About the Project
The Beautiful Journey VR Moving Storyboard Previz was developed as an early stage of the Beautiful Journey project to visualize and refine key scenes before building the full VR experience. This moving storyboard combined script, rough voiceover, music, and animated concept art to test the emotional arc, pacing, and scene transitions in a way that static images or traditional outlines couldn’t. The goal was to create a functional prototype that would allow us to quickly identify what was working and what needed to be reworked—long before committing to the full VR build.
As the lead on this previz phase, I handled everything from assembling visual references and building scenes in Unreal Engine, to iterating with AI-generated concept art and integrating rough voiceover tracks. This process saved us time and resources, letting us experiment with ideas, visual tone, and narrative structure in a flexible, low-risk environment.
Purpose
The moving storyboard previz served as a critical step in shaping the overall vision for Beautiful Journey VR. Our goal was to build a working prototype that let us see, hear, and feel the sequence of scenes before investing time and resources into full VR development. By animating key moments and combining them with rough voiceover and music, we were able to test the emotional pacing, tone, and transitions in a way that static images or traditional outlines simply couldn’t provide and at the same time allow us to refine key elements.
This process helped us pinpoint where the story felt strong and where it needed reworking. It made abstract ideas concrete, exposed potential gaps or redundancies, and allowed us to share a clear, evolving vision with the rest of the team. The previz wasn’t just for internal use—it also became a powerful tool for communicating the project’s direction to collaborators, stakeholders, and testers early on, before moving forward with production.
Process
The moving storyboard previz began with a set of AI-generated concept images that captured the tone and visual language we wanted for Beautiful Journey. These references helped us quickly sketch out scene ideas and lock in an overall mood.
From there, I moved into Unreal Engine to manually build each environment, using a combination of custom-modeled assets and procedural tools. The scenes were assembled, animated, and lit to test transitions and emotional beats. Camera positions, movement, and basic timing were all explored within Unreal, allowing for rapid iteration before moving to VR development in Unity.
Throughout the process, I experimented with lighting setups and material graphs to get the water and atmosphere just right.
At each step, I combined rough voiceover and music with the evolving visuals, reviewing and adjusting in real time until the story and pacing felt right. The result was a flexible animated prototype that guided our decisions and set the foundation for the full VR experience.
Key Credits
Director and Creator - Simon Quiroz
Music - David Grossman
Executive Producer - Peter Brill
Voiceover - Karen Brill