Goals 

Create an Interactive/Virtual Production environment focused around a volcanic eruption. 

By creating a hyper realistic environment using primarily procedural tools.

Including realistic visual effects and post processing that change as the eruption progresses.

Utilizing and displaying mastery over current and cutting-edge tech art systems.

Features.

Landscape height-field generator - Houdini

Either SVT or real-time fluid sims for lava - Niagara fluids/Houdini

Simple Structure/Village generator - Houdini

Advanced Landscape Material/Shader - Unreal 5

PCG system (roads, foliage, rocks, buildings) - Unreal 5

Realistic Volumetric Smoke and fire Simulations - Unreal 5 Niagara Fluids, Houdini

Debris system with RBD/Choas sims+SVTs. (sequence-able for cinematic rendering) - Unreal 5/Houdini

Advanced Parallax Painting system for Lava flows and craters - Unreal 5

Cinematic Post Processing and Path tracing - Unreal 5

Prototype Scope

The end goal of the project is to create and populate a tropical island that is around 1 square kilometer with roads, foliage, rocks, and some primitive buildings. Creating artists' tools that could allow the creation of a new or expanded island in a short time frame. The island will feature a volcano that erupts.  I'd like to include a 3rd person walkabout mode, a free camera/explore mode, and a sequenced cinematic fly-through to show the various applications of my tools. If time permits (which I am confident I can determine by the end of sprint 2) I would like to add the ability for foliage to burn.

Competitive/Background Study

PCG packs exist but learning Unreals PCG enough to use them is a challenge in itself. Showing that I have the ability to not only learn to use but also create my own content generators is a valuable skill for technical artists and shows that I have a basis of understanding to work with similar systems in the future.

Volumetrics are a super hot commodity in real-time. New games like Black Myth: Wukong and Warhammer 40k: SpaceMarines 2  are making use of both real-time and pre-cached volumetrics all over the place. As the technology gets better and more available, showing that I was an early adopter will make me a more desirable technical artist/real-time VFX artist, as conceptually all physics based volumetric systems are very similar. 

Although I am a game major, a technical/real-time VFX artist for virtual production or game cinematics is probably my future goal. To that end continuing to develop my skills towards hyper realism and cinematic quality is a necessity for me, and working with high density/demand content like a tropical island with a volcano challenges both my relevant technical and artistic abilities. 

I've seen older fully dressed volcano environments 

Industry Skills:

Advanced Shader/Material Programming.

Working in realistic style. 

Procedural tool creation.

Exterior environment design.

Real-time Visual Effects (Pre-cached and Real-time Volumetrics, Flipbooks, SVTs)

Post Processing

Software Skills:

Unreal Engine 5

Abobe Substance Suite

Houdini + Houdini Engine

Maya

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe AfterEffects

Set on a fictional volcanic island in Oceania, the island was a secret military base during WWII so there are very basic concrete structures and unpaved roads around the island. The island will be crescent shaped with the player spawn and most camera moves in the middle of the crescent, below the volcano. You are a volcanologist, named Gough Fumarole who estimated that the volcano would be erupting soon, that it would be rather small, and safe to observe. However after arriving on the island you discover that the mountain is ready to explode in violent fashion. Gough had found scenic overlook below and across a valley from the volcano, where he was eating a quick lunch, when the eruption first begins.