Howest Christmas card

overview

PROJECT

DETAILS

DATE:
Dec 2023

I had the opportunity to illustrate and animate the annual animated Christmas card for Howest. They granted me creative freedom regarding the style, with the only stipulations being the exclusion of photos, the incorporation of faux 3D elements, and an allowance for abstraction.

A unique challenge presented itself for the first time: the video needed to be adaptable for both horizontal and vertical usage. To achieve this, I chose to animate the video in a 3840x3840 format, ensuring seamless downsizing to traditional portrait and landscape dimensions without any loss in quality.

process

DESIGN

process

PROGRAMS:
Procreate
illustrator
after effects

After considering three distinct concepts, we ultimately opted for the character animation concept. The focal point of this choice posed a unique challenge—executing a seamless transition from abstract shapes to the animated character.
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I put together a moodboard to nail down the vibe they wanted for the style. Since I've worked on a bunch of animations in this same style before, we easily settled on the look and feel for the styleframes.

Of course, in the process, some design choices have been modified (that's why there are some differences with the styleframes). The animation moves quick, packed with lots of cool layers (which is why some parts might slow down a bit). I used a bunch of tricks to make it happen, like 3D layers, Rubberhose 3, and played around with loads of layer styles.