I wanted to create an animation that travels through all of the seasons, and eventually brings you right back where you started, as a visual “cycle of life”. The plan is to also showcase various illustration styles along the way.
I started out with autumn because it can be the most dramatic season, with all of the bright colors and strong winds. Also, I have always been a big fan of Halloween. I created the house in a woodcut-looking style mostly because I did a lot of pen-and-ink illustration years ago. I also wanted this to be a dimensional environment. This was accomplished using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects and Cinema 4D.
Good reference is always important when creating an object in 3D, and I was lucky enough to stumble onto a website where you can download paper models of Haunted Mansions:
www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com
This allowed me to place each part of the house into illustrator and create stylized vector versions of all of the layers to scale. Once all of the elements were drawn, converted them into textures in Photoshop to be applied to the surfaces with exact pixel dimensions in Cinema 4D.
After the house was constructed in Cinema 4D, I created a few hills with texture and a couple of jack-o-lanterns for the entrance. Next worked on a camera move that would rotate all the way around the outside of the house and brought it into After Effects to add the girl with her hair blowing, the tree, leaves, bats and creepy figure in the doorway. Here is a sample of what I have so far. Look for future postings as I continue to add more animated seasons.
Jim Brisnehan