Colour still of baking tray from animation with biscuits iced, drops of icing around the tray and the lettering 'seasons greetings' on baking parchment, surrounded by the biscuits on the tray

Jingle Crumbs!

Read the project write-up This is the technical write-up
refined sketch of the characters in line art, 2d
2d production art, colour of the characters featured in Jingle Crumbs. These images are blueprints for the modelling team to build in 3D
Greyscale of the sibling characters, in T-pose

Character design

Our goal was to design a suite of characters that would bring charm and humor to this festive tradition. Each character was to have its own clear visual identity and distinctly recognisable personalities and the look and feel was inspired by a stylistic treatment that teeters on elements of realism.

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Group render of characters posed, 3d colour.

Set design & lighting

We wanted to strike the balance between open and cosy with our set design. Open, as our characters needed to move around the space freely and cosy, because we wanted to make our scene feel as festively magical as possible. 

We created an open-plan layout with archways to separate the kitchen from the dining room and decorated with Christmassy elements such as a hanging sleigh, a fireplace and garlands over the bannister to set the tone and feeling of the piece.

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compilation of images from kitchen scene- 3D greyscale through to line art sets and directors notes for design considerations

Who lives in a house like this?!

Our goal was to try to capture a family home at Christmas time but it was easy to forget that no one's home looks like a picture on Pinterest! Especially not with three kids running riot.

Once we had created the set, we started to consider further details; discarded toys, piles of presents, laid out ingredients, normal living! Though to be fair, its still conservative in messiness compared to some of our kitchens...

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Clean kitchen with characters rendered into scene
Messy kitchen without characters in scene

Finishing touches

The raw render from the animation looked beautiful but we wanted to add some depth, motion blur and just a touch of dirt and noise to give a twinkle of nostalgia to the piece. Take a look at the lighting breakdown below. We'll be sharing some more making of snippets soon, so watch this space...

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Merry Christmas!

We hope you enjoyed Jingle Crumbs, be sure to let us know what you think. 

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Read the project write-up This is the technical write-up