Adam, Joe, Liam, Josh, Jonathan and myself worked together to create an ancient temple. While brainstorming ideas, we agreed this would be a great opportunity to explore an ancient Celtic environment. Liam suggested a portal could be a focal point for the temple, which inspired ideas for the purpose of the temple and helped us think about when the temple exists. Adam proposed that the temple could be set far in the future or far in the past, with ruins still visible in the environment. This reminded me of a scene in Planet of the Apes where the Statue of Liberty pokes out from the ground, and the planet that Ankin came from in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace where the environment looks like it could be far in the future or in the past. I was really excited to incorporate Irish mythology into this assignment and found that Josh also had an interest in Celtic Scottish and English history – there are lots of similarities between Celtic tribes and I looked forward to seeing these come together.
Brainstorm
We began developing our art style by creating thumbnails and storyboards. When I made thumbnails, I was thinking of Disney’s “Brave” to draw inspiration for the mystical atmosphere of a Celtic environment. Triskeles and Celtic Knots are integrated into the composition of The Secret of Kells, a heavily stylised feature film that focuses on Irish mythology which makes it a great reference to inspire a Celtic temple. I also looked at Pinterest to find various images of scenery and concept art that I thought captures the mood of an ancient, ruined place.
Thumbnails
Thumbnail Reference Images
Tomm Moore – The Secret of Kells (2009)
Tomm Moore’s storyboards are in black and white which helps focus on the composition and direction of the board.
(1)
The Secret of Kells (2009) – Cartoon Saloon
Layout
As a team we gathered to create a layout for our Celtic Temple. This design helped us visualise a 3D space and got us thinking about the positioning of focal points we want to include. We agreed that the temple will center around a chalice or some object with religious/spiritual significance.
Blocking
Based on the above layout, I wanted to get a general idea of how it might look in 3D by blocking it in Maya.
This website helped me understand the purpose of blockouts. Even though some of the points would be more helpful for games students, I found it useful.
Blockout – The Level Design Book
I watched this nCloth tutorial to make a pebble spiral in the scene.
I imagined an enclosed space beneath this monument that might have books, candles and witchcraft props used for pagan worship that would contrast nicely with a sparsely populated outdoor environment.
Introduction to Unreal Engine
I watched the tutorials on blackboard and did the exercises which were handy to re-watch when it came to texturing my assets.
Assets
After researching symbolism in ancient Ireland I wanted to include the triskele (representing life, death and rebirth) into the scene and thought about using ancient artefacts as references for assets. Given the semi-realistic nature of the movie Brave, real life assets based on artefacts will fit in well.
Artefacts (potential assets)
Inspired by standing stones found at ancient historical sites, each of us made monoliths.
(Pinterest)
Asset #1 – Modelled using Maya and then Blender – Monolith with spiral.
I was going to work more on the cylinder spiral imagining it would glow in Unreal, but when I saw the models that Liam and Josh were working on I decided against it for design consistency.
I UV mapped and unwrapped it in Maya.
I went back to last year’s tutorials and watched the videos in these files which helped me create my assets as I was having trouble unwrapping – In the future, I won’t fully separate the edges of the UV’s because having one island will ensure there are less seams.
Substance Painter Textures
In the future I will ensure I export my textures from Substance 3D the correct way for Unreal Engine because it is easier to to edit three texture samples than six, and ultimately results in higher quality textures when rendered.
Following along with these video tutorials made texturing more complex sculptures understandable and I was able to bring the sculpt into Unreal and apply the textures without any problems.
Unreal Engine Texturing Practice
Unreal Engine Lighting Practice
Asset#2 – Celtic Gorgon – Maya then Blender
Gorgon sculptures have been found across different Celtic tribes to represent Belanos, a widely worshipped Pagan Celtic Deity. His powers over the sun would dictate the success of harvest yields –In Ireland, Beltaine is still a celebrated fire festival that originated during Celtic times, held to worship Belanos. This made me think about how we could light our scene, since fire adds focus and liveliness to still environments.
I found this Celtic coin model on Pinterest and I liked the idea of being able to draw on a model and sculpt it out.
A square shape was more practical for an environment since it can be used for a modular asset as a tile if necessary.
I discovered I had a problem when I tried baking the low and high poly meshes in Substance.
Henry sent me this incredibly helpful video (https://we.tl/t-6fkuv7KpQx) explaining what I had done wrong, and I learned that the low poly mesh was not properly aligned with the high poly mesh which is why it wasn’t working. Before this video I had a hard time fully comprehending the purpose of baking meshes, but after following this advice and shrink wrapping the sculpt I could begin texturing the Gorgon.
The texture looked stretched around the corners so I tried retopologising it again in Maya. I retopped it using the quad draw tool first although I don’t have a screenshot to prove it, but I ended up using automatic retopologise anyway due to time pressure since the sculpt is not symmetrical beyond the center.
Asset #3 – Monolith #2 – Blender
Josh sent this image into our Discord groupchat and I really wanted to try sculpting these interesting patterns.
In the future I will take the time to properly UV unwrap my models – I learned that even though it looks okay in these viewports, the polygons and texture stretches will be visible in Unreal Engine and it isn’t worth the time it takes to sculpt and texture a model if I end up not using it in shots.
Asset #4 – Arch
To begin with I was conflicted over what kind of arch I wanted to sculpt – I found these reference images and although they are a bit off-style with their sci-fi look, I thought I could make a nice in-between and have a natural arch with a glowing symbol.
I blocked out this arch and realised after looking at the Discord chat that it wouldn’t work and began finding references for more natural arches.
I thought these were more fitting.
This tutorial I found on Youtube was perfect to help me sculpt an arch in Blender.
Apologies as this is the only image I have to show I retopologised this arch, once I put a podcast on I find retopology relaxing and enjoyable.
Asset #5 – Turnip Lantern
Liam mentioned that our scene will need to be lit, and suggested we make lanterns. I liked the idea of having some ambient low level light, and a turnip lantern (used by the Celts to drive away evil spirits) would be perfect to dim down bright light.
I sculpted the lantern in blender, brought it into Maya to unwrap it and then textured it in Substance.
Asset #6 – Dagger
I really liked this Celtic knot pattern on this dagger handle.
I enjoyed sculpting the details on this dagger and texturing it. In the future I will turn the symmetry on for complicated patterns so that it looks more realistic.
I unwrapped it in Maya and textured it in substance. I thought the copper handle matched Josh’s cauldron nicely.
Asset #7, #8, #9 and #10 – Boulders and Temple Roof
For consistency, our team agreed to use these rock brushes in blender to sculpt large environment assets.
We also used these textures for our environment assets (walls and rocks). I was aware there were cave walls in progress so I made boulders that could be used miscellaneously around the scene to hide sharp corners where the walls meet, or to shrink down for decoration.
Adam and Liam kindly retopped and unwrapped my sculpts in Z-Brush.
Asset #10 – Triskele rock
I used the moss texture that we used for the scene walls and boulders to highlight the patterns I carved in blender. The textures didn’t work at first but when I retextured them they worked great in Unreal.
This tunnel was a very quick sculpt as I only wanted it for the stalagmite shaped silhouettes as I imagined it would be dark inside.
Unreal Engine
I wanted to build a natural layout for my temple, keeping it small enough to feel enclosed and large enough to move around in. I was very excited to use the cameras in Unreal and I wanted to hint towards a story from A to B to keep the viewer entertained. Raising Josh’s centerpiece high and making a standing stone circle around it helped clarify that the space was an Ancient Temple. I hoped that moving the camera through the tunnel made the viewer feel placed within the environment. I discovered by accident that Liam’s deer skull cast an interesting shadow, and I placed a spotlight on it to cast the shadow on his rock model that presented the shadow well. When I was panning along the length of the shadow, I noticed I could align the camera using the rule of thirds so that the antlers cradled Josh’s Cauldron. Increasing the light intensity so it glints as the camera passes made the centerpiece more noticeable. For the last scene, I wanted a real camera feel so I filmed it all in one shot, trickling beneath the cave into a smaller pool holding Adam’s ring.
I wanted to achieve an ethereal look for the Celtic Temple, so I turned up the camera’s exposure and bloom and made ambient dust particles following along with tutorials I found in Learning Materials and Youtube (links below). I tried adding lots of lights beneath the water in the pool compartment of the temple, but I still wasn’t achieving the level of light I wanted for this look so I deleted the floor plane beneath it entirely – the environment light worked well, although the camera passes through the water at one point which is distracting. The opening shot was very blue as I went a bit crazy with the camera settings, so I colour corrected this in After Effects. Animating Adam’s ring took a few attempts to achieve as it kept rotating the wrong way, but eventually I had a smooth rotation that I think ended the cinematic well. I used Aphex Twin’s song “#7” – Selected Ambient Works Volume 2 which I listened to back when I made thumbnails and I think it added to the hazy atmosphere in the Temple.
I used this water tutorial that Liam recommended to me.
The camera rail tutorial I used to film Adam’s shield and the stone circle.
In the future I will make more transition shots – the final cinematic has some jarring moments that confuse the location within the scene, like between the opening shot and Liam’s skull shot. I will also make the water less transparent and reduce the amount of ambient dust as it is distracting especially when it blurs in motion. Overall, I am content with my final cinematic and think it captures the Ancient Celtic Temple we have been working on well.