Preproduction: Fall Quarter 4/4
- Oct 28, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Dec 16, 2025
Details work from class sixteen to class twenty (checkpoint class) of the Fall Quarter at SCAD. Blog posts arranged from newest to oldest.
Project Drive:
Project Shot List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y1-DKGdcjgM3FcTvOirFuHcpqTPOWDmjmlm5wzcjg6w/edit?usp=sharing
Other Group Member Blogs:
Hannah Kim | |
Benji Hopkins | |
Olivia Wesling | |
Sydney Relkin | |
Charlie Ragland | |
Mia Esparragoza |
11/12/25
After a quarter of planning out the project, here is out final previs cut for the end of Fall Quarter 2025.
11/9/25
Today, I focused on getting some of the previs done for the shots with the cocoon in them for our final cut. I created a very basic forest set up with cylinders to place the cocoon
I then did some quick placement of leaves to show that other cocoons have been laid in this forest clearing before.
11/8/2025
Today was our official green screen shoot day! This was the first time that all of our whole on set crew and our actress could be together and get some really cool shots! This was a really cool day as we were able to see all of our planning, recruiting, and work from the quarter all come together.
On this day, I not only acted as director but also acted as makeup artist. After doing a few different tests on myself and others, I was able to do the makeup for our actress before the shoot.
One of the most challenging shots we did was the shot where our fairy is seen running away from an unseen monster. This scene gave us some issues during our test shoot as we were testing ways to get the family to smoothly follow the fairy as she ran. We came up with two possible solutions: using a motion control slider or using a treadmill. During the shoot, we brought out the walking pad/treadmill and this did not work as there was no way to have the actress safely run, act, and now fall. Therefore, we went ahead and set up a longer motion control slider and slid the camera on as the actress ran across the green screen stage.
Another really cool thing we got to see with this shoot was how our production designer's work look on camera. We were really impressed with how real the show looked!
11/6/25
Today, I spent more time in substance refining my cocoon material that I had previously created. I wanted to add more layers of veins and just more variation in general. I continued to use the references that I previously detailed in a blog post. Here is my current base color for the cocoon:
There are a few things I still want to fix upon taking some time away and coming back to this material:
I want to blur out some of the vein lines and make them more seamless
I want to go back to some of my original texturing where I had the base looking more like a gradient with the bottom glowing brighter.
For this quarter's previs, I'll be moving forward with this texture.
11/4/25
Today, I was able to officially lock down a modeler for the project! Her name is Sloane Blake and she'll be modeling some trees, vines, and other forest elements in the project! I had a brief call with her today and gave her some references to go off of:
Hannah was then also able to draw up some concert art as reference for the trees and vines:
In other news, this past weekend I have spent figuring out a camera reservation issue. Upon going to the cage in person, we found out that our reservation would be completely denied because of the project being a VFX project. We then jumped through hoops this weekend involving emailing the cage manager and the chair of our department until finally the camera reservation was approved! However, we did hit another bump in the road. Our gaffer has cancelled on us for our shoot so we need to find another gaffer in just 5 days. We're using every resource we have to try and find this gaffer and hopefully we'll be able to find someone as soon as possible.
10/28/25
Today, I wanted to get an initial rabbit FX test in. Though we don't have any final animation yet as we are waiting for the animators, I wanted to start doing some particle simulation tests early on.
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to the Redwood forests in California for a personal trip. While there, I was able to take a ton of photos as reference for the project.
From being in this forest, I specifically feel like I can get a better idea of how big the trees should feel. I also love the appearance of the smaller trees with bigger trees beside them.
Here is a list of some things to add to the environment based on new reference:
change the scale to match similar to a redwood forest
mushrooms!!
Trees that are fallen
Trees that are growing from other trees
Today, I also went ahead and did my producer role and made sure everyone was assigned certain deadlines in the group so that we can stay on track for the end of the quarter.
"Hey everyone. So since we are in the home stretch of the quarter, I want to get us all on track and also get all of the feedback done that Joe said last class. Therefore, I am going to give some pretty hard deadlines for everyone. Group members need to stick to these deadlines, think of them as a professor assigning finals please.
Mia: Have environment up to date after critique by Saturday- 11/8 so we can then render out all of the shots for the edit.
Charlie: Have lighting with stand in done for all of scene 2 - ready for critique by next Wednesday- 11/5. That way we can do any revisions before the Friday shoot so prepare to possibly change things on Thursday or if you can get all the lighting locked before then we can critique earlier. Afterwards, do lighting for scene one and three previs as needed.
Olivia: Place the camera and do unreal previs for all of scene three. Edit together the final cut before the 6 am deadline - if sound design can't get anything to us then find a free sound bite online to add to the edit.
Hannah: Have a test FX for the moonlight glow done by Sunday- 11/9 to inset for the end of quarter cut. Help with rendering anything out for the cut/comps.
Me: Have the cocoon fully textured and placed with the leaves. Get a rabbit FX test done by 11/9 for quarter cut. Do the previs for all of scene one in Unreal plus 2K and 2M.
Benji: Costuming done by early week nine for final costume test (I've triple texted annie, still no reply yet but pending.
Sydney: Prepare to do quick comps after Sunday 11/9 with the rendered environments. Get the wing wireframe done before shoot day."
Lastly, today I made a gofundme for the project that we can use of the break to try and raise some more funds for the project before our XR Stage shoot. All of the group members will be sending this out to friends and family and funds will go towards food on set, production design cost, and costume design costs.