This contribution is the second post of a two-part series on the creative production of Wing Yan Kwan and Lam Le’s Coffin Room (2024).

Confined in a small apartment, cramped with a tiny bunk bed, old furniture, canned foods, and scattered with used tissues and towels. Suffocated in dirty air, constantly coughing and struggling to fight off cockroaches, while barely able to move. This is the harsh reality faced by the main character in the 360-degree animation, Coffin Room (2024). The animation portrays an elderly couple struggling to survive inside a Hong Kong Coffin House—a tiny, substandard apartment complex designed for low-income residents.

As the Environmental Designer, this part of the series explores the creative process behind the environment design of Coffin Room, focusing on the narrative-driven approaches to cinematography in 360-degree animation. Unlike conventional graphical projection onto two-dimensional surfaces, 360-degree animation offers a spatial experience that represents scenes volumetrically, providing viewers with the freedom to rotate, move within the space, select their field of view, pause, and rewatch scenes (Barnard, 2024). This shifts the viewer’s focus towards finding clues and navigating the environment, allowing them to explore and interpret the scenes for themselves. While much quantitative research has focused on technical aspects like minimizing motion sickness (Bless et al. 2001) and maintaining audience attention (Gödde et al. 2018), less focus has been given to how VR and 360-degree animation can be explored for conceptual approaches to cinematography. Designing environments in 360-degree animation, therefore, requires specialized methods. The approach in Coffin Room centered around two main concepts: environment staging and camera placement.

Figure 1. Front view of the Environment Design from the scenes taking place in the present in Coffin Room (2024).

Environment staging, also referred to as environmental storytelling, played a crucial role during the development stage. The aim was to offer viewers an authentic representation of Hong Kong’s coffin homes—creating an experience of living in cramped, suffocating, and unfit living conditions, not just for the elderly couple but for anyone. To depict this,  the actual measurements from the apartment complexes were used for the room sizes, as well as the employment of photo-scanning techniques for props that reflect Hong Kong culture, like dirty tile floors, flashing neon lights, shopping bags, blankets, old fans, rice cookers, and tangled electrical cords. See figure 2.

Figure 2. Work in Progress of using photo-scanning for clothes on the wall for Coffin Room (2024).

The placement of these props was strategic; they were positioned either closer to or further from the camera to guide the viewer’s attention to specific clues about the couple’s life and circumstances. For instance, posters about Hong Kong’s rental crisis or calendars were placed near the camera to emphasize the story’s social context. Other props, such as cardboard boxes symbolizing the wife’s job and a walking frame hinting at the husband’s disability, helped deepen the viewer’s understanding of the character’s struggles. These elements show how the design connects the physical setting with the narrative, making the story come to life. While viewers are encouraged to look around using environmental storytelling, there are also intentional restrictions to the field of view by positioning the camera in the room’s corner, limiting the viewer’s field of vision to about 90 degrees. See figure 3. This was done to reinforce the sense of physical confinement. The limited view draws attention to specific details, enhancing the sense of tightness within the space and amplifying the feeling of suffocation. The camera was positioned directly in front of the husband’s spot, encouraging viewers to adopt his point of view and feel like they were in his shoes. This method mirrors the husband’s disability, making viewers experience the same frustration and claustrophobia. It forces them to move and act as he would, which guides them to narrate and interpret the story from his perspective.

Figure 3. Camera placement of the room from the present scene in Coffin Room (2024).

Apart from depicting the grim reality of coffin homes, flashback scenes were included to show the couple’s life in the past in a more spacious apartment. These scenes utilized the full 360-degree field of view, the widest field of view the viewers had experienced, symbolizing the freedom the characters once had while enjoying a stable income. Combined with environmental staging—such as higher ceilings, organized props, and natural lighting—the visual contrast between the couple’s past and present living conditions became strikingly clear. See figure 4.

Figure 4. Camera Placements of the room from the scenes taking place in the past in Coffin Room (2024).

The use of these methods suggests that environment design in VR and 360-degree animation can be a powerful tool for narrative storytelling. As VR storytelling continues to evolve, it opens new possibilities for creators. Ole Christoffer Haga (2019: 107) articulates new potential areas for 360 animation, stating that, “Future works within narrative VR will likely be even more multifaceted, requiring further assessments of the tension between narrative comprehension and the sense of spatial presence”. Through the work on Coffin Room, our goal is to inspire animators and filmmakers to explore the potential of VR and 360-degree environment design, pushing it beyond traditional methods without being confined to conventional approaches.

References

Barnard, D. “History of VR-Timeline of Events and Tech Development.” Virtual Speech, 2024.

Bles, W. and Wertheim, A. H. “Appropriate Use of Virtual Environments to Minimise Motion Sickness.” 2001.

Gödde, M., Gabler, F., Siegmund, D., and Braun, A. “Cinematic narration in VR–rethinking film conventions for 360 degrees.” In Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality: Applications in Health, Cultural Heritage, and Industry: 10th International Conference, VAMR 2018, Held as Part of HCI International 2018, Las Vegas, NV, USA, July 15-20, 2018, Proceedings, Part II 10, pp. 184-201. Springer International Publishing, 2018.

Haga, O. C. Animated storytelling in 360 degrees. Master’s thesis, Inland Norway University, 2019.

Lam Le is a Melbourne-based multimedia designer who graduated in 2024 with a Master of Animation, Games, and Interactivity from RMIT University. Specializing in 3D animation, modelling, and environment design, her work is known for being vibrant and colorful, spanning across graphic design, illustration, web design, videography, and animation. Recent projects include Coffin Room (2024), which has been selected for several animation festivals, such as FIVARS, QLD XR, and Open World Animation, showcasing her ability to create engaging and immersive visual experiences.