IN YOUR DREAMS

This series is my attempt to recapture a personal fascination with the aesthetic of backrooms, abandoned waterparks, and Goldeneye 64 level maps — Complex, Temple, Facility.

Back in 2020–2023, I was constantly creating vaporwave mixed with backroom-style 3D renders (C4D) — spending hours on each frame, often with limited power to animate anything beyond a subtle 5-sec water loop. There was something powerful about these in-between spaces: dreamlike yet sterile, comforting yet eerie.

View Collection

With AI tools now in reach, I've returned to that world, but this time with the ability to truly move through it. I first began testing with my 3D still images, but things felt too mellow, too ambient. Layering a generic soundtrack on top didn't help either.

I'm drawn to the surreal tension between beauty and discomfort, the way a camera can glide endlessly through an empty tiled hallway, and how that kind of looping motion pulls viewers into a quiet, unresolvable mood. I want these to feel like memories or dreams you're not sure you had.

PROCESS

Initially I used AI-based platforms like ComfyUI + FLUX + Midjourney to generate surreal, dreamlike environments with a focus on uncanny aesthetics rather than hyperrealism. Training my own LoRAs and Style References allowed me to maintain a cohesive look across the series.

The scenes were animated with surreal POV handheld, drone-style, and erratic Bolt camera movements, creating an immersive, looping experience. Luma Labs img>vid and text>vid were next level in pushing the perspective.

To enhance the atmosphere, prompt-generated sounds based on the video were layered in post-production using Luma Labs + mmaudio for seamless integration with the visuals.

WHY DREAM?

I'm not interested in realism, I'm interested in bizarreness. These scenes offer viewers a moment of soft dissonance: something that feels familiar, yet entirely unplaceable. In a time when AI generative tools are being pushed toward hyper-efficiency and commercial gloss, I'm trying to make space for quiet surrealism, something odd, unsettling, and personal.