Gatlin’s Escape Games
Montgomery Amusements (Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge, TN)
Escape room pre-show video + animated lobby posters.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
STORYBOARDING
ILLUSTRATION
2D DESIGN & ANIMATION
EDITING (AUDIO & VISUAL)
RENDERING & DELIVERY
Escape Room Pre-show Video
Curse of the Kraken’s Eye – Gatlinburg
Video Design
This 2-minute fully-illustrated and animated pre-show video for Gatlin’s escape game, “Curse of the Kraken’s Eye”, is projected onto a ‘ship’s sail’ and gives players an introduction to the game and a background narrative.
Partnering with Gatlin’s game developer, we were supplied a written script, VO and music, then we took it from there: concepted, illustrated, animated, added sound design, edited and rendered the video to spec.
Deliverables included: storyboards, look development, original design and asset creation, several rounds of animation iterations, and the final video.
Visual Narrative Development
Concepting visuals to align with the written script, through loose exploration of design and transitions.
Storyboards
Storyboards showing the visual narrative in more formal timeline, though for this project, storyboard “thumbnails” (small, quick sketches of key scenes) were used to show visual intent.
Due to the project timeline and budget, finished design was fleshed out during the animation cycle (fully designed boards were not necessary for approval).
Illustration Process
We went through several rounds of illustration samples to get the right look for this story, and finally settled on sketchy, grainy ink line drawings to reflect the illustration style of old hand drawn cartography (e.g. pirate maps).
For each illustration, we then created an alpha channel (removed the background to reveal the lines alone), placed them in our semi-dimensional, weathered map environment, then cut, rigged, and animated them to create subtle activated scenes.
Each element also went through rounds of revision to properly reflect the in-game objects and storyline. Some early concepts are shown here.
“The start of the game was probably my favorite part…”
– Carlos V., “Curse of the Kraken’s Eye” Participant
Our video in context.
Gatlin’s marketing video.
Animated Posters
Lobby – Pigeon Forge
Video Design
When Gatlin’s opened their newest location in Pigeon Forge, it hosted a new lobby with three of their best escape room games.
To market their games in this location, “attraction posters” were built into the lobby walls (much like movie theater posters, but kinetic).
Each poster was pre-designed by one of the game designers. I was given the illustration assets to then separate and animate – very subtly and with supporting effects. All videos needed to have seamless beginnings and endings, as they would play on an endless loop.
Deliverables included: several rounds of animation iterations, and the final videos.
Lobby with poster insets.