Rampage Rally – My First Project in the 3D Challenge

Here is my submission for the 3D Challenge organized by the Create with Clint Community. This project gave me the chance to push Unreal Engine to its limits while blending cinematic design, environment building, and real-time effects into one chaotic, high-speed sequence.

Story

The idea for Rampage Rally began with a classic setup: a bank heist and a fast escape. For the getaway, I chose a Mitsubishi Evo — it just felt like the perfect thief’s car, fast, stylish, and iconic. The story might sound a bit corny, but it works because it taps into classic action tropes that are always fun to play with.

At first, I couldn’t figure out how to make the chase exciting. Then I remembered the ramp truck from GTA — one of those irresistible players can’t help but drive onto. That became the turning point of my scene. Even if there’s “nothing to cross,” the ramp truck adds chaos, cinematic stunts, and that unspoken rule of fun: if you see a ramp, you hit it.

From there, the story took shape — a chaotic night escape across a bridge in the rain, police cars in pursuit, sparks flying, and cash spilling out onto the street.

Concept & Theme

My goal was to capture a realistic cinematic chase, leaning on the rendering power of Unreal Engine 5. I’ve always loved the realistic style UE5 makes possible with technologies like Lumen, Nanite, and Niagara, and I wanted to push that as far as I could.

Every element — the assets, materials, lighting, cameras, and rendering setup — was crafted to enhance realism. It wasn’t just about making a chase scene; it was about making one that looked and felt like it came straight out of a movie.

3D Assets and Setup

Most of the assets were sourced from free or community resources, but carefully chosen and refined.

Thanks to large 3D communities like Fab, Sketchfab, and CGTrader, I was able to focus on the scene design rather than spending all my time modeling from scratch. I still made tweaks in Blender to get assets scene-ready.

Sequencer and Animation

Originally, I wanted to use Chaos Vehicle Physics and Deformation from Epic’s City Sample, but I ran into issues and had to rethink my approach. Instead, I relied on:

  • Skeletal binding & Control Rig for the Mitsubishi — giving me control over wheel rotation, steering, and suspension.
  • Keyframe animation for most of the vehicles.
  • Cinematic Sequencer to choreograph the chase and camera work, creating tension through wide establishing shots and close-up stunts.

Rain Scene and Materials

The mood of a rainy night was essential for atmosphere. To achieve it, I used:

  • The Easy Rain plugin from Fab, which comes with a powerful Blueprint system and material functions.
  • Advanced Glass Material for realistic windshield surfaces, reacting dynamically to light and rain.
  • Lighting setup combining environment lighting, streetlights, vehicle headlights, and even a fake helicopter searchlight to give the scene a dynamic night-chase vibe.

The combination of materials and lighting grounded the whole scene in realism.

Niagara System

Before this project, I had never worked with Niagara. To my surprise, it was straightforward to learn and incredibly powerful for adding cinematic chaos:

  • Sparks from friction and collisions.
  • Rain particles to sell the stormy weather.
  • Flying cash bursting out of the getaway car, adding a playful, movie-like exaggeration.
  • Trails and splashes that tie directly to vehicle motion.

These effects made the sequence feel alive, layering detail and unpredictability into the chase.

Reflection

Storytelling has always been the hardest part for me. Even though the final render of Rampage Rally might look “stunning,” I know the story itself isn’t especially original or exciting. It’s not easy to create a compelling narrative in just 144 frames of animation, and this project reminded me how much creativity it takes to make a short sequence feel meaningful.

On the technical side, I thought I was on solid ground, but the reality was more challenging. I had to relearn and re-adapt almost everything — from Blender modeling and Unreal Engine materials to Blueprints, skeleton setups, Sequencer, and entirely new tools like the Niagara system and Chaos vehicles. The process was slower than expected, but it forced me to dig deeper and expand my toolkit.

Visually, I like the mood of the rainy night, but the darkness also hides many details I worked on — the flying cash, sparks, and smaller effects don’t shine as much as they could. Balancing realism, atmosphere, and clarity is something I’ll keep working on.

Overall, Rampage Rally was a good try. It pushed me to explore areas I hadn’t touched before, and I learned a lot along the way. Most importantly, it confirmed my direction: I’m ready to grow into my early career as a technical artist, and I’m looking forward to taking on the next challenge from the Create with Clint community.

Assets Credits

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