Crossing The Andes

A full-length real-time historical cinematic depicting one of the greatest feats in American military history: the 1817 Crossing of the Andes led by General San Martín. Developed entirely from scratch as a solo production, this project is a comprehensive showcase of my capabilities as a Senior 3D Generalist and Art Director, managing every single stage of the real-time CGI pipeline—from initial 3D modeling and environment building to final rendering, editing, and sound design.

My Solo Execution & Technical Breakdown:

Human & Animal 3D Modeling: Built and sculpted custom historical human characters (soldiers, uniforms, gear) and horses/mules from scratch, ensuring optimized rigging and cloth simulation ready for real-time crowd deployment [08:00].

Large-Scale Environment Design & Terrain Sculpting: Designed and generated vast Andean mountain landscapes, dry plains, steep mountain passes, and dense vegetation using custom heightmaps, procedural foliage, and rock scattering [01:08:00 to 01:53:00].

Dynamic Weather & VFX Simulation: Implemented complex real-time environmental VFX, including volumetric night fog at the El Plumerillo camp [14:00], heavy driving snowstorms in the high altitude passes [02:51:00], dynamic wind acting on banners and cloth, and custom fire/smoke systems [03:25:00].

Lighting & Art Direction: Directed the mood and visual storytelling across drastic lighting shifts—from the dark, cold campfire atmospheres of a night camp [20:00] to blinding alpine snow [03:00:00] and the dramatic golden-hour sunrise over the conquered horizon [04:06:00].

Cinematography, Editing & Audio Engineering: Handled all virtual camera choreography (Sequencer), multi-camera editing, historical narrative pacing, color grading, original sound design, and music integration to deliver a production-ready audiovisual piece.

Software Stack: Unreal Engine 5 (Lumen, Nanite, Sequencer, Volumetrics), Autodesk 3ds Max, Substance 3D Painter, Adobe Premiere Pro / DaVinci Resolve, Audio Editing Tools.