Cauldron & Floating Grimoire Scene

A scene I created, inspired by my work on The Butterfly Effect at DAVE School.

In this piece I present the witch’s grimoire, suspended in a dreamlike hover, waiting for her return. It rests on a lectern carved from the trunk of a tree, its roots still clinging to the memory of what it once was. Beside the lectern sits the witch’s great cauldron, held above dying embers by bony hands with long, razor‑sharp nails. The assets are staged beneath a gazebo, surrounded by the hush of the forest.

Role: Modeling, PBR texturing, shading, lighting, rendering and compositing.

Tools: Maya; Substance Painter; Blender — Cycles; DaVinci Resolve.
Credits: Project Director PJ Salamon; original assets and scene Nathalie Donderis; short film The Butterfly Effect.
Vines: generated with a custom plant HDA by James Darby.
HDRI: sourced from Polyhaven (je_gray_02).

See these hero assets in motion in the short film The Butterfly Effect. Watch now: https://youtu.be/NOMplLRohKE?si=kPSZnEx6bo9zi61k