The filming and production process transformed this project. I initially chose Unity to challenge myself with new software. However, after spending significant time configuring shaders, camera setups and dome rendering pipelines, Unity felt frustratingly rigid. Every small achievement required a workaround and I felt disconnected from the actual filmmaking process.

Switching to Unreal Engine reshaped everything. Unreal is fundamentally cinematic and Sequencer feels like a film editing tool rather than a game engine component. Once I imported my character and set up the bed and brain models, the world began taking shape smoothly. Lighting was especially important since the environment was nearly empty, the soft reflections on the dark floor and the glow from the brain needed to carry all the atmosphere.

Animating the character became a central challenge. Using Mixamo animations for waking up, yawning, walking and reaching was straightforward at first, but blending them into a seamless performance required frame-by-frame adjustment. I spent considerable time trimming, aligning and easing transitions inside Sequencer. Even small details like how the character shifts their weight while standing up made a big difference in selling the realism.

Camera work was equally delicate. Aligning the camera precisely with the character and the brain in the centre so that it appears perfectly which projecting on the dome required precision. I adjusted the focal length, height, and rotation repeatedly until the movement felt natural.

Editing the vlog portion in After Effects brought the emotional core together. I sifted through my personal recordings, selecting moments that felt genuine rather than staged. I added glitch effects to the title sequence and recorded the footage in such a way that it appears like you are in the brain of the character and feeling everything happening to you from your own eyes. Converting the footage into equirectangular format and then into fisheye for the dome required multiple test renders. Each step refined the look and prepared the footage for projection.

The production phase merged technical experimentation with emotional storytelling. It was the moment the idea truly came alive.