Immersive film

The Railway Ride

The railway's new flying cinema came with stock rides about somewhere else, and a ride from A to B is only scenery. So I gave it one idea: the line as the lifeline between two nations, told by the railway itself, from a painted cave through caravans, steam, war and flood to a hyperloop over Addis. Every tilt of the seat, gust of wind and wall of water is written into the script, so riders don't watch the history, they ride it. I wrote, directed and built it in Unreal Engine.

Industry: Themed entertainment
Type: Motion ride film
Role: Creative director, technical artist

From the ride

A 180-degree screen fills the rider's whole view, so every frame is composed wide: the cave opening onto the canyons, a sandstorm, lava fields at night, the golden bridge, the tunnel into the city.

The room it plays in

The film was written for a machine: two seat pods on a six-axis platform, a 180-degree curved screen, and wind and water on cue, in the railway's headquarters.

Behind the scenes

Picture, motion and effects had to share one timeline: built in Unreal Engine, then cut and given its sound in Premiere Pro.

Frames from the ride

One idea carries the ride

The railway as the Lifeline of Nations: not infrastructure but the artery between two countries, carrying trade, conflict, pride and hope. Every scene and every jolt of the seat serves that idea, which a ride from A to B never had. The Captain tells it, a voice who is the railway itself.

From caravans to hyperloop

Act I, the growth of trade: a cave of rock paintings, camel caravans, a golden-hour bazaar, the steam yards of Dire Dawa, a wild-horse chase. Act II: shellfire, then a flooded, rusting line and a crocodile. Act III: the electric train at speed into the port. Act IV: a hyperloop over Addis.

Motion written like a script

Each act gives the six-axis platform a character. Heavy and mechanical for the steam train, with a smooth stop at the station. Violent in the war, all heave and jolt. Effortless surge and long banking rolls for the modern train. Weightless for the hyperloop. Every beat names its motion cue.

Tuned in the seat

The ride is a track flying cinema: pods carried on rails to a 180-degree screen, each on a six-axis platform that pitches, rolls, heaves and surges. Picture and motion were built together and tested in the seat, cue by cue, so every tilt matches what the eye sees. When they disagree, riders get sick, so the peaks stay short, the turns ease in, and calm stretches let people settle between thrills.

Felt, not just seen

The room can blow wind, spray water and drop snow, and each effect is saved for a moment that matters. Desert wind makes the canyon feel vast. A splash in the face as the train plunges into the flood makes you flinch. When you feel a scene on your skin, you stop watching it and start living it.

Plan first, build fast

Four weeks, one act per week, one week to integrate. Each act had a master document, seven sections from emotional tone to sound design, and a storyboard where every frame carried its timecode, action, narration, motion cue and effects note before Unreal was opened. The finished ride departs from it in places.

Closing thoughts

A simulator is a very expensive way to show someone a landscape. It earns its seats only when the motion, the effects and the picture are all telling the same story, and that starts on paper, not in the engine.

Services: Creative directionTechnical artStory and scriptArt directionStoryboardingReal-time environment designMotion designProduction planning
Tools: Unreal EngineSequencerNiagaraPremiere ProCinema 4DWhisk
Date: 2025

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