Once I solidified the concept for my FMP, I moved on to storyboarding and previsualisation. This stage wasn’t tied to exact dates, but it took place early in my summer break. I spent around two weeks on previs, working scene by scene to understand how the pacing, camera movements, and transitions would work.
The storyboards helped me map out the key beats:
- The animator working late at night
- The moment he falls asleep
- The Maya character coming alive
- The teleportation into Unreal Engine
- The Blender character encounter
- The beginning of their rivalry
Creating previs during the summer gave me a strong roadmap before diving into full production. It wasn’t perfect, but it allowed me to experiment freely with ideas, spacing, and scene layout without worrying about detailed visuals yet.
Previs
At the same time, I started collecting references for character design. Since I wanted my main Maya character to be semi-realistic with stylised hair, I studied characters from games like Final Fantasy, Devil May Cry, and even some anime-inspired 3D works. I also experimented with the Ahoge plugin to generate realistic hair without using XGen, but I ultimately rejected it because I didn’t like the final result. So I stuck with a stylised hair approach.
Moodboard
For the Blender character, I chose Ramon Arango’s “Mars” rig, and for the animator I used the “Mireuk” rig by the same artist. These rigs fit the aesthetic and saved me time so I could focus my efforts on creating my hero character from scratch.
This stage helped me clearly see the visual style, pacing, and character interactions of the entire film before modelling even began.