Woodbearers of Chimayo VR

The Woodbearers of Chimayo VR is an immersive virtual reality museum installation developed by the VAST Lab for the New Mexico Museum of Art — Vladem Contemporary. The project reconstructs Clark Hulings’ masterwork Woodbearers of Chimayo (1974) into a living, explorable 3D historical environment.

Visitors step beyond the picture frame into 1970s Chimayó, New Mexico, observing the wood-bearing donkeys, adobe architecture of the Santuario de Chimayó, and atmospheric lighting from any vantage point.

Custom Stylized Post-Processing Shader

A crucial technical requirement was translating Hulings’ impasto brushwork, edge dry-brushing, and warm gouache/oil color grading into a real-time post-process volume in Unreal Engine 5. Using custom HLSL scene texture sampling, Sobel edge filtering, and normal-based canvas paper texturing, the rendering seamlessly captures the tactile quality of a painted canvas:

With Painterly Post-Processing

Without Post-Processing

With Painterly Post-Processing

Without Post-Processing

Spatial Level Design & Spline Navigation

The level layout guides the museum patron along accessible walking paths while ambient AI donkeys navigate natural terrain contours using dynamic spline paths.

Environment Creation Timelapse

Watch the speed-sculpting and architectural modeling of the Santuario de Chimayó environment: