Born from a love of Alan Garner books, particularly 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' and 'The Moon of Gomrath', the Goyt valley has always been an area of fascination. Visiting the area and seeing the ruins of the once beautiful Errwood Hall fuelled a desire to re-create a sense of the place in some way - particularly in a 3d game engine which could potentially allow for first person exploration.
An added bonus would be the task of re-creating the hall. In Garner's 'The Moon of Gomrath', the hall is magically restored from its ruined state to its former glory. This particularly descriptive part of the book, where one of the main characters walks the overgrown, winding path in the dark to the hall seemed perfect to attempt to recreate.
A render of the Errwood Hall model from Unreal Engine
Researching online to find as many images and information on the hall and area as possible, I came across a fantastic website, The Goyt Valley. This was an invaluable source when trying to work out how the area might have looked at the time Garner's books were set, prior to the construction of the Errwood Reservoir.
Using old images, maps, photographs including our own taken during a visit to the area and google maps, it was possible to map out the various buildings on the site. The models were created in Cinema 4d, textured in Substance Painter and brought into Unreal Engine as fbx files.
Initally blocking out the shapes and position in Cinema4d (left) and progressing with the detail (right)
The hall rendered in Redshift from Cinema4d
To accurately interpret the topology of the area, lidar information was brought into Unreal Engine to create the landscape. The foliage tool and assets inside Unreal Engine were fully utilised to attempt to portray the variety of dense vegetation and sparse grassland that surrounds the hall.
The Goyt valley lidar information brought into Unreal Engine to create the landscape
Rhododendron bushes play an important part in the book. They are almost a character in their own right. It was important to pay them due respect, so a custom model was built in Cinema4d and brought into Unreal Engine to work with the other foliage assets.
Rhododendron bushes are an essential part of the Errwood area landscape so a basic model was built in Cinema4d and exported to work with the Unreal Engine assets
The running water through Shooter's Clough is also a key part of the landscape and features strongly during Susan's climb to the hall. Using Unreal Engine's River Water Body actor, the fast flowing, rocky stream was added, complete with bridge modelled in Cinema4d.
The path leading to the hall in daylight and night time
As the scene I was trying to recreate occurred at night, I added additional lighting to subtly highlight the route, the key locations and the hall. I then used Unreal's camera sequencer to follow Susan's route to the hall over several shots. These renders were collated in After Effects and the final video produced in Premier, with sound effects added.
A bridge crossing Shooter's Clough modelled in C4D and brought into the Unreal environment
A couple of stills of Errwood Hall at night
Video of the scenes