Where Memories Take Root

Fan art for NieR Automata.
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This piece was originally inspired by the round Emil head embedded in a tree as seen in the anime, as well as concepts and lore mentioned throughout the game. I wanted to capture a quiet, melancholic moment where decay and innocence coexist, hinting at hope even in a broken world.
The title is meant to reference the actual roots, Emil's fragmented memories and of course the Lunar Tear and Pascal's memories (if you know, you know).
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From a compositional standpoint, I wanted to depict the slow conflict between organic and industrial elements (roots vs pipes, growth vs rust and decay) with the child machine holding the Lunar Tear serving as a truce between the two, an echo of Pascal’s teachings about empathy and coexistence.
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It's difficult to say how long this took me to make, as I modeled Emil's head in the summer of 2023, the stubby machine lifeform in the summer of 2024 and Pascal in the summer of 2025. It wasn't until these past two months that I managed to break out of the block I had regarding the actual scene and decided on a diorama.
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This project marks my first time using the following tools and features in my portfolio:

Unreal Engine 5
Nanite meshes
Lumen lighting
PCG instances
Unreal Modeling Tools
Custom Data Parameters
UDIMs
Megascans assets