Introduction

This Video describes a story about death and love. It’s a first-person animated experience that tells a special story about love and freedom through the eyes of a cat.

I’ve focused on creating stunning visuals with beautiful lighting and sound, rather than complex character movements. At first, you’ll feel like you’re watching a human’s daily life at home, with the main character seeming like a responsible family member. But as the story unfolds, some strange feelings and odd sounds will slowly creep in, making you wonder if something isn’t quite right.

Eventually, you’ll realize you’ve been seeing the world through the eyes of an incredibly smart and caring orange cat. The film builds to a dramatic moment when the cat’s quest for freedom leads to an accident. Yet, it’s not the end. The short takes an emotional turn, showing its consciousness move beyond its body, as it offers a final, loving goodbye to its human family.

This project aims to show that true wisdom, love, and the desire for freedom can exist in ways we often overlook, inviting you to reflect on the deep connections and inherent value of all lives.

Inspiration and reference

Initially, I just had a story about pets, but wanting to express this story with the technology I have mastered means that I need to make a lot of cat animations and also need a very detailed cat model. These two are not my strengths, so I have to find a way to avoid them so that I can have more time to study my scene performance and lens language.

I thought of a short film I watched when I was studying Metahuman, ‘Blue Dot’, in which a man was telling his own story to the audience. As he walked, he entered various scenes without switching shots. Finally, when he reached the end, he found that it was his own body. It turned out that he had died in a car accident.

This story inspired me greatly, and its dramatic narrative style is truly captivating. To address modeling requirements, I could change the perspective to a first-person perspective. However, this presented a new challenge. In typical first-person film, television, or game productions, parts of the subject, such as hands and feet, are inevitably visible. After the subject disappears from the frame, the movements of the body often carry a significant narrative weight. Otherwise, the entire scene would become empty, which would appear hollow.

Then I found this movie that solved my worries, ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’. In this movie, some clever tricks are used to show us the world through the eyes of the male protagonist who is paralyzed in a car accident.

Copywriting/ style

The film follows a classic three-act structure: beginning, development, climax and end. The story is told through a first-person voice-over in a poetic style. This helps to better express the protagonist’s emotions and adds to the film’s lyrical feel.

Beginning
An ordinary day has begun. The sunlight falls gently, warm and kind. 
My family has gone out with the old dog, and now only I remain.
 The house is quiet, and I sit on the sofa, taking in the stillness as though it were a gift.
It is time to step outside and breathe the open air. 
Development
The joy of running across the grass is still the same as before.
 In the glow of the sunset, Mary’s two children chase each other, full of life, as children at that age always are. Yet they mind my words, and while I am here, Mary may rest a little. 
I think I love her—yes, she has children, but that matters little; what matters is only this: I love her, and I want her happiness.
Climax
The night air was piercingly cold, the dew making the road gleam wet beneath my feet. 
I walked alone along that silent street; physical unease grew upon me, my senses blurred, and I thought I should go home. 
A headlamp struck my eyes and the engine's roar split the night — in a single instant metal met flesh. 
The iron beast did not pause for such a slight brush; it vanished into the dark as swiftly as it had come.
 In that moment I knew:  I was dead — the orange warmth my body had once held, like sunlit rice-fields, turned as cold as the night.
Ending
Ah, so this is the end. How ironic, that I, the watchful guardian, should depart before that old dog, who sleeps so soundly... My clumsy one, where have you gone? Ever since those pale phantoms first appeared, you missed this final touch. But don’t weep. I am only setting out on a long road, and one day, perhaps, you’ll follow.

• Most of the images in this section are generated by AI

Scene 1- Living room

Project download from Fab:

The layout and lighting were adjusted.

Scene 2- Lakeland

Scene 3- Night street

Project download from Fab：

Change the skylight and layout, add plants.

Work in Nuke

I needed to create a composition, and that’s when I discovered that an AI tool provided by Nuke was very useful.

Scene 4-Life Flashing

Mixed cut

Editing Techniques Reference

Editing process in CapCut.

I created a simple screen in Unreal Engine to play the edited video on the screen.

BGM

Initially, I wanted to use this music, which comes from a movie, but considering potential copyright issues, I decided to look for a similar, royalty-free piece of music.

Then I found this website, which offers free music, as long as the credits are given at the end.

Instrumentation Piano – Scott Buckley – Creative Commons Music Library

I also prepared some sound effects for this video.

Final edit in Pr

Actually, I’m not good at do this. This time, the content is primarily abstract, which increases the difficulty of editing. So I asked Lu@24040830 for help. He’s very good at this and helped me organize the editing logic, making the final product look very smooth.

Other processes

I done my preparation in Mirror, I think it’s a good tool to collect information and reference.

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVJZ30gCo=/?share_link_id=863063856600

Breakdown

Finished product

Final work

Reflection Report

Looking back at Afterglow, the biggest challenge wasn’t rendering; it was transforming pure technical control into genuine emotion. Our core idea—using visual distortion (telephoto, chromatic aberration) to simulate the cat’s subjective panic—was a huge risk. The breakthrough came with Lumen. Its real-time feedback allowed us to feel the emotional impact of a color change instantly. We could fine-tune the blue of isolation, or the white of final release, on the fly.

This project confirmed the thesis: UE5 is not just a faster renderer; it’s a co-director. It forced me to stop being a VFX operator and become a cinematographer first. The final result feels raw and intimate, proving that non-verbal, purely digital storytelling can achieve profound emotional resonance when technical precision is intentionally used to serve psychological truth.