Arcaneum, Sanctum of Order

The Violet Citadel stands at the heart of the cosmos, a place engulfed in Arcane magic. At its center is the Engine of Order, a mysterious relic left by the mage Cosadal. Its true purpose is unknown, but its captivating beauty draws all kinds of people from across the stars.
I started this project in 2020 and worked on it with several breaks in between. Each time I returned to it, I continued to grow as an artist and new technologies had emerged that I wanted to try out, which meant I had to redo parts of my scene frequently. During that time, I switched from Maya to Blender and moved the project from Unreal Engine 4 to 5. The final result is a fully handpainted scene in Unreal Engine 5, using the Lumen and Nanite features. To achieve an appealing stylized lighting, I had to use many fake lights and fog effects to properly bring out the handpainted textures.
Special thanks to Marie Lazar, who provided very helpful feedback on this scene, as well as to my friends Mohamed Hadiri and Orest, and the folks from the Stylized Station and Handpainter's Guild Discord servers. Without their support, I would not have been able to finish this scene.

https://www.artstation.com/pixelbutterfly
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