The House of Mordrin: Cinematic

This 3D animation is an opening cinematic cutscene for an action-adventure horror game, based on my own developing high fantasy novel. We follow the character Thalilya Mordrin as she enters the abandoned elven village at the start of the game. 

The purpose of the project was to investigate, and therefore demonstrate, the power that cinematics have as a narrative tool in gaming. I utilised programs such as Zbrush, Maya and Substance Painter to model the character and architecture of the environment, and utilised Motion Capture through Shogun Live, Shogun Post, and Motion Builder to animate my character’s movement.

I explored character and environment design, using my illustration skills for the overall composition, detailing and colour theory. The focus of the project modelling remained on the character and key parts of the environment: the houses, lantern posts, the banner, and the bridge. My project created anticipation, nervousness, and curiosity in my target audience - setting the scene for the gameplay that would then follow.