Director/animator Tiffany Tedy takes Stash fans on a guided tour into the creative and technical challenges behind her standout CG student project “Lost Echoes” which she describes as “a deeply personal short film”.

Tiffany Tedy: “As a final project to conclude my undergraduate studies in motion design at SCAD, I wanted to deviate from all of my previous work, which often served as an escape from reality. I really wanted my final film to explore my deep personal experiences. Balancing intimacy with clarity proved challenging, and creating a totally new story line from that was even tougher.

“Drawing inspiration from my dream journals, I decided to conduct in-depth research on NREM and REM sleep cycles, real visuals I saw in my dreams, childhood metaphors, and Indonesian cultural symbolism to develop a cohesive narrative. This research informed the film’s visual metaphors, camera angles, pacing, shot transitions, foreshadowing, and overall structure. During pre-production, I made a number of pitch decks, continuously improving the concept, story line, storyboard, and script.
 

“As a final project to conclude my undergraduate studies in motion design at SCAD, I wanted to deviate from all of my previous work, which often served as an escape from reality.”

 
“I also had to do a lot of iterations of the style frames, which guided the exploration of visual aesthetics for both awake and dream states, experimenting with lighting, color, and atmosphere. Volumetric fog, varied materials, and cinematic lighting techniques also contributed to the film’s overall mood.

“I wanted to try different render engines to help differentiate between the waking and dream realms, so I experimented with Unreal Engine for environment visualization. Exploring aspect ratios also enhanced this distinction. While Unreal was ultimately not used in the final project due to time and technical constraints, the exploration enriched the creative process.

“After setting up most of the important scenes in Cinema 4D, the majority of time was dedicated to After Effects post-production, involving extensive experimentation with post-effects, timing adjustments, and sound integration. Rendering was completed in Redshift.

“Given this was only my third 3D motion design project (and I was still learning the software), the technical and creative challenges were substantial. However, strong time management and a structured production schedule using tools like FigJam and Notion were crucial in overcoming these hurdles. This not only allowed for efficiency, but it also allowed space and flexibility when things don’t go as planned.”
 
 

 
School: SCAD
Director/animator: Tiffany Tedy
Professor: Brandon Sugiyama

Sound Design: Alex Han
VO: Tiffany Tedy