Dredge-Inspired Scene. Unreal Engine 5 Real-Time VFX
Panic moment - eye saccades, chromatic aberration, whispers
Wide cinematic shot
The game perspective
Without flickering effect
Breakdown of the jellyfish basic material
Breakdown of the jellyfish basic material animated
Eye material breakdown
Eye material animation
Trail material breakdown
Artboard
Personal project inspired by Dredge and Elden Ring. Built entirely in UE5, rendered via Movie Render Queue, composited in After Effects and Premiere Pro.
Technical Highlights:
All jellyfish VFX are fully procedural - no baked textures on key elements. The dome pulsation is driven by a custom HLSL WPO shader with asymmetric animation curve, skirt height control, and per-instance time offset for desynchronization. The surface material uses fresnel-based translucency with synchronized emissive pulse.
The eyes are a procedural SDF material - almond shape from circle intersection, torus pupil, saccadic movement with pseudo-random jumps, and animated blink that deforms the shape itself rather than overlaying lids.
Tentacles use Niagara ribbons with curl noise-driven motion and per-instance variation in length, thickness, and phase.
Jellyfish emerge from the ocean surface through Niagara collision with the water shader, creating dynamic ripple displacement on contact.
Atmospheric fog particles use 6-way lighting for volumetric response to scene lights.
Models taken from Fab: Dredge Fan Art, Corrals, Deep Elder Cave
Tools: Unreal Engine 5, HLSL, Niagara, Movie Render Queue, After Effects, Premiere Pro