This week’s session was Intro to VCam. Sara introduced the basic concept and usage of the virtual camera. VCam refers to Virtual Camera, which allows us to control the virtual camera in Unreal Engine 5 through a phone or tablet, simulating the way a real camera is used in filming.
Compared with directly setting camera keyframes in the software, VCam feels more intuitive and closer to real shooting. By moving and rotating a handheld device, we can control the camera’s position, angle, and movement, such as dolly-in, dolly-out, panning, or creating a natural handheld camera feeling. This gave me a new understanding of Unreal Engine 5’s real-time creative functions.
I felt very happy in this class because I learned a UE5 feature that I was not very familiar with before. It not only makes the process of shooting virtual scenes more flexible, but also shows me how digital creation and real cinematography can be more directly connected. VCam is not only a technical tool; it can also help creators explore camera language, spatial relationships, and ways of viewing more freely.
This week, Ting’s class focused on Facial Animation III: Dialogue Shot – Lip Sync. The teacher explained the basic workflow of dialogue animation, including Blocking, Blocking Plus, and Polishing. I learned that when creating a dialogue shot, we should first set the key poses and facial expressions, then add body movement, mouth shapes, and timing, and finally refine the details.
In the Lip Sync section, I learned that mouth animation should not simply match every word, but should respond to the sounds. The teacher emphasized finding the accents in the sentence first, then animating the jaw opening, adding the main phonemes, and polishing the final mouth shapes. Different sounds require different mouth corners and lip shapes, so lip sync needs to work closely with the rhythm of the audio.
This week’s workshop was Overlap. We needed to use the provided sea monster file to animate it swimming, showing good follow through and overlap on its body and fins. This exercise helped me understand that different body parts should not move at exactly the same time. Instead, they need delay and drag, which makes the animation feel more natural.
This week, Sara introduced the direction of the A&E Unit, the project requirements, and the main creative focus for this term. I understood that this unit places more emphasis on research, experimentation, and critical thinking, rather than simply producing a traditional animation piece.
The two briefs provided by Sara were both very inspiring to me. The first brief, “Fragments of the Real / The Artificial,” focuses on photogrammetry, urban space, fragments of reality, and the relationship between physical environments and digital worlds. It suggests that absence, distortion, and fragmentation are not necessarily limitations, but can become conditions for generating new narratives. This made me realise that animation does not always need to pursue completeness or realism. Instead, it can use broken structures, deformation, repetition, and unstable visual language to express emotion and lived experience.
The second brief, “Expanded Animation / Context and Practice,” presents animation as a system for constructing, simulating, and questioning worlds. It encourages us to develop projects from our own research interests and to experiment with non-linear animation, real-time environments, installation, or hybrid media forms. This connects closely with the direction I want to explore next.
I plan to continue investigating stylised animation and create an experimental animated work, rather than focusing only on conventional storytelling or character performance. I hope to develop a stronger visual style through black, white and grey tones, textures, lines, fragmented scenes, and unreal spaces, in order to express a psychological state or a wider social feeling.
In Week 10, Ting introduced two important assignments: the Dialogue Shot assignment and The Professional Artist Interview assignment.
For the Dialogue Shot assignment, we need to combine what we have learned so far, including story, reference, camera, acting, and facial animation, to create a half-body dialogue animation. This assignment requires us to use one of the provided audios and the Yu Long rig. The shot should be no longer than 11 seconds, and only one character’s face should be shown. Ting also emphasized that the focus of this assignment is not complex body mechanics, but facial animation and lip sync. Therefore, the shot can be a close-up or medium shot, allowing the audience to clearly see the character’s facial expressions, eye movement, and mouth shapes.
Ting also introduced The Professional Artist Interview assignment. For this task, we need to interview a professional artist currently working in the industry and learn about their career path, daily work, technical expectations, and portfolio advice. Ting reminded us to stay polite and professional when contacting and interviewing industry professionals. For example, we should reach out through LinkedIn or professional email, clearly introduce who we are and explain the purpose of the interview, while also respecting their time. After the interview, we should also send a thank-you email.
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.
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.
I started developing my FMP project, tentatively titled Through the Snow. I want to create a 3D animated short film focusing on female growth, emotional healing, and pressure from reality.
The story is about an unemployed girl who accidentally enters a snowy forest. At first, she thinks she is escaping from this strange space, but later she realises that the forest is actually formed by her own anxiety, fear, and pain. She runs and becomes lost in the forest, until she is finally guided by butterflies formed from her tears and finds a way to face reality again.
For the visual style, I hope to create a low-saturation, cold, and quiet atmosphere with a digital painting texture. The snowy forest will exist between reality and illusion, reflecting the character’s psychological state.
This week, Ting provided a Facial Animation Demo, and we continued learning about facial animation. Through the demonstration, I understood more about how a character’s expression is created through the eyes, eyebrows, mouth, and small facial details. I realised that facial animation is not only about creating different expressions, but also about making the transitions between them feel natural, clear, and emotionally readable.
This week, I also continued working on Facial Poses Anim – Second Pass. Compared with the first version, the second pass required more detailed adjustments. I tried to make the expressions clearer so that the audience could easily understand the character’s emotions.
At the same time, I continued polishing the Heavy Object & Change of Mind assignment. I tried to use body posture, timing, and a sense of effort to make the heavy object feel more believable, while also using acting to show the character’s “change of mind.”
Overall, Week 7 was mainly about refining animation details.
This week, Ting’s class focused on Facial Animation II: Eyes Animation. We mainly learned about the role of the eyes in facial animation, including blink, eye dart, and eyebrow movement. I learned that eye animation is very important for character performance because it can show a character’s thoughts, emotional changes, and direction of attention.
In class, Ting explained that blinking should not happen just for the sake of blinking. It should be connected to changes in attitude, eye direction, thought process, or head movement. Eye dart can show that a character is thinking or gathering information, making the character feel more alive. Eyebrow movement also affects emotional expression. For example, when a character is asking a question, feeling confused, or thinking, the position and timing of the eyebrows can be different.
Group Project Progress Blog | From Multiple Ideas to One Unified Version:
Naturalisation Protocol
Over the past few weeks, our group project has gradually shifted from “lots of interesting ideas but no clear direction” to a version that is readable, filmable, and realistically achievable. Rather than finding the final answer immediately, we arrived at it through constant discussion, testing, cutting, and merging.
1) Early Stage: Everyone Brought Different Directions
At the beginning, we had several competing versions, each with a different emphasis:
A more comedic approach set in an “emotion training classroom,” where the alien’s mistakes create humour.
A more serious sci-fi version set in a controlled future lab, with a colder and more tense atmosphere.
A more performance-driven idea focusing on exaggerated body language to show how the alien “doesn’t understand humans.”
All of these were interesting, but we quickly realised that if we tried to include everything, the short film would feel like a collection of random moments. The audience might enjoy individual scenes, but the overall story would be harder to follow.
2) How We Made Decisions: Comparing Ideas by Clear Criteria
To avoid choosing based on personal preference, we compared each option using a few clear criteria:
Cause-and-effect clarity: Can we explain the story in one sentence? Does the conflict lead logically to the outcome?
Shot and acting readability: Without heavy dialogue, can the audience still understand what the character feels and why?
Production feasibility: Can we realistically complete it with the time and resources we have?
Thematic consistency: What is the film actually about? Is it just “the alien is weird,” or something deeper?
This helped us stop “voting for favourites” and start building a version that works as a film.
3) The Unified Version We Merged: Test → Training → Test (A Clear Proof Structure)
In the end, we didn’t select one person’s full proposal. Instead, we merged the strongest elements into a cleaner structure:
Keeping a realistic test scene (so the audience can quickly judge what looks “human” and what doesn’t).
Adding a controlled training space (to clearly show correction, feedback, and improvement).
Returning to a second test to create a strong contrast and closure.
This structure is simple but powerful: first attempt fails → the reason becomes clear → targeted training → second attempt succeeds. It allowed us to focus our screen time on the character’s change, instead of stacking too many plot points.
4) Our Shared Core Idea: The Conflict Is “Mimicry vs. Understanding”
As we merged the story, we reached a shared conclusion: the strongest part of the project isn’t only that the alien looks strange. The real tension comes from the gap between copying and understanding.
The alien can replicate gestures, but may not understand the timing and motivation behind human emotion. That’s why we decided to focus on small, readable performance details:
A pause that lasts half a beat too long
Unnatural blinking rhythm
A delayed smile
Stiff fingers and awkward grip on a cup
Emotional reactions that are too strong or too weak, like “performing” instead of feeling
These micro-actions help the audience instantly read: it’s trying to be human, but something is still off.
5) What I Learned from Working Together
The biggest lesson from our teamwork is that collaboration isn’t about keeping every idea. It’s about agreeing on a shared standard: what must be shown clearly on camera.
This final version works because it balances:
Clear cause-and-effect storytelling
Strong potential for shot language (contrast, feedback, reversal, closure)
Acting readability (micro facial/body details)
A controlled scope we can actually deliver
In short, we didn’t just find a “cooler idea”—we combined many ideas into a version that is clearer, stronger, and more achievable.
1) Heavy Object + Change of Mind: Blocking Animation
2) Facial Pose Practice (Using Live-Action Reference)
3) Project Plan (FMP): Type: Time structure + Emotional peak + Visual poetry Key words: Winter forest / Snowflakes / Girl / Butterfly / Guidance Core mechanism: The girl’s breathing / tears trigger a brief reverse playback, and the snowflakes fall in reverse; The butterfly serves as a “time marker”, and each reverse playback brings it closer to the “correct path”. Topic： • Control vs. Let Go: The more one tries to “undo the past”, the more trapped in the cycle one becomes; only by accepting can one break free. • The coldness of winter is the externalization of emotions; the reversed snow is her inner struggle to reject reality.
