Analyzing this scene from Skinamarink – those cold, unblinking eyes emerging from darkness really nail what I’m trying to achieve in my bedroom environment. The way they’re presented through this VHS-style degradation creates this perfect uncanny valley effect. In this blog entry I will go over an experiment I conducted with lighting and positioning to integrate this feeling into my project.
After finding the low-poly base, I started by removing the static eye geometry while maintaining the model’s structure. The clean topology of the original mesh helped in this process, leaving precise circular sockets in the face that I filled in for adding some dynamic eye elements.
The next phase involved testing various eye replacement approaches.While skeletal animation remained an option for complex movement patterns, some initial tests suggested simple transform manipulation was a much better option for more robust and reactive animation.
Working with UE5’s lighting system, I focused on creating that same sense of spatial uncertainty that Skinamarink masters. The trick was finding that sweet spot where objects become barely recognisable but just visible enough to suggest familiar shapes while maintaining that dreamlike feel.
The experimentation with those glow-in-the-dark stars proved particularly poignant. While I ultimately opted for different lighting solutions, that concept of having small, isolated points of light directing player attention carried through to other elements in my scene.