01/04/2026
We spent day 2 of Future Storytelling with the team going hands-on across three disciplines that sit at the heart of our cross-disciplinary programme for young creatives in Skopje this May at the UK’s only accredited academic partner.
First, took us into storytelling and character generation, combining his character generation tool with an old-school collaborative map-making exercise, paper, string, and whatever chaos the group brought to it. The result was a shared story world and a character we carried forward into the afternoon.
Then into the motion capture studio with Dr Satish Shewhorak, sixty reflective markers, a Vicon optical rig, and performer Emily Spowage we brought the character to life. Learning about calibration, range of motion, walk cycles, idle animations, attacks and a death sequence we got to see a professional performer provide us the movements that translated directly onto screen.
In the afternoon, Daniel Moss from the Future Media Production programme walked us through how SODA teaches Unreal Engine within a production context, not as a games tool but as a storytelling and mixed-media platform. We worked on briefs grounded in real client contexts, modular learning in short intensive sessions, peer feedback and MMU’s DELTA Strategy for Digitally Enhanced Learning Teaching and Assessment.
We closed the day with the CoLabs networking session, a tour of the MoSys virtual production stage with alumna Phoebe Bonsa, and a conversation about inclusive practice in digital arts education through the MentorMe and STRIVE programmes that will directly shape how we run our open call and participant support in North Macedonia.
Tomorrow, development session two, then Skopje in May with 20+ young creatives from across North Macedonia ready to build something together under the mentorship of the team with , .vrencoska, .ci, , and Andre Butorac.
Future Storytelling is supported by the WB-UK Creative Skills Development Fund, enabling partnerships between the Western Balkans and the UK.
