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This week, we would like to highlight this amazing experience by talented technical art director, Sergey Sobin. Explore and interact with a cinematic level featuring a dark, mystical atmosphere and a knight venturing into a forest to gain mystical power and strength!
Heart of Darkness
Created by Sergey Sobin.
Heart of Darkness, a cinematic project built on UE 5.4, was inspired by Epic Games' recent presentation at GDC about Metahuman and the engine's new features. The goal was to utilize the advanced features of Unreal Engine, including Metahuman, Nanite, Lumen, Volumetric effects, Niagara, and Substrate Materials.
"I've wanted to create a cinematic Metahuman movie for a long time, and it's finally here! It's a movie about a knight who goes into a dark forest to gain mystical power and strength. I tried to create a dark, mystical atmosphere with elements of horror and mysticism", stated the artist.
The Erran Knight from Marketplace served as the base character, with a custom head designed in Metahuman Creator and face texture adjustments made in Substance Painter. Integrating these elements into a single, synchronized animated actor was tough, particularly as animation was a new area for the creator. This project marked their first experience with animation, Metahuman, and its facial features, and all animation was done manually using MH presets without capture tools.
This breathtaking environment combines advanced features such as Metahuman, Volumetric, Lumen, Niagara, Substrate Materials, and Nanite in the production engine, as well as assets from Megascans and Marketplace. The large trees, flowering tree, and bushes were created in SpeedTree.
This project is now ready to be explored as a cinematic-based level of interaction, offering viewers around the world the opportunity to immerse themselves in it in real time!