2025
Green screen shooting, Keying, Compositing, Camera tracking,
3D modeling, Video editing, and Sound design
Lumina is a VFX project that investigates how social media shapes our identity: is it a tool for personal growth or self-distruction? In this video, the internet is seen as an open door for exploring the infinite possibilities of our identity that we otherwise wouldn't even imagine. The main character leads a frustrating and meaningless life, because what she sees around her doesn't satisfy her. Once a change in perspective occurs, she discovers a new world of possibilities and therefore realises that there is not only one way to live. She is now able to choose a path that truly resonates with her.
Created in collaboration with Alice Signorelli.
Conceptualisation
When investigating the concept of digital reflections, we realised we both had the same experience: we saw the internet as an open door for exploring the infinite possibilities of our identity that we otherwise wouldn't know.
Through a conversation with my peer, a lot of interesting concepts emerged, and we realized that our experience could have been translated into a precise feeling, that of belonging and freedom. We were imagining a lot of metaphors that could help us envision this experience, and after a few ideas we found a very simple narrative: we could portray the internet as a parallel reality where one’s identity is free to express itself. We imagined our character venturing into this world through a portal, but not just a simple door, a mirror, because, in the end, this parallel reality is nothing but a reflection of the protagonist’s true self.
To represent this experience in a sensorial way, we decided to not venture into the parallel reality, but instead signify the change the character is experiencing by watching her original reality shift to fit her better. From a colorless world, the discoveries the protagonist goes through fill her reality with blue light, a projection of a newly gained softness and power.
To create Lumina we began creating a storyboard and a mood board. We wanted to make sure that the actions were simple yet impactful. Afterwards, we created a shooting plan and shot all the footage on green screen. It was very interesting to help our actress encapsulate the emotions of the main character, and guide her to the mental state we were trying to portray.
After the footage was shot, we created an environment in Blender, modeling and animating different assets. I worked on the lightbulb and its flickering, and the mirror-portal, which had to both reflect the room and emit light.
Once the environment was modeled, we proceeded to render and test the camera angles with very quick slap-comps. Once the final renders were approved, we focused on compositing the videos on the rendered shots of our Blender scene, through keying and camera tracking on Nuke.
Finally, we edited the video all together and designed an appropriate sound scape to accompany the footage and help the main message come across. The volume levels and style of the audio reflect the change that was happening within the main character.