Written By: Ben Windsor // TigerLily Animation Director

The Imp-etus

Early last year I set the task of creating a brand film for TigerLily. Something that would showcase our 2D capabilities and ambitions, something that would make for a fun Halloween-themed distraction in an online world of very serious and unserious things. The film was intended to welcome the transition from Summer to Autumn. Cornhole immediately came to mind as a summer favorite that I often like to say I’m good at. (In reality it’s hit or miss, but I do have my moments but that’s really here nor there.)

The idea of being woken up from a place of peace, being hurled into the air, and then falling through a dark abyss that leads to a nightmare realm felt all very relevant and apropos to the current moment - so I set out thumbnailing boards to get a rough idea of the story.

Initial thumbnailed storyboards

We decided after initial discussions that the threat should be the destination, not the journey— so, we shifted the monstrous threat to the end of the story.

Refined storyboards

Process and ideation

Animation Process

The approach to animation was super hybrid in nature. We used Procreate for rough frame-by-frame (cel animation) sections and Moho for both rigging and cel clean up.

Key Scenes

Final Result

Dedication

Right around the time we were about to finish up this project I lost my dad to congestive heart failure... I have a funny habit of putting him into my personal work, he just always seems to popup when I’m designing background characters—in this case the grill master. Sometimes main characters. He’s the main reason I am any kind of artist, so I decided to add this dedication to him at the end. A not so subtly layered joke with some of his favorite sayings... He would have chuckled at the sight of this, I know. I miss him very much and will probably keep sneaking him into things, consciously or subconsciously, or maybe even self-consciously.