What I did:

The first fully dressed environment is done – the hallway where the film opens. John, in his late 30s, is in the hallway when a parcel arrives through the letterbox containing his IAM Advanced Motorist badge and certificate. It’s a moment of achievement, the height of his confidence as a driver, demonstrating his prowess. The keys on the hall table are there, central to the frame, establishing driving as core to who John is.

Props and sourcing:

Most props came from BlenderKit – the telephone, lamp, plant, mirror, umbrella stand, rug and chandelier. The hall table was originally a coffee table model, which I resized and manipulated into a period-appropriate console table. It’s the kind of workaround that saves significant modelling time without compromising the result.

The Yellow Pages was built from scratch. Starting with a cube, I added a base colour for the pages, downloaded a Yellow Pages cover image, edited it, added a spine, UV unwrapped the cube and scaled the image to fit. It’s a simple object but it’s exactly the kind of period detail that grounds the scene in the 1970s.

The letterbox was added to the door BlenderKit door specifically for this scene – it’s how the IAM parcel arrives. A small detail, but a load-bearing one narratively. Everything that follows in the film stems from that moment of opening the parcel.

The photos:

Both framed photos were generated using Adobe Firefly and placed into BlenderKit photo frame models. The family photo followed supervisor feedback, where the animatic was felt to lack enough emotional connection with John as a person. I needed something that established him as a husband and father before the story progresses. The photo shows John with my mum, Jacqueline, my two older sisters, and me – I’m the baby in my mum’s arms. Using my actual family felt right for a project that is, at its heart, about my dad.

From the emotion feedback, I also plan to include meshes in soft focus to represent and give the impression of other family members, without the need to spend long hours creating other fully rigged characters. Possible options would be a young girl (me) watching her dad attach the IAM badge to the car, a rear view of the grown-up daughter (also me) watching out of the window waiting for her dad in the clock scene, and a silhouette of mum in the car for the roundabout scene.

The second photo shows a younger John standing by a plane. My dad piloted planes in his younger years as part of his National Service, and this detail has been woven into the animation as a background element of a life lived fully, visible in the margins of the story.

Lighting:

The shaft of light coming through the glass panels either side of the front door was a deliberate compositional decision. It draws the eye across the table, landing on the photos and the keys – two narratively significant elements in the scene. The warm yellow walls and rich wood tones give the scene a nostalgic, lived-in feel, appropriate to the 1970s setting.

There was a stubborn shadow at the join of the ceiling, right-hand wall and end wall that I couldn’t resolve technically, so I added coving to hide it.

Composition:

One detail worth noting is the positioning of the mirror above the hall table. It’s been deliberately placed so that when the camera is behind John, his face is still visible in the reflection. This keeps the audience connected to his expression and emotional state even when we’re not in a direct face-on shot. It’s a simple staging decision but an important one – for a film about identity, keeping John’s face visible feels significant. It also adds depth to the scene and gives the composition an extra layer of visual interest without feeling contrived.

John in the scene:

The John model is currently in a T-pose, he’s in the scene for scale reference at this stage. The keys sit centre frame in the light – John’s keys, for John’s car, at the peak of his driving life. They’ll appear again later in the film, in different circumstances.

What I learned:

Every prop in this scene is doing narrative work. The rotary phone and Yellow Pages place us firmly in the 1970s era. The keys introduce us to the idea of driving. The family photo establishes who John is – a husband, a father, a man with people who love him. The plane photo hints at a bigger life beyond what we see. None of it needs to be explained. It’s just there, in the light.

The supervisor feedback about a lack of emotional connection was surprising to hear at the time, I guess because I’m so close to the story, but I took it on board. I think it’s very positive and I’m glad for the direction. When you’re working in isolation, sometimes you miss the most obvious of issues. My solution to the feedback, in part, to add the family photo, is a direct result of this and I think it’s one of the strongest elements in the scene.

Next:

With the hallway scene blocked out, the next step is blocking all scenes. This is the phase I’ve been building towards, getting the whole film roughed out in 3D so Martin White (who is collaborating on the music and sound design) has the timing and emotional pacing he needs to begin composing. Environments and props can continue to be refined in parallel, but getting the full story blocked out is now the priority.