The Art of Bound by Blood

'Bound By Blood' is my graduation project where I worked in collaboration with an incredible team to create a UE5 cinematic, where I was responsible for concepting the characters, environments, props and creatures. I've thoroughly enjoyed this project, and as a fan of folktales and all things gothic it was a true creation of passion.

Set in the late 1800s in the deep Louisiana bayou, a tale of two Witch Hunter brothers, the Lockhearts, go to investigate a supernatural occurrence until they become separated and quickly realise it is they themselves who have become the hunted.

The White Witch

The antagonist of the film, a slighted bride who eternally haunts the church where she was destined to be married, until she was fatally betrayed by the hands of the one she loved most. Her wrath then echoes throughout the bayou, as there is nothing more powerful than the hatred of a woman scorned.

This was the character I was most looking forward to creating as I wanted to portray eternal beauty through exploring the monstrous feminine in her design.

The Witch was the character that underwent the most iterations and redesigns throughout the project. After these more ethereal designs I decided to alter the direction to emphasise her more ghoulish nature and ties voodoo mysticism.

 It was important for me to create strong call outs to give to the 3D character artists that would be turning this concept into a reality. I worked closely alongside them in order to clarify and adjust parts of the designs for game production.

The Witch Hunters

The Brothers I designed with distinct personalities while still being grounded, the youngest, our protagonist, is charismatic, brash and wields dual pistols making him quick and ruthless in combat. This is in juxtaposition to the older brother, a calm and experienced hunter, who sports a modified shotgun where his wisdom guides his refined and tactical approach to battle.

The older brother originally had a port wine stain birthmark across his face, in order to create a strong resemblance between himself and a voodoo doll, from an earlier storyline for the cinematic. Even though we never continued with this narrative I kept the mark as it helped differentiate the brothers at a distance.

Throughout the design phase, it was incredibly important to study period accurate clothing in order to ground the IP in reality.  Studying classical sewing patterns and garments worn at the time, informed my explorations.

The Corpse

The last guardian of the bayou church, until the fated day that The Witch finally lured her to her demise, just before the brothers appeared on the scene.

Props

For the props I included elements of voodoo culture and the occult, in order to reflect the environment they where created and utilised in

Environment

For this project I created two environments. The first being the church that the witch haunts, and is the key location of the cinematic. The second being the lone hut deep in the swamp, teeming with it's own mysteries daring to be discovered.

I found it to be very important to work on environment studies throughout this project, so that I could further explore and learn how to capture the atmosphere and nuances of the locale.

Thank you so much for scrolling this far, I really hope you enjoyed it.

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