Category: FMP

This week, I worked on the VFX and compositing for the final sequences. In After Effects, I created several effects to enhance the dramatic tension—especially the shots where the protagonist experiences a psychic attack inside the sanctuary. For those moments, I added lens distortion, subtle screen shake, and layered impact effects to make the scene feel more intense and unstable, as if the environment itself were reacting to the character’s pain.

After finalising the effects, I moved into Premiere Pro for the editing stage. I refined the pacing, adjusted the timing between cuts, and made sure the transitions supported the emotional flow of the story. For the music, I used selected pieces inspired by Dark Souls cinematics, as they carry that Gothic, solemn, and slightly desolate atmosphere I wanted. Pairing the visuals with this kind of soundtrack helped the whole film feel more cohesive and immersive.

Throughout this project, I gained a much clearer understanding of how lighting can shape storytelling.
Different colours, intensities, and contrast levels dramatically influence the mood of a scene—blue tones create tension, warm light enhances a sacred atmosphere, while green lighting introduces a sense of unease.
I also learned to adjust exposure, contrast, and fill lights for individual shots, making the character stand out more clearly and giving each frame richer depth and visual intent.

Creating six entirely different environments taught me the importance of atmosphere and visual balance.
I learned how to avoid flat or empty compositions by using terrain variation, fog layers, unified colour palettes, and symbolic props.
Working with references from Dark Souls, Diablo, and Skyrim helped me build a stronger visual direction and understand how to reinterpret inspiration into my own design language.

Building all three main characters from scratch gave me hands-on experience with clean topology and the importance of a reliable rig.
I also encountered technical challenges—such as switching constraints when the ring moves from one hand to the other—but solving these issues improved my understanding of how animation and rigging interact.

Completing this project allowed me to experience the full production pipeline of a cinematic animation—from story development and character creation to lighting, animation, VFX, and final compositing. It was a challenging process, but every stage pushed me to refine my visual language and deepen my understanding of how different elements work together to shape mood and narrative.

Through constant iteration, problem-solving, and exploration, I gradually developed a clearer sense of direction and gained confidence in making creative decisions. This project not only improved my technical skills but also helped me understand how to build an atmosphere, communicate emotion, and guide the viewer’s experience through visual storytelling.

In the end, Ring of Eternal Eclipse became more than just a final major project—it became a record of how much I grew as an artist throughout the process.

This week, I focused mainly on adjusting the lighting for the character. For any shot where the character appears—especially close-ups—I spent extra time designing lighting that would highlight the expression, silhouette, and overall mood more effectively.

I realised that even small changes in lighting direction or intensity can completely shift how the character feels on screen. So I ended up doing a lot of trial and error: adding a bit of rim light here, softening the shadows there, or slightly warming up the key light just to make the character blend more naturally into the environment.

Close-up shots were the most demanding, because the camera sits so close to the face that every tiny detail becomes visible. I tried to create lighting that feels more cinematic, shaping the facial features and giving the character a stronger presence without making the image look too dramatic or artificial.

Overall, this part took longer than expected, but refining the character’s lighting really helped the scenes become more expressive and visually polished.

This week, most of my time was spent rendering the animation sequences and adjusting the lighting for each individual shot. Even though the scenes share the same general setup, every shot ended up needing its own little round of tweaking. I played around quite a bit with the contrast, exposure, and overall brightness—sometimes increasing the light just a little, sometimes pulling it back again—just to make sure each frame felt visually appealing.

It became a surprisingly time-consuming process, because once you adjust one thing, something else suddenly looks a bit off, and you end up going back and forth until the image finally “feels right.” But these small adjustments really help bring out the atmosphere and give the shots more presence, so the extra time was definitely worth it.

The animation workload in Scene 6 is significantly heavier, as it represents the climax of the entire short film. For this part, I developed a more detailed animation plan, carefully choreographing the character’s movement paths and timing. I also created several close-up shots to emphasise key narrative moments and enhance the emotional impact.
Overall, this scene required the most complex coordination between camera work, character animation, and environment interaction.

Shot 6_5_4 took me a considerable amount of time to design, as it is a long, continuous sequence without any cuts. During production, I encountered a major technical challenge involving the constraints between the ring and the character’s fingers.
Because the animation required the character to switch arms and place the ring from one hand onto the other, the setup involved multiple constraint changes—activating, deactivating, and re-applying constraints at different stages. This made the shot much more complex than a standard hand interaction and required careful timing and troubleshooting to achieve a smooth result.

Scene 6 is designed as the final sacred destination of the journey. This idea actually originated during my first-semester project, where I initially explored a very rough version of this environment. At that time, I had not yet developed a clear narrative structure, so the scene functioned more as an experimental piece rather than a fully conceptualised location.

After refining the story for my FMP last semester, I decided to revisit this scene and bring it back into the project—this time with a more coherent direction and several key revisions to align it with the overall narrative.

The main revisions to this scene focus on the lighting and atmosphere, with some adjustments made to the props as well. I introduced a number of red elements—including flowing fabric strips with high saturation—to intensify the visual tension. Through the use of colour, I wanted the audience to immediately sense a heightened feeling of danger and unease as they approach this final sacred place.

I also made several adjustments to the central statue. My intention was to convey the idea of a demon being sheltered—or seemingly protected—by an angel. This ties directly into the narrative twist: the demon, who is the story’s final boss, has been disguising himself as a church council member, manipulating and luring lost souls into corruption and assimilation.
Because of this narrative layer, the statue’s revised symbolism adds an interesting contrast to the scene’s atmosphere, creating a subtle sense of deception and hidden danger.

Scene 5 is, in my opinion, the most challenging part of the project. Creating a desert environment comes with the risk of the entire scene looking flat and monotonous, so I gathered a large amount of visual references. Eventually, I decided to base the overall composition on a Diablo concept art piece, which provided a strong foundation for both the terrain complexity and atmospheric mood.

For the lighting, I took inspiration from the opening cinematic of Dark Souls III, aiming for a similar dramatic tone. I unified the overall colour purity and slightly increased the saturation to strengthen the visual impact. To enhance depth in the distance, I used layered fog cards, allowing the environment to build a sense of scale and atmospheric separation.

The animation in this scene mainly focuses on the character’s forward movement. Its purpose is to showcase the environment and convey the overall atmosphere, allowing the audience to fully sense the scale and mood of the desert setting.

The animation workload in Scene 3 is relatively light, so I decided to present it together with Scene 4. The animation in Scene 3 mainly focuses on the protagonist’s movement—a simple emotional walk cycle that leads her to the altar. At the end of the sequence, she kneels in front of the shrine. The shot then transitions into the next scene using a cinematic camera-style cut, creating a smooth narrative shift.

Scene 4 serves as the ceremonial space where the protagonist receives her mission and is sent on her pilgrimage to the Holy Sanctuary. Compared with the previous scene, this environment is intentionally designed to feel darker and more foreboding. I used green as the dominant colour palette to create a subtle sense of unease, hinting that something ominous is about to unfold.
Through the lighting design, I aimed to influence the viewer’s psychological response—pushing the atmosphere away from sacred solemnity and closer to tension and uncertainty.

The animation in Scene 4 is also fairly simple, focusing mainly on the moment when the protagonist rises and walks towards the altar. To ensure a smooth transition into Scene 5, I used a “movement-to-movement” style cut, ending the animation right as the character steps forward. This editing approach keeps the motion continuous across scenes and strengthens the overall narrative flow.

Scene 3 takes place in a prayer chamber within a monastic environment. In this moment, the protagonist pauses to pray, allowing the audience to observe a glimpse of her daily rituals and adding emotional depth to the overall story. This scene also provides a quieter contrast to the tension in the previous sequences, grounding the character’s inner world before the narrative escalates again.

Visually, I was strongly inspired by the monastery atop the highest peak in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, home of the Greybeards. The architecture, atmosphere, and sense of spiritual isolation from that location offered valuable reference points for my own composition. I wanted the space to feel solemn yet intimate, ancient yet lived-in—a place where the protagonist’s faith and doubts coexist.

For the lighting, I experimented with a warm, concentrated key light to capture the ambience of a sunset filtering into the room. This golden, almost sacred glow highlights the character in a soft but dramatic way, suggesting a moment of contemplation before the story darkens again. To enhance the visual interest, I introduced multiple layers of subtle fill lights, shaping the stone surfaces and guiding the viewer’s eye. These adjustments helped the environment feel more painterly, with richer depth and a stronger sense of atmosphere.

Scene 2 focuses on a moment that takes place in the church’s study or scriptorium. In contrast to Scene 1—where the events are framed as the protagonist’s memory—this scene shifts back to the present, hinting that something dangerous is drawing closer. Towards the end of the sequence, the shadowy figure of the demon appears, signalling the threat that is about to unfold.

This part of the animation introduces the antagonist of the story—a demon who has existed for a long time. It serves as an early foreshadowing of his presence and role within the narrative.

The animation in Scene 1 focuses on the confrontation between the protagonist and her mentor, followed by the moment where the protagonist is defeated. The actions are not overly complex, but I designed a series of key movements, including the character poses during the standoff, the preparation and anticipation motions, as well as the timing and speed of the fall. These elements were all carefully considered to support the emotional rhythm of the scene.
For the more complex shots, I also created corresponding animation references to guide the final performance.

It is worth mentioning the cloth simulation in this scene. Instead of using traditional Marvelous Designer simulations—which are very time-consuming and demanding on performance—I used Maya’s built-in nCloth system for the cloth dynamics. I will show the final simulation results at the end of this section.