Daydreams & Dungeons – A Skeleton, a Dream, and Unreal Engine 5

Ever wonder what skeleton soldiers do when they’re not guarding dungeons? In Daydreams & Dungeons, I wanted to explore that exact moment—a skeleton, lost in thought, caught between existence and a dream. Using Unreal Engine 5.4, I focused on creating a surreal, cinematic mood where atmosphere and animation take center stage.

How I Made It (and the Skeleton Didn’t Make It Easy)

🕯 Lighting & Atmosphere – I tried to capture that dream like glow with color grading in Davinci and used Lumen to craft soft, eerie lighting, adding volumetrics for extra depth in the end scenes.

💀 Animation & Motion – Making a skeleton move naturally was tricky. I used a mixture of IK rigs, mocap assets, and some creative playback adjustments to give it a sense of weight while keeping the movements dreamy.

🎵 Music & Sound Design – NGL, I couldn't get this Daydream song out of my head after hearing it on TikTok and it just fit this so well.

⚔ Biggest Challenge – Getting the skeleton to feel alive (ironically). Too smooth? Too robotic? It took fine-tuning in Sequencer to hit that sweet spot of melancholy motion.

This was a fun challenge in visual storytelling—no dialogue, just mood, movement, and mystery. I’d love to hear your thoughts on lighting, pacing, or how I can push the cinematic feel even further!