She thought she was escaping from a snowy forest, only to realize later that it was ice formed from her own emotions.
Project Overview
- 3D animated short film / Artistic narrative video (approximately 5 minutes)
- Female growth / Emotional healing / Urban survival
- Logline: An unemployed girl accidentally enters an inner world like a “icy forest”, fleeing in fear, shame, and collapse. Eventually, she follows the butterflies formed from her tears to find a new exit – even if the exit remains reality.
Character Design
- Girl (20+): Recently unemployed, has suffered from long-term self-denial, anxiety and insomnia.
- External state: Running, avoiding, looking disheveled
- Internal arc: Fear → Collapse → Being guided → Facing reality directly
Artistic style
This film is planned to adopt a 3D visual style with the texture of digital painting, and to construct the emotional space of the ice and snow forest with low-saturation cool tones. The scenes emphasize the sense of brushwork, the sense of volume, and the interplay of light and shadow with ambiguity, making the trees, snow, and shadows present a state between reality and illusion. The overall atmosphere is restrained, desolate, and full of poetic charm, serving the psychological changes of the characters as they are lost, depressed, and undergoing self-repair.
Technical reference and testing
Through studying the workflow of Arcane, I found that it builds on 3D scenes and, under a fixed camera view, uses projection mapping, material control, and lighting consistency to create an effect close to 2D illustration and hand-painted collage. This inspired me to focus on making key shots visually convincing, rather than pursuing complete realism and consistency from every angle.
- First, build the three-dimensional scene
- Determine the final viewing angle
- Generate UVs from the camera perspective
- Attach the two-dimensional image or design draft to the model
- Adjust the picture in the fixed shot
- Use lighting and materials to unify the style
Storyboard
This sequence progresses from a close-up to wider shots.
The first frame is a close-up of the girl’s feet, filmed from a low angle with a tracking shot, emphasizing her footsteps and the tension.
The second frame is a medium long shot, with the camera following from the rear-side angle, showing the girl moving through the forest while her shadow suggests that something ghost-like is chasing her.
The third frame cuts to a long shot, reinforcing the character’s smallness within the space.
The fourth frame is an extreme long shot, fully revealing the monstrous tree and the oppressive atmosphere of the environment.
Overall, the sequence gradually builds suspense through the progression of shot size and camera movement.
This sequence is driven by emotion.
The first frame is a close-up, shot at eye level, emphasizing the girl’s rapid breathing and frightened expression.
The second frame cuts to a side medium close-up, with the camera following her quick turn, allowing the movement to drive the shot.
The third frame is a close-up of the scattered papers, using a rotational camera movement and an upward motion path to create a sudden sense of impact.
The fourth frame cuts to a long shot / empty shot, where the papers transform into birds during the transition and fly into the snowy forest, completing the shift from reality to psychological space.
Overall, the sequence progresses through close-up – turn – rotation – long shot, reinforcing the sense of panic and the surreal transition.
This sequence uses continuous movement to create a spatial transition from the city to the forest.
The first frame is a long shot from a slightly high angle, showing the character running through the narrow gaps of the city.
The second frame remains a long shot, with the camera tracking smoothly alongside her, while the buildings gradually transform into tree trunks, completing the scene transition.
The third frame cuts to a close-up of the feet, filmed from a low angle with a tracking shot, reinforcing the rhythm of the run and the continuity of the transition.
The fourth frame returns to a long shot, with the camera continuing to follow the character into the real forest, creating a smooth shift from urban oppression to the unknown snowy woods.
Overall, the spatial transformation is achieved through a unified direction of movement and the progression of shot sizes.
This sequence shifts from an emotional close-up into an imagistic shot.
The first frame is a close-up at eye level, emphasizing the girl’s fragile emotions after becoming lost and the moment her tears begin to fall.
The second frame cuts to an extreme close-up of a teardrop, with a blank background, as the camera follows the tear falling and slows the rhythm of the scene.
The third frame is an extreme close-up of the lake surface, capturing the tear hitting the water and the ripples spreading outward, creating an emotional pause.
The fourth frame cuts to a close shot, where a butterfly emerges from the water and rises into the air, with the camera slightly tilting upward to complete the visual transformation from sadness to guidance.
Overall, the sequence uses a progression of close-ups and a slower camera rhythm to strengthen the poetic and hopeful tone.
This sequence uses a following shot to complete the process of being guided, walking out of the forest, and reaching the exit.
The first group begins with a close-up of the reflection on the water, then the camera slowly tilts up to reveal the girl herself and her footsteps, completing the transition from reflection to reality. It then continues with medium close-up to medium shot follow shots, showing the girl moving forward under the butterfly’s guidance. The pacing of the camera slows down, emphasizing her shift from panic to a guided state.
The second group continues with a rear tracking shot in medium shot to long shot, following the girl as she walks through the forest while the space gradually opens up. Finally, it cuts to a long shot of the edge of the forest, where a subway train passes horizontally across the frame, creating a strong intrusion of reality and revealing the forest’s exit.
Overall, the sequence is mainly structured through tilting up, following, pushing forward, and horizontal movement, while keeping the character’s direction of motion consistent to reinforce continuity and the sense of arrival.
This sequence closes the film with the oppressive feeling of real space.
It begins with a long shot of the platform / subway door, showing the girl walking toward the train and preparing to re-enter the reality of job hunting. It then shifts to a medium close-up and a close-up of her hands, focusing on the résumé in her arms and her anxious expression.
Inside the carriage, the scene uses a medium tracking shot and a slightly shaky camera to convey crowding, imbalance, and psychological pressure. The flow of people and the swaying of the train create a constant sense of oppression. At the moment of the sudden brake, the shot cuts to a close-up of the résumé pages scattering, using the abrupt action to disrupt the brief sense of order the character had managed to hold onto.
Finally, a medium shot / long shot after the doors open reveals the girl standing there in a disheveled state, lingering on the moment when reality has not truly changed. Overall, the sequence progresses through entering – crowding – losing control – pause, and the open ending preserves the uncertainty of the girl’s future: the exit has appeared, but the road ahead is still undefined.