RESEARCH QUESTION
How can the combination of live-action and surreal visualisation effectively portray the feeling and sensations of lucid dreaming for a general audience?
Tagline : welcome to a beach where everything is possible. And nothing is real
Treatment
The story opens with The Man waking up on a beach unlike any he's ever seen. Towering, impossible rock formations pierce the sky, and strange buildings defy gravity on a distant mountain. Disoriented and scared, he searches for any sign of familiarity but finds only a landscape that seems to bend to its own rules.
The world around him is constantly shifting. Day turns to night unexpectedly, doors turn to jelly, and a giant, a plushie inexplicably appears and chases him. He encounters a railway that seems to lead to another reality, filled with people walking along the sand.
The Man desperately tries to understand his situation and find a way out. He searches for clues, but the beach seems to actively resist his attempts to escape. As the days (or perhaps they are not days?) turn into weeks, the line between reality and dream blurs.
Week 1
Image reference
What is my Intended Project ?
In this visual effect short film. I want to focus on how people control their dream while they lucid dreaming. I will use CGI models integrated into the live action short film.
Themes
surreal
After life
Sci-fi
Thriller
Lucid dream
Fantasy
Visual Style
Minimalism
Hyperrealism
aesthetic
Contemporary photography
Dir inspiration. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, wong kar wai, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Film Inspiration
Nope
Slumberland
Blade runner
The creator
Inception
Week 2
moodboards
Research question (fixed)
(broader target audience)
How can 3D models in a film help people understand lucid dreaming better?
How can the combination of hyperrealistic live-action and surreal 3D models effectively portray lucid dreaming for a general audience?
Scene reference
Character reference
Chicken, Duck, bear
Chubby
plushie
Fluffy animal
Week 3
Filming Location
Karekare Beach
Piha beach
Whatipu Beach
Karekare Beach
whatipu beach
Logline
A disoriented man awakens on a surreal beach, where the rules of reality dissolve as he searches for meaning and escape.
SCRIPT
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH – DAY
The man stumbles out onto a beach unlike any he's ever seen. In the distance, impossible rock formations pierce the sky, and strange buildings on the mountain defy gravity.
He takes a tentative step forward, his face looking confused. He looks around, searching for any sign of familiarity, but sees nothing but the strange landscape.
CUT TO:
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH – DAY - CONT’D
A big fluffy duck doll (VFX) APPEARS behind the man. He LOOKS back and is terrified. The man freezes, momentarily paralyzed by the absurdity of the situation. Then, realizing the danger, he turns and sprints away.
CUT TO:
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH – DAY
The man looks back at the fluffy duck and uses his arms to protect his face. SUDDENLY, the Fluffy duck disappears.
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH – NIGHT - CONT’D
The sky TURNS to dark.
He sees a spotlight point above the wooden door in front of him. The man RUSHING toward the door, trying to open the doorknob, but the door suddenly softens like a jelly.
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH – DAY
A high-pitched noise louder in the distance. The man covers his ears and turns his head around very quick, looking for a sound source.
CUT TO:
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH – DAY
A railway appears on the beach. The man walks along the railway and looks up; he sees destroyed buildings and people walking on the beach.
CUT TO:
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH – DAY
The man walks to one of the buildings, and suddenly, a bright light appears with a high-pitched noise, knocking the man out.
CUT TO:
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH – DAY (blue hour)
The man wakes up on the tall grass and walks up to see what happened. But a detail reveals it was all a dream, and he's still trapped.
Week 4
Thumbnails
Outline board

Did a research reference of plushie in Toy Story 4
Week 5
I went to Whatipu beach to do a location scouting.
HDRI test
Captured in Polycam HDRI
Render test in Blender. Using free assets
Week 6
Modelled a plushie in Nomad Sculpt on iPad and textured in Substance Painter
Feedback from Hossein Najafi
Redesign arms and eyes/ make them bigger.
Storyboard
Feedback
Add more elements related to the Thai culture that I wanted to bring into the film (props, buildings)
Storytelling needs to be clearer.
Improve in camera angle.
Week 7
Render test of the building in MAYA using HDRI
Week 8
Obstacle: Plushie, beeping sound at the start.
Objective: a cinema, which is a way out
Character Background: In the coma, find the way out from the dreamworld to the consciousness.
Costume ideas.
I will show patient monitoring at the end beside the character.
Week 9
This week I modelled two assets (telephone box and patient monitor) and improve the details on the cinema by retextured the lightbox and add flags.
Reference image
Telephone box
Wireframe
Reference image
Patient monitor (Bionet bm5vet elite)
Reference image
Week 10
Textured in substance painter. Added sticker to improve the realism
NEW SCRIPT
Logline
A disoriented man awakens on a surreal beach, where the rules of reality dissolve as he searches for meaning and escape.
SCRIPT
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH - DAY
Sand-covered and dazed, Ezekiel sits up. An unfamiliar beach stretches out before him. In the distance, a turquoise art deco building with a neon "Scala" sign beckons. Hope flickers. Maybe the cinema offers escape.
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH - CONTINUOUS
He treks towards the Scala, but a giant blue plushie blocks his path. Panic surges. He sprints, the plushie lumbering after him. Suddenly, he trips, landing hard. Gasping, he looks up - the plushie is gone. Unease settles in.
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH - CONTINUOUS
A red door appears. Relief washes over him. He reaches for the knob, but the door crumbles to dust. Deflated, he continues towards the Scala.
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH - CONTINUOUS
Reaching the cinema, a blinding light erupts from the building, knocking him unconscious.
EXT. KAREKARE BEACH - DUSK
Ezekiel stirs, blinking away the fading light. He's sprawled on cool grass, not sand. A low, rhythmic beep pierces the quiet. Beside him, a strange machine with a blinking light displays a wavy line. Panic claws at him. Was it all a dream?
He lunges for the machine, the plastic casing giving way under his grasp. His fingers brush against... nothing. Just sand.
Modelled the red door from the reference image of Wat pho temple.
Did some extra work for turntable by model and textured a round turntable.

Week 11
HDRI captured on Polycam.
Rought edit and color grading in Premiere pro.
*Most of the shot are stable Grab stills
Simulation test in Houdini
Disintegration effect
Week 12
composting test
Rotoscope in After Effects


Week 13
Camera tracking in Nuke
Encountering jittering in camera tracking forced me to retract and render again
video example
Redshift rendering
Week 14
This week, I made adjustments to each scene to improve realism and aesthetics.
Week 15
I redid the monster's keyframe animation to improve smoothness and reduce jittering
(HDRI)
In the disintegration FX simulated in Houdini, I made several attempts to find the best-looking simulation.
Start the simulation at frame 135
Frame start 1 and End 212
I rendered the sequence in Houdini (Karma) instead of Maya (Redshift) due to issues with the mesh export to Maya
I rendered the grass in Maya and composited it with the simulation in Nuke to enhance realism.
I focused on redoing the keyframing for the floating object animation in the background. I wanted to make the motion feel smoother and more in sync with the rest of the scene. The adjustments really helped improve the overall flow and visual consistency
Week 16
This week, I added a human billboard to my scene, using an image reference to make it feel more real. It helped fill some empty space and made the overall look more natural and immersive.
I worked on the door scene’s color correction in Nuke. It was all about getting the tones just right to match the rest of the scene.
I’ve been working on keyframing and rendering the monster character in Blender, using the Wiggle 2 plugin to add smoother, more dynamic movement. To ensure the character fits naturally into the scene, I applied an HDRI from the live-action location.