This short animation is part of an ongoing cinematic project that explores themes of pilgrimage, spiritual corruption, and divine authority. The sequence captures a ritual moment filled with tension and mystery, expressed through stylised movement and symbolic lighting.
This test render serves as a visual tone exploration for future sequences. It helped validate animation pacing, camera mood, and environment interaction.
Next Steps ：
Refine character hand movement and secondary animation.
Improve lighting transitions and potentially add particle FX.
Begin building narrative continuity using this visual tone.
This week I made the animation and imported it into UE for synthesis by exporting the ABC cache.
I made the monastery scene and adjusted it according to the position of the white box. I have only made the auditorium part. Due to time constraints, I was unable to complete the first half of the animation in the FMP proposal, so this animation is just a test. The test scene only includes the auditorium.
I linked the character’s material ball and applied the texture output by sp. The effect is still good under the lighting of ue. I also processed the lens in some way and adjusted the focal length and aperture size.
This week I put the finishing touches on the character. The model has a more complex rig and I worked on the face and the cloth skin in detail.
Although the cloth is currently bound to bones, I still hope to be able to do the solution processing, the effect will be better
Scene Design
For the scene, I mainly need to design the desert and the monastery (scene 1), but considering the time factor, I will only simply build the monastery, and then I will make the desert scene.
This is basically the desert scene I envisioned, but it may not be so stylized. There are strange plants in the future, which is like walking in hell. I have found a lot of references that I can realize later, such as Zdzisław Beksiński, a polish artist. I like his works very much, and I plan to combine his art style with the stylized style (pictured above).
This is the storyboard composition of the desert scene I drew myself. I planned to have some props like this
white box
After that is the construction of the monastery. I mainly hope that it can restore the monastery where Christian monks lived in history, so I will choose a lot of realistic assets, probably mainly dealing with lighting effects.
The UVs were primarily created in RizomUV, while the texturing was done in Substance Painter. The pattern on the character’s skirt may be revised later during the production process.
I limited the number of UV tiles to five in order to reduce resource usage. The overall UV layout is fairly efficient, though there is some minor stretching at the bottom of the skirt.
These are some of the alpha maps I created for use in baking within Substance Painter
Rendering Test
Rendering test in Substance Painter. The patterns were hand-painted.
Since the project follows a game production pipeline, retopology is necessary. The main goal is to optimise the model so that the asset can be used efficiently on PC or mobile platforms, reducing resource consumption and file size.
This week mainly involved repetitive tasks. I performed retopology on all the models, simplifying them based on the mid-poly versions while ensuring they closely matched the high-poly shapes as much as possible.
I didn’t reduce the topology for the face and body, and I kept a reasonable amount of edge loops in areas like the skirt and sleeves, as these parts will need to deform properly during animation.
I focused on reducing the topology of the props, as they won’t be affected by skin weights or deformation.
It’s especially important to maintain a proper relationship between the low-poly and high-poly models. The decorative patterns were not retopologised, as they will be baked into the texture later.
The topology of the priest character was kept within a controlled polycount range.
The clothing will be created using Marvelous Designer.
Based on the original visual design, I made several adjustments to ensure the garments are more practical and functional when simulated.
This step focused on simulating the fabric to assist with sculpting textures and folds in ZBrush.
By adjusting the fabric’s subdivision level and collision properties, I was able to replicate the look and feel of silk and linen materials.
Particular attention was given to the headscarf, which wraps around the head in a style similar to traditional women’s clothing from the Arab region.
For the priest’s outfit (on the right), it was quite difficult to fully replicate the silhouette from the original concept art, so I had to make some modifications.
The skirt was a key element—I created a pleated skirt in which each fold is double-layered.
This week, I began working on the character model.
Face
For the facial reference, I’m using Rooney Mara’s portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a key inspiration.
I only referenced her expression and presence—I didn’t intend to replicate her appearance entirely. What I appreciate is the sense of holiness and purity she conveys, which aligns closely with the qualities I want to capture in my character design.
The face was first modelled in Maya, then slightly refined in ZBrush.
Props
For the props, I researched a variety of character designs rooted in medieval history—particularly focusing on their belts and how equipment was carried.
I want my character to resemble more of an adventurer, so essential weapons and small props are necessary.
These include items that enhance her sense of mystery, such as potions, ancient books, and scrolls. Originally, I considered adding a water flask, as it would be practical for someone crossing a desert, but it didn’t work well visually, so I decided to remove it.
The headpiece serves primarily as a religious symbol—it is worn by all characters associated with the church, representing a sense of uniform identity.
The potion bottle on the right is similar to holy water. In the background lore, it can be used as a weapon against demons.
The belt features a three-layer design to give it more depth and visual complexity. On the right is the priest’s waist decoration, which was inspired by traditional women’s clothing from the Caucasus region.
The dagger was modelled as a separate prop so that the character can draw it. Its design is mainly inspired by traditional Arab daggers, particularly the well-known Jambiya.
However, considering its historical and cultural significance, I made some adjustments to the form—blending it with features from Western dagger designs to create a more balanced and unique look.
The design can essentially be described as a Western-style dagger combined with a Middle Eastern blade and scabbard.
High-Poly Modelling
This stage focused primarily on adding fine details to the character’s face, as well as decorative patterns on various props—such as engravings on the dagger, patterns on the belt, embossed designs on the potion bottles, and reliefs on the book covers.
The left image shows the pilgrim, and the right shows the priest.
This week, we began working on two new characters. First, I would like to present my sources of inspiration and visual references.
Character 1: The Pilgrim
My concept for the protagonist is that of a pilgrim, which has been adjusted based on the current storyline. The pilgrim now serves as the central character of the narrative. She is lured onto the path of pilgrimage by the corrupted priest (Character 2). However, I won’t go into the full story here.
The character’s outfit is primarily composed of a robe with a hood, combined with elements that evoke the feel of an adventurer.
Since the story includes desert environments, my initial inspiration came from the traditional robes found in Arab cultures. Building on that foundation, I made several adjustments to the costume design by incorporating influences from ancient Byzantine, Persian, and Caucasian traditional garments. I then proceeded to develop both the costume and decorative elements accordingly.
Character 2: The Priest
This character—the priest—draws heavily from Eastern Orthodox influences, particularly the medieval Byzantine art style.
Key visual elements include long red or purple robes with a hood, which I see as a defining symbol, along with ornate metallic decorations across the body. The overall design is meant to appear grand and elaborate.
In the story, he plays a mentor-like role to the protagonist—guiding and shaping her—only to ultimately lead her into the hands of the demon.
I organised my references by region and applied some stylisation based on historical clothing.
These were some of my earlier design versions, but the character felt too much like a purely historical figure, which made it less interesting. So I modified the costume by incorporating design elements inspired by games such asDark SoulsandElden Ring.
On the right is the pilgrim, wearing an Arab-style robe with a hood, along with several decorative accessories.
On the left is the priest, who features more elaborate patterns and ornamental props on his body. He also wears a mask or veil to enhance his sense of mystery.
Both characters are human, but the priest will appear more inhuman in design. I plan to create some variations later to emphasise this difference.
This week, I am preparing to start working on my character. But first, I need to document the character revisions we made during last term.
Modeling
This was our pilgrim character from last term. After revising the story, I decided to rework the character as the antagonist—a malevolent demon.
I made several adjustments to the character’s appearance, focusing mainly on adding more details, including muscle structure and other visual refinements.
I added muscle definition around the chest cavity, deltoid area, and upper thighs to enhance the character’s anatomy. For the chest, I plan to create a separate piece, which is currently intended to be a form of armour.
I have recently added more intricate details to the model—for instance, the chest now features exposed bones, which I intend to render using a metallic material. The head has also been significantly redesigned: it was originally crescent-shaped, but I have now transformed it into a beak-like form, giving the character a more menacing and otherworldly appearance.
I also sculpted additional details, including some organic tissue and visible veins, to enhance the sense of realism and grotesque anatomy.
This is the rendered result after completing the texturing process in Substance Painter. I’m very grateful to the artist who provided painting guidance—his support has been incredibly helpful throughout this stage.
I plan to add a small amount of fabric to the character—for example, around the metal bird-like beak on the head, I’m considering incorporating a headscarf-like element.
Rreference
The artist Alex BocaP has been a major source of inspiration for my character design, especially for the head design.
Rigging
Next is the rigging and animation testing phase. I re-rigged the character due to significant changes in the model, and this time the skin weights are more complex. I also added extra controllers for the eyes, allowing for more expressive and interesting animations.
Please ignore the remaining two arms—they are movable, but I haven’t tested any animations for them yet.
We will later test the character in Unreal Engine to evaluate its performance and visual effect.
The main task for this term is to produce a short animation of over 30 seconds. As I am particularly interested in character modeling and environment design, I plan to focus this term on preparing the necessary assets for my Final Major Project (FMP). Below is the animatic for my FMP.
I plan to create the character featured in the short film entirely from scratch, following a complete game production pipeline. (This is because I intend to join a game development project after graduation.)
The character production process will include the following stages:
Character design
Modeling, which involves: Mid-poly modeling in Maya Clothing creation in Marvelous Designer Prop modeling in Maya
High-poly sculpting in ZBrush
Retopology for game-ready low-poly meshes in Maya
UV unwrapping using RizomUV
Texturing in Substance Painter
Skinning and rigging the character and garments in Maya
Environments: The short film will feature three main environments: a monastery, a desert, and a cathedral. During the first term, the cathedral environment was completed; however, it may still be subject to revisions in the future. In this term, I plan to focus on the production of the monastery environment. I will begin by testing the white-box layout and experimenting with lighting and shadow effects. At this stage, most of the assets are from the Unreal Marketplace and serve as placeholders. These assets will gradually be replaced with custom-made models later in the production process.
Animation: I plan to work on the animation for the first scene, which takes place in the monastery. However, considering the limited timeframe of only ten weeks, I am not entirely sure if I will be able to complete it as planned. If time does not permit, I will focus instead on producing an animation test at the end of the term.
This test will be used to check the performance of the character’s cloth simulation and material appearance in Unreal Engine. The animation itself can then be gradually refined in the later stages of production.
From this video, I gained a general understanding of the character modeling workflow used in the game industry, including the importance of optimization and polygon count requirements.
