Hi everyone!

I'm thrilled to take part in the 2025 Game Art Challenge in the Realtime FX category.

My idea centers around a magical portal hidden deep in the ruins of Elderwood — a structure that slowly comes alive through nature and enchantment.

✨ Concept:
Scattered stone blocks begin to rise and assemble into a majestic ancient archway.

As the stones fall into place, they become overgrown with vines and glowing flowers.

Once the magic stabilizes, the flowers bloom — and butterflies emerge, dancing gently in the air.

🔧 Tech:
Pivot Painter is the core technique driving this effect — everything from stone placement, flower growth, and vine animation will rely on it.

I’m using Houdini to procedurally generate all geometry and data — stone positions, vine curves, flower orientation, pivot data, masks, and textures.

The final assembly and visual look will be built directly in Unreal Engine, using custom materials, Pivot Painter, and Niagara where needed.

My goal is to blend elegant procedural workflows with a visually rich and magical atmosphere.
I’ll be sharing progress, visual breakdowns, and insights as I go. Feedback and thoughts are always welcome!

Thanks for reading🌿🦋

Update #1

Hi everyone!
Quick update on the progress:

✅ What’s done:
Assembled the stone arc in Unreal Engine

Imported and tested base materials and base visual

Generated stone meshes in Houdini

🔧 Pipeline note:
The main idea is to generate all meshes and textures entirely in Houdini, like a stones, vines, flowers, and portal meshes.
I’m currently exploring whether to use Houdini Engine in Unreal for dynamic asset control. While it could be more efficient, I’m leaning toward building everything as a self-contained FX scene inside Unreal — mainly for personal experimentation and R&D purposes.
This challenge is also a great opportunity for me to make research.

🛠️ Next steps:
Model the flowers

Create the butterfly mesh

Build a pedestal/base under the portal

Decide on the overall visual style of the effect

Create all textures and masks

Add minimal environmental context

Set up the camera and lighting for final shots

Optimize the scene for real-time playback

Thanks for checking in! Always happy to hear feedback or ideas 🌱

Update #2

Hi everyone!
Very quick update on the progress - made a very first version of the bloom