The Ritual

Project Brief

This project was part of a snappy guru's workshop where I created this artpeice with guidence the course. The primary goals going into the project were:

• To improve my workflow by optimising assets to be game-ready
• Improve texturing skills and aim for realism
• Understand Unreal Engine’s lighting system
• Use Houdini to enhance assets and add proceduralism and simulation

Rather than an in-progress ritual or sacrifice, I wanted to have a scene that takes place after it had already happened—making the viewer question if it really worked and why there is no one there now.

Mood Board

I first started off creating a mood board to establish the kind of atmosphere I wanted. Initially, I focused on vague, colour and mood-centric references, then refined it with more specific images when designing assets.

inline_Image[MoodBoard.jpg|Mood Board Reference]

Blockout

Blockout was the first stage—creating the overall placement of objects, the layout of the room, and an early idea of how lighting might be implemented later on.

inline_Image[Blockout.jpg|Blockout of the Scene]

Chalice

inline_Image[Chalice.jpg|Chalice Asset]

Book

This project had a focus on lots of individual assets, but I still wanted each of them to have a polished look. For the book, I hand-created the pages using made-up symbols and images referencing the ritual itself, as if the book was guiding whoever made the circle.

inline_Image[Book.jpg|Book Asset]

Looping Cloth Animation

The curtains were one of the few elements I wanted to have motion to suggest that time was still passing in an otherwise static scene. I used Houdini with a vellum cloth simulation, then offset the animation in time and blended between loops to get a fully looping cloth simulation that could run forever.

inline_Video[ClothLoop.mp4|Looping Cloth Animation]

Window

inline_Image[Window.jpg|Window Asset]

Procedural Candles

I used a variety of techniques to create the candles in the project—some were simulated, some were hand-sculpted, and others were made using a procedural system I designed in Houdini.

inline_Video[proceduralcandle.mp4|Procedural Candle]

Melting Candle Simulation

inline_Video[CandleSim.mp4|Melting Candle Simulation]

Houdini Salt Circle Simulation

inline_Video[SaltCircle.mp4|Salt Circle Houdini Simulation]

Stairs

inline_Image[Stairs.jpg|Staircase Asset]

Reflection

Overall, the scene fulfilled all parts of the brief:

• Nighttime scene focused on composition and storytelling
• Focuses on a wide range of polished assets rather than a singular central one
• Lighting is used to highlight the main elements

If I had more time to improve the project, I might add:

• More assets cluttered in the corners of the room
• Marks on the floor to show that things were moved out of the way
• Something in the middle hinting that the ritual could have done something

On this course I learned a lot more about workflows I can use in future projects, including optimisation and creating full real-time scenes.