Traditional Medicinals
Environment designs
Peppermint, ginger, and dandelions – I've got to know these plants pretty well while illustrating them for a series of three dreamy animations directed by Hornet's talented director Natalie Labarre.
These medicinal plants interact with the characters; they serve as steps (or bridges?), benches, they pose as giant cactuses in a desert or giant trees in a forest, creating a plant wonderland for tea lovers. I had the pleasure to design these dreamy landscapes and keyframe & composite the Peppermint spot.
Ginger-land ↓
I helped develop peppermint and dandelion designs during the pitch phase, so I got to explore different styles and levels of detail. The client wanted the plants to look realistic but still feel designed. So I got inspired by botanical drawings and used pencil hatching to create texture and depth on the leaves.
It was pretty fun to return to my roots and work on something that resembled a traditional drawing – full of texture, light, shadow, and hand-drawn imperfections.
Pitch designs ↓
Sunrise in a field of tall dandelions ↓
Most of the scenes involved vertical camera moves, so the designs had to be extended to make space for those movements. I mostly worked in a square format 'cause the final renders were planned to be in three different aspect ratios to fit all social media formats comfortably.
Peppermint forest design exploration ↓
The Peppermint designs went through a couple of color and lighting adjustments. And then, I got the chance to animate those minty leaves and composite the final animation. Make sure to check out the final results on Hornet's page.
Client → Traditional Medicinals
Production studio → Hornet
Director → Natalie Labarre
My roles → environment designs, AE animation & compositing
Check out the full credits and final renders →here!
2021