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Ghibli Style Scene Rendering

Role: 

Solo

Date: 

Sep 2025

Engine: 

Unreal 5 Houdini Blender

Inspired by Ghibli studio’s work, this scene assembles procedural assets from my Houdini PCG set (rocks, plants, bridge, etc.) plus a few Blender props into a floating-island environment in Unreal. The goal was a warm, storybook daytime look and a cooler, mysterious nighttime variant.

Introduction

This project builds a floating-island environment inspired by Studio Ghibli’s painterly worlds. I reused procedural assets from my Houdini PCG set (rocks, vegetation, bridge, house, etc.) and a few props made using Blender, then developed a group of stylized materials and FXs in Unreal to support both a warm daytime look and a cooler, mysterious nighttime variation.

Outcome

The final scene is presented in two lighting setups built around the same geometry and material library. In the day version, bright, saturated colors and soft shadows create a calm, sun-washed mood, with lighting that highlights the yellow-green grass and warm roof tones against a pale sky. In the night version, a cooler palette, localized warm light from the woodpile, and glowing potion bottles push the island toward a “witch’s house” atmosphere while preserving the overall composition.

 

Because the scene is driven by color palettes and parameterized materials rather than heavy post-processing, switching between day and night only requires adjusting global lighting, a few material values, and post-process settings instead of rebuilding assets. The combination of Houdini-generated geometry, reusable master materials (rock, grass, foliage, bottles, outlines, fog), and lightweight FX makes the scene easy to iterate on and provides a small stylized asset library that can be reused in future projects.

light_scene
day_scene
night_scene

Inspiration & Art Direction

Inspired by Studio Ghibli, I wanted to create a floating island to mimic the painterly worlds and cozy, whimsical mood, and experiment with colors and tones to create a different feeling at another time of day. 

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Day: Bright, saturated palette; soft shadows; calming, sun-washed mood.

Satsuki-and-Mei-house-from-My-Neighbour-Totoro.jpg_strip=all&lossy=1&ssl=1.jpg

reference

day_ref2

reference

Night: Cooler palette; witch’s house vignette with potion bottles and a cauldron; added woodpile for localized warm light contrast and story hints.​

night_ref1

reference

night_ref2

reference

Models & Materials

material_balls.PNG

material overview

Rock / Dirt

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