At the end of the week, I was feeling pretty confused. So I went to ask my teacher, Serra, for help and feedback. I remember Serra said my story had too much animation, it would be very hard to finish in such a short time. She suggested that I change my story board to a first-person perspective. That way, I’d have less animation to do, and it would help the viewer feel more immersed in the forest atmosphere. I think she made a really good point. For someone newbird to UE5 like me, it’s not about making an amazing story right away—it’s more important to understand and get comfortable with the tools in UE5 (especially since I’m still not very familiar with it, and often don’t even know how to do certain things).
I started feeling more and more anxious, but what’s the use of worrying? I just had to start taking action. Gradually, I noticed the scenes I was building didn’t really match my story anymore. So I decided to change my original story concept. The current version of the story is roughly this:
(First-person view) “I” walk through a dim forest, feeling nervous and scared by the atmosphere, kind of like the forest Snow White runs into when the hunter spares her. There aren’t actually scary creatures in the forest, the fear is just imagination. Then, as I run in panic, I end up lost and stumbling into a beautiful new place by accident.
So I started adjusting my UE5 project accordingly. I also plan to experiment with lighting to make the whole forest feel more atmospheric. But before that, I tried walking through the story in first person view, just to test it out.
Then, to create a sense of mystery while transitioning from the tense forest to the magical forest—just like in my storyboard where a hand emerges from the bushes, followed by a little boy, I placed a large bush at the middle between the two style of forests. This way, it can partially hide the view and help build that feeling of mystery.
