1.Core narrative concept
This video aims to present a terrifying experience through the perspective of a voyeur in the first person. The protagonist accidentally enters an ancient and mysterious forbidden place and undergoes this terrifying encounter.
The audience is no longer in the position of an all-knowing God or a bystander at a solemn ceremony, but rather an “uninvited guest”. This perspective, realizing that they are peeping at something that should not be seen (the funeral procession in Xiangxi), generates a profound survival fear that stems from the unknown.

2.Description
I created a high-amplitude shake effect for the camera, which represents the adrenaline rush of the voyeur as they run through the forest, constantly running frantically due to extreme fear.
Among them, the sudden flip and loss of focus of the camera, while running, due to the complex terrain and a chaotic mind, the voyeur would frequently fall. The camera violently landed on the ground, capturing the flipped soil, blurry ferns,
as well as the fear and desire for light, that mysterious source of light, being the only hope for the voyeur to see the direction clearly, and also the root that exposes his whereabouts and might bring about a curse. He must constantly struggle between looking at the light source, seeking direction and escaping from it.Regarding Match-moving, in order to simulate the real motion of the eavesdropper, I simulated the actions of hand-held shaking and falling in the Blender virtual camera to enhance the narrative tension of the POV.

Production Process

1.I used ZBrush to sculpt the high-poly model of the original character, focusing on the detailed headdress and traditional costume design.

2.I created the character’s long robe with wide sleeves in Marvelous Designer to achieve realistic cloth draping and natural folds.

3.I used Substance Painter to create realistic textures for the headwear and costumes, creating a retro and textured material effect. Additionally, I wore thinning treatments on the robes to simulate their condition after years of exposure to damp and mountainous environments.

4.I built the forest scene and finished basic rendering and composition in Blender.

5.VFX Compositing (Nuke): The final mood was achieved in Nuke. I employed a high-contrast, desaturated color grade to evoke a “night-vision” or noir-horror atmosphere.

connection to the Inspiration
My video did not directly show the “funeral procession” (because the peeping person was too scared and could only take a peek from a very distant place, or even refused to look back at all). Instead, I wanted to create the “sombre, misty landscape of Xiangxi”

Aesthetic Style
Scene: I aim to create an atmosphere of claustrophobia.

Sound effect production：The voyeur’s rapid and heavy breathing sounds.
In the background, a clear and terrifying funeral bell can be faintly heard.

The encountered difficulties
Computer lag and crashes: This was the biggest problem I faced. When I placed the detailed character models and dense forests together in Blender, my computer’s memory often overflowed, causing the software to crash and exit.
Excessive camera shake: Because I wanted to simulate a fall, the camera shake was too intense, causing the characters to frequently go outside the frame.
Solution: I added a Constraint to the camera, making it shake while always roughly facing the direction of the character.
Synthesis of crows: The edges of the crow materials were too sharp, looking fake.
Solution: I used the Z-depth node to have the crows be partially obscured by the fog in the forest, thus perfectly blending into the background.