Monstro | Chasm's Call Challenge
This project was created for the Chasm's Call Challenge. I used a combination of MetaHuman, Quixel Megascans Assets, and custom models to create this. It was rendered using Path Tracing in UE5. My goal was ultimately to finish the challenge, focusing on ready-made assets as much as possible to not lose time creating custom assets. I wanted to embrace a liquid simulation to learn more about it, as well as retargeting animations on existing rigs. I was pleasantly surprised how straightforward applying Mixamo animations were to MetaHuman characters. LiquiGen is also an amazing tool with so much potential. Nothing beats working with a liquid sim in real-time. Thanks for checking it out!
Final Submission (with Audio Added for fun)
Breakdown Video
Original Reference Prompt
This was the original clip from Pinocchio that inspired the idea. A huge cavernous mouth opening and water pouring in.
PureRef Tongue Reference Collage
1st Pass Blockout. Exploring Ideas and Composition.
Really liked the idea of rigging affecting the foreground, but I ultimately cut it because I didn't want to break the prompt rules.
I played with the idea of fire in the scene, but the Lumen rendered it great, while Path Tracing looked too flat. It would have been cool to explore EmberGen for it but I had to prioritize other aspects to finish on time.
I explored Path Tracing and Lumen for this project. I ended up with Path Tracing because the refraction looked so much richer and I was able to really get the bloom lighting effect of the mouth opening with Path Tracing. This is a Lumen example.
Later example with everything sort of in place, but color and lighting messed up. This was the more functional build where I got a mostly successful Path Traced render.
Tongue Rig
I was having too many challenges with that much water at that scale pouring into the mouth, so I opted to have the water rush off the tongue instead. If the deadline permitted I could revisit the rushing in water but I ended up not having enough time.
Some texture painting in substance for the mouth.
Final Rendered Still