Mariposa
For this 2D/3D hybrid film, we wanted to tell a story about a young woman named Mariposa coming to terms with her dementia. We used magical, glowing butterflies to symbolize the dementia, which was sometimes overwhelming, but in the end, was something that she peacefully accepted as sticky notes.
The look of the 2D character and 3D rendered environment was integrated in After Effects by mimicking camera lens effects such as vignetting, soft edges and depth of field, and using "3D lighting" and Layer Styles.
The individual butterflies and butterfly clouds started as 2D animations and were composited into the final shots in After Effects.
VFX Style Concepts
VFX Design
Butterfly Cloud Design
3D Butterfly Exploration
Butterfly Construction
After Effects Compositing
This short test shows the final composited look for our film that melded 3D environment with 2D animation.
The 3D environment render was color graded to match the film's color script, while the 2D VFX had blending modes and layer styles to give it a glowing effect. An After Effects 3D light was also animated with the butterfly cloud to give it and the environment more dimension.
The 3D environment render was created by Krista Zuber.
Butterfly Into Sticky Note Morph
For one of the key VFX in the film, I animated the pattern on the butterfly's wings morphing into the words "You Are Mariposa", and animated the glows to show that the magical butterfly was transforming into a normal sticky note.
The "You Are Mariposa" writing was created by Emma Fleck.