Outsource Production Test, Mid 2024

Celestial Legion VFX

A stylized Eastern fantasy combat VFX study exploring talisman seal mechanics, radiant golden qi, and large-scale phantom army summoning in Unreal Engine.

Role: VFX Artist
Origin / Scope: Outsource Production Test (Mid 2024)
Built with: Unreal Engine 5, Niagara, Sequencer

What I built

Commissioned as a technical art test for an unannounced action RPG, the sequence combines character animation, emissive materials, Niagara mesh particles, and Sequencer timing into a single combat ultimate.

Taoist Rune Seal & Qi Channeling

A cylindrical rotating talisman rune seal orbiting the Taoist sage, constructed with scrolling emissive UVs and dynamic radial glow to signal skill initialization.

Ascension & Radiant Energy Burst

The elder ascends skyward as a blinding burst of golden qi erupts, combining directional light streaks, ascending gold embers, and dramatic camera framing.

Celestial Legion Summoning

A massive formation of glowing golden armored phantom warriors spawned across the platform grid, simultaneously kneeling and rising in battle-ready stance.

Summoned golden celestial warrior legion in battle formation — Low-angle view of the golden celestial army emerging simultaneously across the field.

Taoist sage raising hand with radiant golden rays and rotating talisman ring — Taoist elder channeling radiant golden qi with rotating rune seal ring.

Technical decisions

Large-scale particle instancing & draw calls

Spawning a dense legion of phantom warriors requires careful budget control. Niagara mesh particles with baked animation poses and shared material instances were used instead of full skeletal characters to keep the large formation cheap to render and minimize CPU draw calls.

Sequencer choreography & animation timing

The entire sequence is driven through Unreal Sequencer to tightly align camera cuts, particle burst cues, and character animation. The rune circle winds up first, followed by the ascension leap, climaxing with the ground-level reveal of the summoned army.

Emissive balance & overdraw management

Golden effects in night/dark settings easily lead to excessive post-process bloom blowout and overdraw. Intensity curves were calibrated so the rune scripts maintain sharp readability without blinding the camera, and particle boundaries were trimmed to reduce wasteful translucent blending.

Rotating talisman rune seal around character — Cylindrical talisman rune ring with custom scrolling UV and emissive pulse.

Bird-eye view of celestial army formation on platform — High-angle view demonstrating the multi-row grid alignment of the summoned legion.

From the workbench

A few snapshots from the material, character, and level tests behind the sequence.

Golden warrior effect look development in an Unreal preview — Testing how the gold reads across the armor and silhouette.

Unreal material graph and glowing sphere preview — Material work in progress: the glow and dissolve controls beside the preview.

Armored warrior model in a 3D viewport with colored setup markers — A viewport check of the warrior asset before the glowing treatment.

In-level effect placement test with guide lines around a ground circle — An early placement test in the level. The yellow lines and red circle are guides, not final VFX.

Future Polish

For full gameplay integration, the next pass would incorporate custom cracked-earth ground decals under each summoned soldier and dynamic disintegration dissolve shaders when the army executes its coordinated strike.