--- title: This Night Train 3D Animation Looks Like a Scene from a... description: Technical environment artist Seb van den Beemt created a fairytale-style night train animation using Unreal Engine, with a self-assembling bridge effect... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/this-night-train-3d-animation-looks-like-a-scene-from-a-fairytale-8ladpqib1 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: This Night Train 3D Animation Looks Like a Scene from a Fairytale | daily.dev og:description: Technical environment artist Seb van den Beemt created a fairytale-style night train animation using Unreal Engine, with a self-assembling bridge effect... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/this-night-train-3d-animation-looks-like-a-scene-from-a-fairytale-8ladpqib1 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8LaDPQiB1.png og:image:alt: This Night Train 3D Animation Looks Like a Scene from a Fairytale og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # This Night Train 3D Animation Looks Like a Scene from a Fairytale **[80 LEVEL](https://daily.dev/sources/80lv)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Technical environment artist Seb van den Beemt created a fairytale-style night train animation using Unreal Engine, with a self-assembling bridge effect powered entirely at runtime by a single Niagara system split into four states. The project combined UE5 with Blender, Substance 3D Painter, and Houdini, with cloud assets generated in Houdini via VDB and an HDRI sourced from AmbientCG. The artist shared a technical breakdown on ArtStation. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How was the self-assembling bridge effect made in this Unreal Engine train animation? The effect is controlled by a single Niagara system in Unreal Engine 5, split into four states that each represent the behavior of a bridge module at a given time, running entirely at runtime. The scene also combined Blender, Substance 3D Painter, and Houdini, with cloud assets generated in Houdini and imported into Unreal via VDB. _See more Niagara VFX breakdowns and Unreal Engine techniques curated for 3D artists on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Cool Blender-Made Voxel Animation of Night Streets & Stations](https://daily.dev/posts/cool-blender-made-voxel-animation-of-night-streets-stations-0k2k6gkjm) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How Unreal Engine brought fast iteration to complex shots on ‘Sinners’](https://daily.dev/posts/how-unreal-engine-brought-fast-iteration-to-complex-shots-on-sinners--ftqxb47dn) · Unreal Engine · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Bus Ride Straight Out Of Dream, Made With Blender & 3DGS](https://daily.dev/posts/bus-ride-straight-out-of-dream-made-with-blender-3dgs-yzvlwi3vv) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This Photorealistic UE5-Powered Train Sim Receives Updates](https://daily.dev/posts/this-photorealistic-ue5-powered-train-sim-receives-updates-yuq7wn5hn) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Shining Isle Productions goes all-in on Unreal Engine for The Wingfeather Saga](https://daily.dev/posts/shining-isle-productions-goes-all-in-on-unreal-engine-for-the-wingfeather-saga-20r2cge8f) · Unreal Engine · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#3d](https://daily.dev/tags/3d), [#unreal-engine](https://daily.dev/tags/unreal-engine), [#blender](https://daily.dev/tags/blender) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/this-night-train-3d-animation-looks-like-a-scene-from-a-fairytale-8ladpqib1) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"This Night Train 3D Animation Looks Like a Scene from a Fairytale","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-night-train-3d-animation-looks-like-a-scene-from-a-fairytale-8ladpqib1","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-night-train-3d-animation-looks-like-a-scene-from-a-fairytale-8ladpqib1"},"datePublished":"2026-08-12T13:48:53.455Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:17:46.637Z","description":"Technical environment artist Seb van den Beemt created a fairytale-style night train animation using Unreal Engine, with a self-assembling bridge effect...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/61ce1e9d195d1617cc57100a223b1e21?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/61ce1e9d195d1617cc57100a223b1e21?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"80 LEVEL","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"80 LEVEL","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/78eebcd76c154e6bbfd565fed7dc4093","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-night-train-3d-animation-looks-like-a-scene-from-a-fairytale-8ladpqib1","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"3d,unreal-engine,blender","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"80 LEVEL","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"This Night Train 3D Animation Looks Like a Scene from a Fairytale"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-night-train-3d-animation-looks-like-a-scene-from-a-fairytale-8ladpqib1#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How was the self-assembling bridge effect made in this Unreal Engine train animation?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The effect is controlled by a single Niagara system in Unreal Engine 5, split into four states that each represent the behavior of a bridge module at a given time, running entirely at runtime. The scene also combined Blender, Substance 3D Painter, and Houdini, with cloud assets generated in Houdini and imported into Unreal via VDB. See more Niagara VFX breakdowns and Unreal Engine techniques curated for 3D artists on daily.dev."}}]} ```