Building Cloudview High: 2nd Annual Illuminating Machinima Festival

I had the opportunity to work with the SL Video Creators again this year to build a scene for their SLEA grant space, and as always, it turned into a bit of an adventure.

Last year they had a small area that needed something creative quickly, and I happily volunteered. What came out of that was a wildly strange, fantastical oceanside retreat filled with unusual animals and little scenic pockets to explore. It was whimsical, a little weird, and a lot of fun to build.

This year, I decided to do something completely different… and maybe a little reckless. I picked a genre that I honestly had no business picking in the first place.

Toon.

Yes ; I actually chose it from a list of options. And I chose it despite not knowing how to mesh at all. So you can probably imagine the mild panic that set in as the deadline started creeping closer and I worked through three entirely different settings… none of which felt “toon-y” enough to confidently put out into the world.

Thankfully, my daughter stepped in with a simple reminder: anime is a toon. 

That was the spark I needed.

From there, I decided to build a slice-of-life (SOL) anime scene. According to Ranker, slice-of-life anime focuses on characters and the everyday moments that shape their lives; stuff like small stories, relationships, and the humdrum of daily experiences. That felt like something I could lean into creatively while still honoring the 'toon' theme.

We’re big anime fans in our house. Our own show, NAMARA, pulls heavily from isekai influences, and between my daughter, my husband, and I there’s always at least one series we’re following. One story I especially enjoyed most recently is My Dress Up Darling. While it’s definitely a little more risqué than what I wanted to create for SLEA, it helped me identify some of the visual language that makes a slice-of-life setting feel authentic; warmth, personality, and little lived-in details to create all types of stories through film.

I set the scene at a classic anime-style high school, complete with groups of friends chatting, teachers moving through campus, a drama rehearsal happening, and basketball practice out on the court. My goal was to create small pockets throughout the environment where filmmakers could drop in and immediately have a sense of movement and life around them while they crafted their own stories. Background action helps scenes feel real, and I wanted creators to feel like they could tell a story anywhere they pointed their camera.

One of the most fun parts of this build was leaning heavily into animesh characters, which let me work with body styles that are very different from what I usually use. Utilizer has a fantastic line of modifiable bodies (I used the kemono because it had the most clothing options) along with manga and anime-style heads that fit the 'toon' aesthetic perfectly. Because their items are fully modifiable, I was able to create entire crowds of students across the campus without needing an army of bots. This gave me a little more to work with when I created my cartoon clouds, which helped keep the space lively while staying performance-friendly. I liked the Utilizer heads so much that I am actually entertaining the idea of doing an ‘anime’ episode for NAMARA. They move great and they are super customizable, not to mention the fact that there are a few different options.

Building environments for filmmakers is always a little different than building purely for aesthetics because you’re thinking about sightlines, background motion, emotional tone, and how spaces connect. Ultimately, the goal with Cloudview High was to create a flexible storytelling playground where machinima creators could walk in and immediately start imagining scenes. 

This project pushed me creatively in ways I didn’t expect and it was an absolute blast to build. If you’re looking for a place to create your own anime-inspired story, I hope you’ll come explore Cloudview High at the SLEA machinima grant space during the 2nd Annual Illuminating Machinima Festival in March 2026.