Building a world to explore
Cornerstone — island prototype
An open-world island prototype shaped around Nordic landscapes, exploration and atmosphere.
- Role
- Lead Technical Artist — environment, lighting & cinematics
- Studio
- ZOAN
- Year
- 2022
- Output
- Playable open-world prototype · cinematics
- Tools
- Unreal Engine 4 / 5 · Sequencer · Blueprints
The context
Building a world to explore
Develop an island environment that supports both real-time exploration and cinematic presentation.
My contribution
I led environment construction, lighting and cinematic work, establishing terrain, foliage composition and visual direction. A later stage included gameplay logic, character interaction and optimization for exploration.
The approach
The environment had to work at two scales: as a broad landscape and as a place to move through. I developed the terrain and composition alongside the lighting, and created a repeatable environment-production workflow.
The images
A closer look.
Open an image to view the full frame.
In motion
Cinematic sequences.
Videos connect to YouTube only when loaded.
The result
What the work delivers.
A playable island prototype, promotional imagery and cinematic sequences. The stills shown here document the landscape and visual direction.
Created at ZOAN. Alfonso Escalona — environment construction, lighting, cinematic sequences and prototype implementation.
