Today is September 17th, 2025. I came up with this idea of documenting my thesis every week, sort of a personal diary, just something to remember by once this is over. Maybe I will even open it up for people to read. Depends on how articulate I am during these updates.
September 15 - September 21
September 15
Compiled old post-it notes and made some sketches for the animatic.
September 16
Finally showed my professor and my classmates what I want to do visually. Got some feedback including making my film more abstract in order to show more of the environment. He even suggested doing poetry in Vietnamese, which gave me an idea. I texted Vy to ask she could help me write the voice-over for my film.
I got on a call with her to discuss my ideas, and she is impressed with my story, which is honestly very flattering. Quan suggested I use higher and lower POVs for the mother and son.
September 17
I'm searching for films with great cinematography for inspiration, because if I'm going to show my environments I should show that there's a story behind it too.
Did a rough sketch of the tiger for the sculpture. Debating between drawing the animatic or do the block-out, but probably will do a redraw since that's quicker. Will try to do some block-outs this weekend.
September 18
Started on a rough block out of the first environment. I will try to get it done today.
I also spent a hot minute to create an excel sheet to visualize the production, just an attempt to look more legit I guess.
I will also try to finish my second pass of storyboard where I try to play with the camera a bit more.
September 20
Technically it's like 4AM on the 21st but let's pretend. I forgot to update for the 19th but I'm a little behind schedule. I have done the block out for the terraced paddy field, the block out for the oasis was also finished. I came up with a new concept for the Ha Long Bay one, so it wont' be just be natural environment.
I redid some of the storyboard, adding more details and camera notes, but I'm still not done with them.
Today I'm working on GAME 720, which means adding details to the interior of the stilt house. Still a work in progress though.
September 22 - September 28
September 24
A bit slowed down this week, no motivation unfortunately.
Did block-outs for the oasis scene, the Phong Nha scene and the terraced field scene. Probably will go back to the Phong Nha scene to add some spice to it or something more mystical. The Ha Long scene should be easier, I will be doing that tomorrow.
I'm thinking of making the animals and characters 2D in Dong Ho style. Let's see how that one works out.
Started working on the thesis statement, the artist statement, and the abstract, will probably get it done by tomorrow.
I kinda worked on the stilt house, the modeling is quite atrocious in my opinion, but I will polish it up this weekend, getting it done next week.
September 25
Still in development with the thesis, abstract, and artist statement. I have a rough thesis and artist statements already, but no abstract yet. However, I got the synopsis down.
Got a lot of ideas for the storyboard, I can kind of visualize the final product, or at least how I want to look like in full, so I'm excited for that at least.
Also excited to get the script at the end of this week so I can finally time how long the film is gonna be.
Last thing, I kinda work on scheduling everything a bit. They are still pretty rough plan, and I know I will not be following, but just something to keep me in check. I know that once I get the animatic out, things will feel more manageable.
September 28
I HAD THE SCRIPT!! It was only for the first and second act but still, something to work with. I did the translation for the poem, and will be working on the storyboard tomorrow.
September 29 - October 5
September 29
Did some of the storyboard. Timed the voice-over with some of the imagery. I modeled a deer candle holder as a set piece, which took a bit more than an hour and literally on the last step of merging the meshes, Maya crashed and I lost everything. That's fine. I drew the candle holder into the scene.
(Things I forgot to say yesterday)
Forgot to say but I did a voice-over for the script. Talked to Vy about what I want changed so it would match better with the storyboard I have in mind, that's why everything is not completely synced up right now.
October 6 - October 12
October 6
October 13 - October 19
October 13
It looks like I lost the update I did 2 weeks ago, and I didn't log in any updates from last week because there wasn't that much update and I was in Atlanta for most of the week, so here it is.
Vy gave me an update script two weeks ago, so it's no longer a poem. She also gave me the translation for it, will be working on the animatic with them after this. I did a very rough one last week, and it's looking like I'm going through a slide, so while in Atlanta I did some rough sketches for the scenes.
I'm going through the notes and will be working on some concept proof after this too. Tonight might be a long night.
October 19
I'm afraid I have been a little lacking when it comes to updating this. I started very simple mock-ups in Unreal Engine, still working on the oasis scene and have a rough one for the final environment. The outdoor of the house environment will be worked on soon. My hope for tomorrow is working on the rough idea of the cinematic.
October 20 - 26
October 21
Today I worked on the animatic with the screenshots from Unreal Engine. Didn't get really far with what I want to do, I only got the beginning scene up until the conflict and the very ending scene with the river returning to the sea. I think I need to calm down with the ideas and actually getting a cohesive animatic done for the candidacy review. The plan is to get it done before the end of this week so I can send it to Vy and hopefully get a script at the end of the week to update.
October 25
October 27 - November 2
October 27
Nov 3 - Nov 16
November 3
November 4
November 18
I had been busy, which then made me forget to update. I will attempt to retract my steps now.
By the 27th of October I was able to get a working script and a very rough animatic that was just screenshots pieced together. The consensus was I needed to make the story more coherent, the screenshots were almost too random and there's no flow. There were also too many environments that I was trying to tackle, so I had to omit the cave scene.
I decided to put a halt on the script (which was done, but I was working towards it matching with the screenshot animatic that I had.)
On the 3rd of November, I gave my professor a brand new "one-shot" animatic. I added some black and white concept arts to further show my ideas on top of block-outs.
Did some edits after that and prepped things for the candidacy review, which I passed.
November 6
December 12
Definitely didn't get as much done as I had hoped just because I couldn't figure out what to do with my story, but here's the big update of the past month.
I sculpted out two big stones or mountains (?), I don't know how to call them, and placed them in the environment. I'm sure they will look better with mosses and small plants covering parts of them. If not, I will redo the UVs and recolor them.
I did a block out of the paddy field to have a better understanding of the scale and resculpted the environment and the river route. Now that I look at the screenshot of the river, I think I need to reroute it more to be more wavy.
I'm also messing around with the atmsophere, I want it to be foggy for the further distance but not in a cloudy way, so I'm working to fix that.
Don't know when exactly I did this, but this was done before I went to Texas, I think. I vaguely remember doing a little bit of it during winter quarter, but I don't think it was that significant.
March 23 - April 5
Went to the Grad Mixer today, which kinda inspired me to getting back to writing these while I don't wanna work on the thesis. I will try to give as much updates as I could the past 3 weeks.
This was an edit made on Wednesday, March 25th including a new camera cut. This idea has been floating around since winter break, but now that I have to follow a deadline, I'm starting to redo the camera here to be more cinematic and cohesive with the story.
One of the feedback for this one is to take more time with the subtitles.
For Monday, March 30th I was able to compile a full first cut of the new environment. I keep in mind to spend some time to show off the environment, but this is still showing too much water and not enough of the environment that I would be building.
I use this cut to show my professors, and here are the things that I have to keep in mind:
- the film is currently too long
- there is too much break in between the lines
- the story and the environment are not connected enough
- I need to make an effort to show off the culture more in the environment.
The cut for April 1st is mostly the same, only the ambient music added and the narration changed.
These are deliverables for the first checkpoint of thesis 2.
April 6 - April 12
April 10
I do a lot of environment re-sculpting today as well as updating this "blog" after so long. Trying to blend the original landscape with the paddy field and Ha Long Bay landscapes.
April 13 - April 19
April 18
This was going to be April 17 log but I didn't save, and I didn't finish what I was trying to update either. I was slacking with this week progress compared to the last, but I met up with Professor Simon and Professor Prada to discuss a lot of what to do with my thesis.
With Professor Simon, something I'm keeping in mind:
- Since the film is going from sunrise to sunset, the first shot is going to have gleams of the river (like stars) in the darkness before the sun comes up
- Split up the subtitles, more time to enjoy the scenery without reading too much of the subtitles
- Pace the camera more, think about changing the camera strategy when we go inside the house
- Find a way to incorporate water throughout, keeping the flow going
- Ambient nature sounds
With professor Prada it was a lot more on the technical side of things:
- Lots of things to think about when it comes to making realistic water
- Figuring out the Gaea to Unreal Engine pipeline
This update is long just because I don't actually wanna work on my things right now, and it's an excuse to practice my writing (maybe.)
Here is the WIP for this week. There was actually gonna be two, but I fucked up the second edit where I addressed some of the problems from the Monday one (didn't cut it properly.)
For now, I will be working on the written portion. Will make actual edits in Unreal and the film editing tomorrow.
April 20 - April 26
April 22
(There was actually an entry for this day, however it was not saved, so I will go based off of memory)
Concerns over my film not closely aligned with the narration, which I agreed with and had been thinking about. Spent the night writing down ideas that I had, revamping some old ones to fit in the new environment.
April 19
April 24
Modeled the bird and the bull clay statues. Started reorganizing the camera for the new cut. Finished breaking up the subtitles, though I might need to time it depending on camera I will be exporting.