Overmorrow – Short Film
Responsible for all aspects with the exception of specified assets
Overmorrow – Short Film
(Unreal Engine 5.6, Maya 2024, Adobe Substance 3D Painter, Procreate, Adobe After Effects 2025, DaVinci Resolve 20, 97 seconds, August 2025- May 2026)
Overmorrow is a science fiction short film, exploring a space station in each phase of its life. The short is split into three segments, each focusing on a different aspect of the station’s history, from it’s prime to it’s eventually abandonment.
My capstone project explores how light and environmental design conveys a narrative. The project is an animated short film that primarily conveys it’s narrative through lighting design, environmental design, and audio cues. This project was created independently. I am responsible for all aspects with the exception of select models.
If you would like an in-depth week by week breakdown of the film’s process please visit the blog linked below!
Lighting and Compositing
(Unreal Engine 5.6, DaVinci Resolve 20, After Effects 2026, 60 seconds, August 2025-April 2026)
Overmorrow is primarily an exploration of lighting design. The film has three key tonal shift changes, respectively named Prime, Crisis, and Abandoned. Many different lighting iterations were completed to create the desired look for the film. Different testing was done to create a lighting rig that looked natural for the light fixtures on the wall that both illuminated the space, enhanced the visual look, interacted with the fog and surfacing correctly, and rendered correctly using Lumen with no errors.
Color grading was completed in DaVinci Resolve 20. The color grading is saturated and intense to blend science fiction aesthetics with the retro look of Art Deco. Additional camera effects and sound editing was completed in After Effects 2026. All sound used is copyright free.
VFX
(Unreal Engine 5.6, 60 seconds, August 2025-April 2026)
All VFX was done in render inside of Unreal Engine 5.6 using Niagara. The VFX created using Niagara included an ember system and an electrical spark system for the Crisis section of the film. A fog volume was also created to give the hallway a hazy effect to emulate the smoky aesthetic of 1920s speakeasies. This fog volume was made using exponential height fog and an additive material using Unreal Engine’s material graphs. The fog was created this way to keep it confined to the hallway and not appear in Space.
Modeling, Texturing, and Sourcing Assets
(Maya 2024, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine 5.6, October 2025-April 2026)
The hallway was modeled in Maya 2024 and Surfaced in Adobe Substance Painter. The surfacing style of the film was inspired by comic books and acrylic paintings. However, the film still aimed to maintain the reflectiveness and specular look of realistic metal and glass textures. These two elements were blended together to create a distinct surfacing style that fit the film’s unique aesthetic. All models and textures were then transferred to Unreal Engine after completion.
Secondary assets including the flowers, fighter jets, vases, and exterior planet and were sourced from Fab marketplace. The fighter jet was made by XUEZHANG. The vase was made by Dekogon Studios and the flowers were made by Quixel Megascans. The Exterior Planet was created by Ebal Studios.
Layout
(Unreal Engine 5.6, 60 seconds, September 2025-December 2025)
Layout was done in Unreal Engine 5.6 to take advantage of the real-time rendering capabilities. After the level was white-boxed with standard shapes, layout lighting was completed, followed by a first pass of VFX. After modeling was done, the final models were placed into Unreal and first pass Camera animation was completed along with a sound pass for a rough cut of the film.
3D Animatic at the end of Semester 1
First Pass Layout and Lighting
Two VFX systems were made for the film’s Crisis section, an ember system, and spark burst effect. Both VFX systems were made in Niagara.
First Pass VFX
Concept Development
(Procreate, various sizes, August 2025)
Avalon station is the main setting of Overmorrow and has a design inspired by the Art Deco movement. Three key concept arts were made for the film, each artwork depicted a distinct section of the film to guide tone and serve as primary lighting keys.
Prime Key Art, Procreate, 9in x 12in, September 2025
Crisis Key Art, Procreate, 9in x 12in, September 2025
Abandoned Key Art, Procreate, 9in x 12in, September 2025
The hallway was designed to be modular to make layout easier in Unreal Engine. After the key arts were finalized, the hallway was broken into smaller pieces and concept art was made to be used as modeling and surfacing references.
The film opens on a poster design that establishes the station before the camera moves into the hallway. This poster design is inspired by Art Deco printing artists. The largest influence was Erte’s fashion design work.
Final storyboards were made after three rounds of critique.
