Hag's Swamp
A personal project created in Unreal Engine 5, primarily as a streaming background for my virtual avatar. Traditionally, these backgrounds are 2D environments, but I had been wanting to build another 3D environment for a while and thought it would also make a good portfolio piece if I did. I was inspired by video game swamps, such as those in The Witcher, Skyrim, and Dragon Age Inquisition, as well as real-world locations like the swamps of the American south. All assets were purchased through the Unreal marketplace, Cosmos by Leartes Studios, and Turbosquid with the appropriate licenses for personal and commercial use. I also used EasyFog fog cards by William Faucher. The greatest challenge for this project was constantly pushing myself to do more with it. For instance, I originally didn't plan to use much ground foliage, but the world felt very bare without it. I also didn't plan on decorating the cabin interior, but I changed my mind because I wanted to push the environment further. Every milestone I reached, I would stop and think what more could I do. I imagined what kind of environment I would live in as this fictional, fantasy creature, their cabin tucked away in heavily wooded swamps sharing land with haunted ruins from the ancient past. In the daytime, this swamp is not too different from other locations in Morobos, albeit still a bit unsettling with all the monsters wandering about. Nighttime, however, is another story. If you absolutely must take this route to your destination, be quick about it, and pray your wagon does not stall near the solitary cabin. And if you see a pair of red eyes through the fog, pray even harder.
Part 1 of the exterior flythrough, nighttime
Part 2 of the exterior flythrough, daytime
Daytime shot of the entire swamp
Nighttime shot of the entire swamp
Ruins at nighttime
Interior flythrough during daytime. The video moves faster than I'd like, but I had to keep it within the file size limit.
Interior flythrough at nighttime
Overhead shot of the interior at nighttime. The fireplace was assembled by stacking and transforming individual rock cluster assets, approximately 30 pieces.
Food storage and cooking utensil corner. The shelf with dishes and wall hooks were pre-assembled assets. Everything else was arranged by hand.
Shot of the left interior wall. All assets were placed by hand.
Rough concept sketch
Exterior preproduction. I originally had a thick green fog, but felt it looked too much like an irradiated or toxic waste environment. I also had not planned on using much ground foliage, but the environment felt too barren without it.
Interior preproduction. I did not plan on filling the cabin interior at first and only using the outside as a background, so I did not sketch the idea for this. I pulled inspiration from Skyrim interiors and assets I already had in my library.
Mood board using swamps from The Witcher 3 (top left and top middle), Skyrim (bottom right), and real-world examples from Pexels and Unsplash images.
Morobos lore
Demo of the exterior daytime as a streaming background for my virtual avatar. Model was also created by me in Clip Studio Paint and rigged for face capture in Live2D Cubism.
Demo of the exterior at nighttime as a streaming background. Model was also created by me in Clip Studio Paint and rigged in Live2D Cubism.
Demo of the interior at nighttime. Model created by me in Clip Studio Paint and rigged in Live2D Cubism.
Since this environment was created primarily as a streaming background for my virtual avatar, this is how it looks with the character on top as it likely would during stream. Avatar design has since been changed from the time this was posted.