Sarthak Sachdeva

🎯 Project Overview

ADAPTIK is an advanced procedural quadruped locomotion system for Unreal Engine 5, developed as a final year dissertation project. It leverages Control Rig to create realistic, adaptive movement for quadrupedal characters, supporting dynamic gait transitions, terrain adaptation, and biomechanical IK. The system is designed for real-time performance and customizable for different species and body types.

🧩 The Problem

"How can a quadruped animation system in Unreal Engine 5 deliver biomechanically accurate, terrain-adaptive movement with smooth gait transitions, while remaining performant and easy to customize for different character rigs?"

Key challenges:

• Implementing realistic quadruped biomechanics within Control Rig's constraint system
• Achieving stable foot placement on complex terrain geometries
• Balancing animation quality with real-time performance requirements
• Developing evaluation metrics to quantify procedural animation effectiveness

🛠️ What I Built

• Custom Control Rig blueprint architecture for modular body segments and limb chains
• Procedural gait generation system supporting walk, trot, canter, and gallop with smooth transitions
• Intelligent terrain adaptation using IK and raycast-based ground detection
• Real-time foot placement and collision avoidance
• Dynamic weight distribution and body posture adjustment
• Customizable animation parameters for different quadruped species
• Performance optimization for real-time execution
• Evaluation framework comparing procedural vs. traditional animation

🎨 Technical & Visual Principles Applied

• Biomechanical simulation with center of mass and stability analysis
• Procedural spine curvature responding to terrain slope and movement
• Multi-threaded animation evaluation for optimization
• Data-driven approach using motion capture reference data

✅ Outcome

• Delivered a robust quadruped locomotion system for Unreal Engine 5
• Enabled animators and technical artists to create adaptive, realistic movement
• Provided technical documentation and evaluation metrics for future research

⚙️ Tools & Technologies

• Unreal Engine 5 (Control Rig, Blueprints)
• Blender for model creation and rigging
• Motion capture data analysis tools
• Git for version control
• LaTeX for dissertation documentation

🎯 Project Overview

Neptune is an advanced ocean and water system for Unreal Engine 5, developed as the core technical art feature for a 30-person collaborative game project. Built over 6 weeks, it was designed to deliver realistic oceans, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls with high visual fidelity and gameplay responsiveness. My role as Senior Technical Artist included system design, prototyping, cross-team integration, and technical documentation.

🧩 The Problem

"How can a water system in Unreal Engine 5 deliver both visual realism and gameplay flexibility, supporting dynamic environments, buoyancy, and underwater effects, while remaining performant and easy to integrate for artists and designers?"

Key challenges:

• Achieving realistic wave simulation and water interaction
• Supporting buoyancy and underwater rendering
• Integrating with level design and gameplay systems
• Maintaining performance and scalability
• Providing customization for different water types

🛠️ What I Built

• Gerstner wave simulation with dynamic parameters
• Full buoyancy support for floating actors and gameplay objects
• Underwater rendering, fog, and caustics
• Stencil mask system to prevent water inside boats
• Spline-based river creation with custom flow and foam
• Dynamic foam and wet sand shader for shoreline effects
• Wave resistance and interaction with static/dynamic bodies
• Water depth coloring, refraction distortion, and fake subsurface scattering (SSS)
• Custom waterfall actor with noise blending
• Tile repeat solver to reduce tiling artifacts
• Highly customizable via material instances and exposed parameters

🎨 Technical & Visual Principles Applied

• Physically-based shading for water and foam
• Procedural generation for waves and river flow
• Optimized shader and blueprint architecture for real-time performance
• Layered effects for clarity and visual appeal
• Modular design for easy integration and expansion

✅ Outcome

• Delivered a robust water system used across all game levels
• Enabled artists and designers to easily customize water features
• Improved gameplay clarity and visual quality
• Provided technical documentation and training for the team

⚙️ Tools & Technologies

• Unreal Engine 5 (Materials, Blueprints, Niagara FX)
• Blender for mesh and asset creation
• Photoshop/Substance Designer for textures
• Git for version control

🎯 Project Overview

The EMP Kunai is a stylized gameplay VFX system designed for a third-person action character. Built in Unreal Engine 5, it showcases a throwable energy kunai that detonates with an area-of-effect EMP pulse, visually disabling nearby tech and enemies.
This system was created as part of an ongoing goal to build portfolio projects that solve real gameplay and visual communication problems—not just isolated effects.

🧩 The Problem

"How can I visually communicate a stylized EMP effect that clearly indicates damage, area of effect, and tech disruption while maintaining a cohesive animation and VFX flow?"

Key challenges:

• Making the effect readable in gameplay
• Syncing animation timing with VFX
• Creating clear enemy/tech state changes post-EMP
• Designing a system that’s reusable and optimized

🛠️ What I Built

• Projectile FX: Trail, throw arc, and charging core
• EMP Detonation: Expanding shockwave, distortion, dynamic electric arcs
• Target Reaction FX:
  • Enemies: Sparks, flickers, smoke, and particles
  • Tech: Camera shakes, Stunned state in area of effect
• Blueprint interface for easy integration

🎨 Animation & Visual Principles Applied

• Anticipation and slow-in/out on projectile throw
• Arcs and follow-through on energy trails
• Appeal and timing to signal enemy state changes
• Layered VFX elements to support clarity in a stylized world

✅ Outcome

This project demonstrates how stylized gameplay VFX can be:

• Visually compelling
• Functionally readable
• Technically modular
• Rooted in animation principles

It also serves as a prototype for ability design workflows in stylized action games.

⚙️ Tools & Technologies

• Unreal Engine 5 Niagara for particle systems
• Blender for character modelling, rigging, and animating
• Substance Designer and Photoshop for texture creation

🎯 Project Overview

Winternator is a comprehensive procedural winter environment generator for Unreal Engine 5, designed to transform any environment into a winter wonderland. It features advanced snow accumulation, icicle formation, weather effects, and real-time preview, with both automatic and manual controls for fine-tuning the transformation. Built for performance and ease of use, Winternator is ideal for artists and technical developers creating seasonal or dynamic environments.

🧩 The Problem

"How can a tool for Unreal Engine 5 procedurally generate realistic winter environments, including snow, ice, and weather effects, while remaining performant, customizable, and easy to integrate into existing projects?"

Key challenges:

• Creating realistic snow accumulation behavior and icicle formation
• Developing efficient material blending and weather simulation systems
• Optimizing performance for large-scale environments
• Providing intuitive controls for both automatic and manual adjustments

🛠️ What I Built

• Procedural snow coverage system with realistic accumulation based on surface angle and exposure
• Dynamic icicle formation and surface snow generation
• Weather effect integration including snowfall, wind, and temperature variations
• Real-time preview system for instant feedback and adjustment
• Customizable snow and icicle material properties
• Automatic LOD system for performance optimization
• Batch processing for large-scale environment transformation

🎨 Technical & Visual Principles Applied

• Advanced dynamic mesh generation for snow accumulation
• Procedural mesh modification for icicle formation
• Performance-optimized algorithms for large environments
• Custom shader system for realistic snow and ice visualization
• GPU-accelerated processing for faster results
• Modular architecture for easy expansion and integration
• Advanced weather simulation system

✅ Outcome

• Delivered a robust winter environment generator for Unreal Engine 5
• Enabled artists and developers to create dynamic, seasonal environments with ease
• Provided technical documentation and user-friendly controls for broad adoption

⚙️ Tools & Technologies

• Unreal Engine 5 (Geometry Scripting, Blueprints, C++)
• Substance Designer and Photoshop for material creation
• Git for version control
• Visual Studio for C++ development