myraahmadd

[myraahmadd]

Blog Post 8: Final Conceptual Statement – Trapped in a Moment

For Project 2, I created a mixed reality experience titled Trapped in a Moment, exploring the metaphor of imprisonment, not by walls, but by regret, lost dreams, and psychological weight. The project is set in a stylised prison with multiple cells, each representing a “moment in time” where a person’s dream died but never disappeared.

Inside each cell, the viewer sees two versions of the same person: the prisoner, and their dream self. One lies in bed, paralyzed by depression, while their dream self plays piano. Another stares blankly ahead, while their alternate version paints freely. A third remains seated and alone, while his other self embraces the wedding he never had. These scenes exist side-by-side, suggesting that even in our most broken moments, our inner lives persist.

Visually, I use lighting, texture, and animation to express emotional contrast. Audio is subtle and spatial, guiding attention and feeling. The presence of a ghost character acts as a bridge, between the living and the lost.

This project asks: What if the moments we regret are still alive inside us? Not gone, but quietly waiting to be acknowledged.

[myraahmadd]

Blog Post 7: VR Work Review — Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness

Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness is a VR experience that moved me in a completely different way than any visual-heavy piece. It recreates the internal world of John Hull, a man who gradually lost his sight, through sound, narration, and minimal abstract visuals.

What stood out was how absence became presence, you don’t see much, but you hear the world build around you: rain hitting windows, distant footsteps, voices coming and going. It’s an emotionally immersive world, constructed almost entirely through 3D sound design and thoughtful spatial awareness.

This experience validated for me that sound can be just as powerful as visuals in VR. In my own project, I’ve become more intentional with how piano music, silence, and whispers guide the viewer’s attention and emotion. Notes on Blindness proves that VR is not about hyperrealism — it’s about perception, and how we experience space through memory and emotion.

[myraahmadd]

Blog Post 6: Creating Atmosphere — Lights, Sound, and Ghosts?

The emotional weight of my MR project doesn’t come from dialogue or movement, it comes from the atmosphere. I’m using light, sound, and subtle visuals to build a space that feels both haunted and intimate.

Each cell is lit differently. The prisoner’s side is often shadowed or cold-toned, while the dream self is touched by softer, warmer light, as if hope itself is lighting them. I’m also using directional sound: a piano softly playing only when you look toward the dream self, or ghostly whispers echoing faintly in the distance to suggest internal torment.

By layering light and audio this way, I’m not just telling the viewer what to feel — I’m creating an environment where the feeling happens to them, which I think is what MR does best.

[myraahmadd]

Blog Post 5: Character Stories — Prisoners and Their Dreams

Each cell in my project holds a prisoner, not just physically, but emotionally. I designed them to reflect people who have been trapped by societal, personal, or psychological walls. But right beside them, in the same space, their “dream self” exists, almost like a ghost of who they could’ve been.

In one cell, a man sits on his prison bed, eyes empty. His dream self sits near him, playing the piano. Maybe he once had a passion for music, but life , circumstances, choices, or expectations, took that away.

Another prisoner paints imaginary strokes on the wall while his dream version stands in front of a canvas, bold and expressive. In the third, a man sits alone while his dream is to reunite with his dog just like the good old days, and feel at home.

These aren’t criminals, they’re people imprisoned by missed chances. The duality in each cell is meant to make the viewer reflect: What dream did I leave behind? And is it still with me, even silently?

[myraahmadd]

Blog Post 4: VR Work Review — The Key (by Lucid Dreams)

One of the most powerful VR experiences I’ve come across is The Key (2019), created by Lucid Dreams Productions. It’s an emotionally immersive piece that follows a dreamlike narrative of a woman who is forced to leave her home, blending fantasy and reality to explore the refugee experience.

What struck me most wasn’t just the visuals, but how the use of limited interaction and narration built emotional weight. You’re not told directly what’s happening at first, you feel it. As the story progresses, dream symbols (like the key) take on meaning, and by the end, the reveal hits hard.

It made me realise how VR doesn’t need complexity to be impactful, it just needs emotional clarity. That influenced my own project: instead of a big narrative, I focus on a quiet moment that says everything. I think The Key succeeds because it trusts the viewer to interpret and feel, something I’m trying to achieve in my own MR work too.

[myraahmadd]

Blog Post 3: Learning Blender & Getting Unstuck

I’ll be honest — when I started this project, I had zero experience with Blender, and diving into something this ambitious felt overwhelming. I wanted to create a fully animated VR scene with prisoners, dream selves, ghosts, lighting, sound, and more… but didn’t even know how to rig a character. Having experience in 3DMax only, I tried to step out of my comfort zone and learn.

At first, it was frustrating. I spent hours just trying to find things like “Pose Mode” or figure out why a texture wasn’t showing up. But slowly, with YouTube tutorials, forums, and some trial and error, I started piecing it together. I learned how to use speaker objects for directional audio, panoramic cameras for VR rendering, and how to reduce .glb file sizes to make the scene more efficient.

Now, I still feel like a beginner — but one who’s making real progress. The project that once felt impossible is actually becoming real. And that’s a win I didn’t expect.

[myraahmadd]

Blog Post 2: What “A Moment in Time” Means to Me

When I first read the brief , to build a mixed reality project around “a moment in time” ,I didn't want to interpret it literally. I wasn’t interested in capturing a still or happy memory. Instead, I kept thinking about the kind of moments that stay with you because they never really ended. The kind that loop in your mind, unresolved.

That’s how I landed on the idea of emotional imprisonment. The prison is not just a physical space; it's a metaphor for the moments that haunt us, missed chances, what-ifs, dreams that died in silence. These moments don’t pass; they freeze you.

By placing the dream version of each prisoner in the same cell, I’m showing that those memories are still alive, just unreachable. It’s a commentary on how time doesn't heal everything, sometimes it just buries it deeper. That, to me, is what a moment in time can truly be: a trap disguised as memory.

[myraahmadd]

A PRISON OF BROKEN DREAMS

Blog Post 1: Where My Idea Came From

The idea for my MR project began with a single image in my head: a person lying in a dark prison cell, while just beside them, in the same space, their dream self plays the piano, untouched by time. That contradiction between isolation and imagination struck something in me.

I wanted to explore the concept of a "moment in time" not as a frozen snapshot, but as a layered emotional state , a memory that traps you as much as it preserves you. The prison became a metaphor for the psychological barriers we carry: regret, failure, missed potential. Each cell would show a prisoner’s physical self and their dream self , what they could have been if life had gone differently.

This concept feels personal. We all have dreams that didn’t survive reality. But in this project, I wanted to give those dreams a form, even if they can’t escape, they can still be seen.