Lusine Kirakosyan

Virtual Short Film (Unreal Engine)
2025

The Team/ Siqi,Diana,Lusine, Chien, Nidhushan in front of the LED screen


Duration: 4 Month
Team: Siqi, Nidhushan, Diana, Chien
My Role: Storyboarding, Virtual Production & Post-Production
Tools: Unreal Engine 5 ·
OptiTrack · Motion Capture (MoCap) · Green Screen ·
LED Wall · Blender · AI Storyboarding ·
Adobe Premiere Pro · Adobe Photoshop · DaVinci


PROJECT OVERVIEW


This project was a collaborative virtual short film created in Unreal Engine. Rather than telling a traditional story, it presents an abstract fragment of life that begins and ends in the same place, exploring the idea of cyclical experiences through the blending of physical and virtual worlds.

To achieve this, we combined multiple virtual production techniques, including a green screen, LED wall, and motion capture, allowing the real and digital environments to coexist seamlessly. Instead of using multiple actors, we focused on a single performer while creating a second digital persona through motion capture.

The project involved research, story development, storyboarding, character development, virtual environment creation, technical setup, filming, motion capture, and post-production. While each team member had primary responsibilities, we frequently collaborated and supported one another throughout the production process.


Mocap, rigging/testing body 
Green screen preperation 
Chien infron of  LED screen, testing through camera 


Pre-production 


We began by defining the overall concept and developing the storyboard. (I'll describe the story in more detail later.) At this stage, our focus was on understanding the visual flow, the transitions between scenes, and the overall rhythm of the film. We went through several iterations before finalizing the sequence of events.


Working process / Chien Dancing in Mocap setup / Laptop show the epsodes from the reherasals. 

As the project evolved, so did our production approach. Our initial plan was to shoot using only an LED wall, but we later decided to combine three techniques: an LED wall, a green screen, and motion capture. Since the story moves between physical and virtual spaces, using multiple production methods gave us greater creative flexibility. We also chose to shoot several scenes on a green screen as a backup, which ultimately proved very valuable during production.

AI generated story board
Sketches for transitions between the screns / Camera postition
Character inspiration
Storyboarding with tags, where we need to have Green Screen/LED Screen /Virtual reality


Storyboard & Rehearsals


Before stepping onto the virtual production stage, we held several rehearsals to validate our storyboard and camera plan. Our first rehearsal was done with a regular camera, where I created rough visual overlays to simulate how the final scenes would look. This allowed us to test composition, framing, and transitions long before filming.

Rehearsal screenshot / chasing the ball
Rehearsal screenshot  / ender the portal
Rehearsal screenshot  / escape
Filming / chasing the ball
Film day / 2 / ender the portal
Film day / escape

These storyboard references became an essential guide throughout production. During the motion capture sessions, we continuously referred back to them to recreate the planned shots and maintain consistency. The images below compare the early storyboard and rehearsal frames with the final shots captured on set, illustrating how the concept evolved from initial sketches to the finished production.


Note: Additional production documentation, behind-the-scenes materials, and the final film will be added soon.