Role:
Winter Solstice
The Brief
Animated Holiday Card
They envisioned a mountain scene transitioning through the seasons from summer to autumn ending with winter. This was truly a dream project!
Finally the sun sets entirely, darkening the scene to the deep rest of winter. Northern lights illuminate the sky as reflections dance on the snow. A light coral lights up the skyline graduating to a deep dark purple.
Winter Illustration
The sun continues to set, the text moves downward with it, and stars appear in the sky. The colours will fade from shades of green to shades of ochre. The clouds blow out of the sky by a strong gust of autumn wind, illustrated by both movement of the clouds and leaves. (seriously, I’m in love with the texture of those clouds 🙂)
Autumn Illustration
I took out the sand dune mountains and replaced them with a simple atmopheric perspective set of mountains. I kept the playful clouds (omg those textures 🤩 ) and also added a Sun that will set into the horizon as the animation moves through Summer & Autumn. Some faint stars appear high up in the sky. A silhouette of trees illuminated by the setting sun also felt appropriate, with a summer-y colour palette of greens, yellow & peach.
summer Illustration
final illustrations
ThoughtExchange sent me these references - they envisioned a mountain scene that changed colours to showcase the changing seasons to visually represent the winter solstice.
They had sent this over as a jumping off point, and were very open to seeing what I might come up with as well. They gave me a 10/10 full creative freedom (DREAM PROJECT!!)
early explorations
A few links if you'd like to learn more about this beautiful tradition:
Sinixtnation - about us
Acknowledging winter solstice is a decolonial act for indigenous people
Orange shirt day
The winter solstice is a tradition that goes back centuries. Many Indigenous People take this time of year to slow down and acknowledge the new season.
Winter Solstice is typically celebrated with ceremonies and community gatherings. Enjoying foods harvested over the course of the year is also a big part of many solstice celebrations
Winter Solstice
Not many companies honour indigenous culture or practices. I felt incredibly honoured to work with ThoughtExchange on this project that celebrates the winter solstice practice of Indigenous Peoples, and honours the land we live, work and recreate on.
Concept & art Direction
Concept &
art Direction
Process video coming!
cel animation
My solution - Atmospheric perspective
Darker values in front, lighter values in the back to create the illusion of depth
The Northern lights were created in After Effects and then rendered out as a still, and overlayed onto the illustration using a blending mode to help establish the art direction for the winter scene.
- The aesthetic wasn't where I wanted it to be - the mountains looked more like sand dunes than mountains.
- How was I going to animate the Northern lights if I manually drew them in?
When I started to colour block out the mountains, all I kept seeing were sand dunes, and not mountains. So I made a pivot to a more atmospheric perspective type of illustration and added a sun setting throughout the scene that would eventually disappear in the winter as the Northern Lights dance across the sky
Art Direction Pivot
I initially played around with some of the mountain sketches that TE sent over, and was loving the idea of a gradient sky, trying to figure out what colours would best suit the different seasons.
intial sketches & art direction
behind the scenes & process
BTS & process
Sr. Video Producer
ThoughtExchange
Brent O'Hagan
She is a fantastic communicator, setting expectations early and providing timely updates throughout the project. Kelly is a wonderful person and working with her on our animated holiday video has been a true joy! I highly recommend Kelly as an illustrator and animator and am looking forward to our next project together!
She is a fantastic communicator, setting expectations early and providing timely updates throughout the project. Kelly is a wonderful person and working with her on our animated holiday video has been a true joy!
I highly recommend Kelly as an illustrator and animator and am looking forward to our next project together!
Kelly's an incredibly talented illustrator and animator and she took our project way beyond our expectations, all while staying on time and on budget.
Kelly's an incredibly talented illustrator and animator and she took our project way beyond our expectations, all while staying on time and on budget.
