Ember Sword - Game Prop

Game-inspired hard surface prop originally created as a hero asset for my 2022 project, Septimus Signus’ Outpost a recreation of the Skyrim location in Unreal Engine 4.

The asset was modelled in Autodesk 3ds Max using a high-to-low poly workflow, then textured in Substance Painter using the PBR Metallic/Roughness pipeline before being implemented into Unreal Engine.

I also developed a modular Master Material that can be instanced to create multiple variations of the prop.

Some of the exposed parameters include albedo brightness, desaturation, tint, hue, and wear controls, allowing additional detail such as grunge and wear to be adjusted within the base color, roughness, and normal channels. All driven via channel masks, enabling the ability to specify specific parts of the model, e.g., grip, guard and blade.

Additional parameters were created for emissive and power-source animation FX, across the grip and blade, enabling different visual configurations such as a red grip with a blue blade fx, or isolated effects depending on the desired look.

Presentation: The particle fireflies were built using the Niagara System. For the turntable sequence, the MI Parameters were animated in the Unreal Engine Sequencer and rendered in Unreal Engine.

Final still-image breakdowns were composed in Photopea, while the looping turntable presentation was edited in DaVinci Resolve.