Ancient Cambodian Temple Created with Unreal Engine

The Ancient Cambodian Temple Project

As I was only able to work effectively on the temple environment in the evenings and at weekends due to my full-time job, it was definitely a long-term project. It was also not easy for me to give a clear date when the project really started. However, I still remember well that in the first few months after I started my new position as a TD, there was no thought of any elaborate private projects. The interest in private work only came back very slowly over time and began with an exceptionally long reference collection phase, which started around April 2022 and was still extremely non-committal and without any concrete intention of implementing such a project at that time.

I simply enjoyed studying various images and videos of different temples from all around the world in my free time. Somehow the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia fascinated me the most and I entered a rabbit hole where I found myself trying to explore and understand dozens of different temple complexes from over there: Kor Sak, Preah Palilay, Preah Khan, Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, and Ta Som, to name a few.

Looking at such a project now, I find it important when collecting reference materials to not just save a bunch of eye-appealing images from unknown places but instead, really try to investigate where all these images were taken and then explore and understand these places from as many different sources as possible. Gathering too many images from random unknown places can lead to contradictory reference impressions.

Although my composition is a combination of various influences, it ultimately contains many elements that are very close to what can be found in the two temples of Ta Prohm (also known from Tomb Raider) and Ta Som.