The HeartLighting exercise inspired by Alan Wake II's "The Heart" chapter.

After beginning another playthrough of Alan Wake II I felt inspired to begin a relight project but was unable to find a suitable forest environment that fit what I was looking for. As a result, this turned into a slightly larger task than imagined as I needed to create that too. In light of this I am pleased with the final result and how I was able to overcome issues like these quickly whilst working. The goal I set out with was to create something that whilst not a direct copy from the game, its inclusion would be plausible if found alongside other sections that were present within the game. Based on this criteria I believe I met my goal and learnt more about lighting for differing weather conditions in the process.

Sunrise This is the final artwork piece for this project featuring the sunrise styling seen in “Return 2: The Heart”.

Night This was the original vision for the piece before pivoting towards the more dynamic sunrise theme seen in the final piece.

Reference board A small collection of related in-game imagery used as inspiration for both explored lighting approaches.

Viewport View of the scene within Blender with heavily instanced assets being hidden such as the floor mulch or trees.

Early progress and tests

Third-party assets

• Uprooted Tree
• Fallen Tree
• Geo-Scatter with additional foliage packs
• Aktiv Grotesk Condensed