CURRENT WEEK: WEEK 12

April 13 – April 19 (HUD Design): The first week of Phase 4 is devoted to the SHURA interface and the car's onboard display system. These assets (speed readouts, KERS Boost indicators, hex-code alerts, the WARNING: DEATH SPIRAL banner) are not decorative. They are narrative instruments. The HUD is the visual language through which SHURA communicates its presence to Aiko, and by extension to the audience, and every element of its design must carry that weight: clinical enough to read as corporate technology, hostile enough to register as a threat. Assets are produced at 4K and built to integrate directly into compositing without rework. The window is tight and intentional: completing the HUD now, before the break period, means it does not compete for attention during the MoCap sessions in July, and it does not become an improvised decision during the chaos of post-production.

April 13 – April 27 (Crash Previsualization — Blender): Running in parallel across both weeks, the crash sequence receives its first full low-resolution previsualization in Blender. This is the most technically complex sequence in the film (wing disintegration, cockpit fragmentation, the Death Spiral's controlled unraveling) and the deliberate choice to previsualize it before PNR 2 is a form of insurance. Problems discovered here, in a low-resolution pass with no pressure attached, cost nothing. The same problems discovered in February 2027, six weeks from release, cost everything. Camera angles are tested against the physics of the sequence, the image shake is calibrated to feel intentional rather than symptomatic, and the relationship between the car's structural collapse and Aiko's performance space inside the cockpit is mapped with enough precision that the MoCap performers in July will know exactly what they are reacting to. The previsualization does not need to be beautiful. It needs to be true.

Both workstreams converge on April 27: Point of No Return 2. The MOCAP_READY deliverable (tested rigs, MoCap shot list, validated dubbing scripts, HUD assets, crash previsualization) closes the pre-production cycle. What has not been resolved by that date becomes technical debt carried into July, payable in lost time and compounded pressure. Phase 4 exists to ensure that debt is as close to zero as possible.

The HUD design is executed by Exaucé Schatz. The crash previsualization is produced jointly by Exaucé Schatz and Dara Sokun, whose role within the Blender unit makes this previsualization a direct anticipation of the full crash rendering work to come.