The Discovery: April 29, 2020

Screenshot of a cellar interior from my new personal project, The Discovery

I wanted to create a small but atmospheric digital vignette starting late May. My current senior project, Zoelie, is in the Unreal Engine, so I decided to explore the engine capabilities further with this personal project. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, the fabulous short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, heavily inspired me, but later on, after a viewing of the Lighthouse, I knew I had to incorporate the New England aesthetic that never fails to motivate me.

I modeled victorian-era surgical tools and a fetus
Within a day, I moved from the cellar to build an island, using the open source Ocean Project for the water. I modeled a lighthouse outfitted with a rotating directional light casting far-reaching volumetric rays. In my senior game I programmed bird flocking behavior, so I imported the blueprint into this project and modified it for my needs. An island needs seagulls. The cellar is going to be part of a house I'm modeling, but for now I am focusing on getting the island to feel right and to create terrain textures.

Screenshot of lighthouse setting I built