all light sources need to be provided through point lights and spotlights for illumination and lighting.
Material animation
I wanted to create an animation of a vine growing. Initially, I used path animation in Maya, but since the entire vine moved along the path, it didn’t achieve the natural growth effect I was aiming for.
Therefore, I searched online for better solutions. Through tutorials, I learned that I could achieve the gradual growth effect of the vine using world position offset and masking techniques in UE.
- Tutorial link：虚幻引擎5！制作生长的根部效果！_哔哩哔哩_bilibili
Offset and masking nodes
Animation effect
Smoke particle effect
I created the desired smoke effect by modifying the built-in smoke preset in UE. I mainly adjusted the particle emission trajectory, the concentration of the smoke, and controlled its size by altering the emission range.
Nuke compositing
I used Nuke for post-production compositing, carefully creating the vine growth effect as it breaks through the ground, while also fine-tuning the shockwave effect caused by the ground destruction to enhance the visual impact.
When I initially composited the footage into the project, I found that the two elements couldn’t blend perfectly, resulting in noticeable seams. Additionally, the footage exhibited an unnatural semi-transparent effect, affecting the overall visual quality.
After checking, I found that the issue was caused by not adding an alpha channel to the footage. I then converted the B channel of the footage to black and white, exported it as the alpha channel, and copied it back to the original footage, giving me a version with an alpha channel.
The effect after adding the alpha channel.
The composited footage after addition.
Nuke node overview.
Logo design
To make the video look more complete, I designed and created some elegant graphic elements and skillfully incorporated them into the footage. This not only enriched the visual depth but also enhanced the overall style, making the video more distinctive.
Final effect
Video link：https://youtu.be/MaQQIky30pY
Summary and Reflection
During this project, I learned a lot of new knowledge and skills. After the initial project planning, I set several key challenges, including：
- Scene lighting setup
- Character modeling and animation
- The vine growth animation
Since the scene was set in an underground tomb (cave), it was difficult to rely on the default environmental lighting in UE. As a result, almost all light sources had to be created using point lights and spotlights. This process took a considerable amount of time because I had to analyze how light interacted with objects and constantly adjust the position, range, and intensity of the lights. Despite the challenges, I was satisfied with the final scene result.
Regarding character modeling and animation, since I had no prior experience with character modeling, this was my first attempt at character creation and animation. The process was relatively difficult, and the final result wasn’t ideal, especially the animation part, which appeared somewhat stiff. I will continue to learn and improve my character animation skills and look for better methods for future projects.
As for the vine growth animation, although it seemed like a simple animation, I encountered some difficulties in trying to represent the growth process. After searching for some tutorials, I learned how to achieve this effect using position offsets and masking techniques. I believe this method will be useful in future projects, and I am excited to have learned this new skill.
- Reflection
During this project, I identified some issues with asset creation. For example, the character’s UV unwrapping was not standardized, the UV usage rate was low, and some UVs had inconsistent resolution. Additionally, the character animation was not smooth enough and requires further practice and improvement. I hope these issues will be addressed and resolved in the next project.