Sacred

Inspired by the destruction of Mexican cenotes caused by the construction of the Tren Maya this work seeks to capture the moment in which human action disturbs a sacred natural environment.

Created as a continuation of an exercise for the course “Creation of 3D Virtual Environments with Unreal Engine for Virtual Production”, this audiovisual piece was rendered in Unreal Engine 5.6 and uses a custom environment built entirely within the engine. The cave and its inner chambers are shaped using high quality free Megascan assets that, combined with Unreal Engine lighting capabilities, help achieve a quality render that has a photoreal look. Custom-made Niagara particle systems bring life to drifting fireflies and the hazy clouds of dust that rise with each collapsing stone.

A tailored Blueprint system orchestrates the shifting intensity of the cave’s blue inner glow, and the entire sequence unfolds through Unreal Engine’s Sequencer, guiding light, movement, and atmosphere. The sound design was produced in DaVinci Resolve using public-domain recordings from Freesound.org.