WWE 2K22 MyFaction

I worked on the UI VFX for Project 2K at Lost Boys Interactive until Nathan from the UI art team approached me with a challenging task. He informed me that we needed to create a UI game shoot within a tight deadline. Upon reviewing the project, I realized I had to incorporate complex elements like geometry, textures, camera animation, and lava fluids. Nathan also wanted to include spark and smoke effects.

The challenge intensified as we were restricted to using Maya only, despite the lava being created in Houdini, which we couldn't utilize. To overcome this obstacle, I had to devise a solution to incorporate heat and sparks simulations based on the Houdini-made lava fluids. I had to create materials, render the scene in Maya, and composite it in After Effects—all within a three-week timeframe.

One of the major hurdles was the limited time available for rendering in Arnold. Additionally, I faced the difficulty of generating a new simulation based on the Houdini lava fluids, with only an Alembic file and no date information. I devised a workaround by obtaining the front flow using UV texture and emitting heat based on the gradient in Maya.

Despite these challenges, we successfully completed the shoot from grayscale files to the final composition within the allocated three weeks. We managed to meet the deadline assigned by 2K, showcasing the effectiveness of our collaborative efforts.