During college break, I was craving a creative challenge—something fresh, something that would let me explore new tools and storytelling techniques. That’s when I discovered Pwnisher’s Alternate Realities Challenge. The premise was simple yet powerful: every participant was given the same 3D scene with a walking character, and the task was to build an entirely new world around it. I was instantly hooked.

‍

‍

I’ve always been fascinated by storytelling through visuals, especially rich, atmospheric environments. At the time, I was already familiar with Blender, Cinema 4D, and had begun dabbling in Unreal Engine, hoping one day to make my own game. So this challenge felt like the perfect playground to learn, build, and create something meaningful.

‍

I started late—only had about two weeks—so I jumped straight into collecting references. I spent hours on ArtStation and Pinterest, drawn to Norse mythology and dark fantasy aesthetics. Inspired by Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I envisioned a war-torn, mysterious Viking world. I sketched a rough layout of what I wanted to build, from ancient runes to rugged landscapes and weapons left behind in battle.

‍

Unfortunately, I didn’t document the process visually, but I faced a lot of technical hurdles. I used high-quality assets without optimizing them, and my file size ballooned to 50GB. Rendering a 5-second animation was projected to take weeks, and my machine couldn’t keep up. I tried optimizing, simplifying materials, and even rendering in layers, but bugs and black screens kept showing up.

Despite all the issues, I managed to submit the final animation—though it wasn’t perfect, and it got critiqued pretty hard. Still, I learned more in those two weeks than I had in months. This project wasn’t just a technical exercise; it was a leap into the kind of narrative visual design I want to keep pursuing.

‍

‍