Journey to Wonderland is an immersive 2D animated installation that offers a multi-sensory storytelling experience, transporting you to a dream-like landscape.
— PROJECT NAME
Journey to Wonderland
— ROLE
Concept, Illustration, Visual Design
— TOOLS
Adobe Creative Suite
Unity Game Engine
— COLLABORATORS
Peter Zhang, Dipika Titus
Journey to Wonderland tells the story of an old man fulfilling his last wish of visiting his favorite amusement park as a child before passing on to the afterlife. The project drew visual inspiration from Ori and the Will of the Wisps (video game, 2020), Spirited Away (animated film, 2001), and Wes Anderson's (filmmaker) work. People were able to interact with the artwork to guide the old man to his final destination.
Journey to Wonderland tells the story of an old man fulfilling his last wish of visiting his favorite amusement park as a child before passing on to the afterlife. The project drew visual inspiration from Ori and the Will of the Wisps (video game, 2020), Spirited Away (animated film, 2001), and Wes Anderson's (filmmaker) work. People were able to interact with the artwork to guide the old man to his final destination.
Assignment
The assignment for the final project for the Hypercinema class at ITP was to make a digital Cornell Box that demonstrates your art style.
Constraints:
• The project must be created in Unity Game Engine
• It must be interactive
• It must showcase your distinct art style
• It must tell a story
Visual Style
My first design decision was to create the entire project in a lively 2D art style. 2D art's expressive, nostalgic, and dream-like nature has always inspired me. Compared to 3D art, which tends to feel dated after a few years, 2D art remains timeless. I also love to use vibrant, dynamic colors in my artwork and play with the lighting effects using various complimentary hues. Lastly, Wes Anderson movies' symmetry in design and toy-box architectural elements have always invoked a sense of joyful satisfaction in me, so I wanted to use a similar geometric visual style for this project.
Story
My project partner Dipika came up with the story of an old man fulfilling his last wish of visiting his favorite amusement park as a child before passing on to the afterlife. People will interact with the project to guide him toward his final destination. The idea was to convey a deep story that we can all relate to on an emotional level in a simple, impactful, and interactive manner.
Initial Sketches
I started the project by sketching my initial idea in the first group meeting to communicate my vision for the art. Then, several elements were changed, removed, or added based on the feedback, story concept, and further ideation on what would look best while staying true to the central aesthetic.
For example, the fireworks were changed to shooting stars to fit the mood of the story better, the hot air balloon was altered to an airship to fit the aesthetic style and space constraints, and layers of stairs were added to make the journey feel like it's leading up to something wondrous, and so on.
Digital Design
After the initial concept was finalized, I started creating the assets step by step in Photoshop. Each element had to be separate in its layer, and all connected layers needed to be correctly grouped and named. Hence, knowing which parts needed to be changed for the animation or interaction was easy.
The design also changed a bit in this phase from what was initially planned in terms of color scheme, and even some elements, like fireworks, were replaced by shooting stars, a lighthouse-like structure replaced the carousel, and so on.
Then we worked on animating the concept and adding user interaction in Unity Game Engine. This process was carried out simultaneously, along with design and asset creation.
Several obstacles during this process were mainly related to animating all elements separately yet seamlessly and changing the illumination level consistently across the artwork. The entire animation had to be divided into small segments that play like clips when the user interacts with the piece. Through nights of trial and error, guidance from our professor, and online tutorials, Peter successfully pieced it all together.
The project was selected and showcased for the ITP 2022 Winter Show. Below are some videos showcasing user interaction and reactions to the project:
