Escape
Escape is a 3D horror animation short film created collaboratively by a team of four for my 3D Animation coursework. The story follows the explorer, Echo, who encounters the ghost, Null, while exploring an old mansion, leading to an intense chase. The main characters, Echo and Null, use low-poly 3D models from the Unity Asset Store, and the animation incorporates IK animation, mirror reflection effects, and horror-themed lighting adjustments. The overall visual style is inspired by horror movies like Insidious and The Conjuring.
This project gave me a comprehensive experience of the 3D animation production pipeline. I practically handled scene setup, atmosphere creation, animation techniques, and cross-team collaboration, making it a complete production experience that combined art, technology, and project management.
Key features & challenges
- Low-poly Echo and Null character models sourced from the Unity Asset Store
- Custom mirror reflection built from a second camera with angle and clipping-plane control
- Dark atmospheric lighting with a randomised lightning flash effect
- IK animation and Timeline-driven character sequences
- Tone and visual style inspired by horror films such as Insidious and The Conjuring
My contributions
- Environment construction: built the outdoor environment including the mansion, surrounding forest, and overall scene composition. Designed a custom Sky Dome with adjustable transparency to create a fog effect not achievable through Unity's built-in tools.
- Lighting and atmosphere: adjusted indoor and outdoor lighting to match the horror theme and created a lightning effect to enhance dramatic tension.
- Creature animation and scripting: created animations for the cat, including walking, running, and reacting to characters. Developed behavioural scripts for spiders to reinforce the eerie tone of the film.
- Horror props and set dressing: designed and placed elements such as hanging corpses to strengthen the narrative impact and visual tension.
- Technical challenge: implemented a mirror reflection effect using an additional camera, angle control, and clipping planes. This required precise adjustments to avoid visual artifacts, incorrect reflections, or rendering issues.
- Project management: managed the GitHub repository, handled branching, Git LFS large file management, and resolved merge conflicts to support smooth team collaboration.