Expanding the magical world of the popular Stories of Evergreen Hills shorts on YouTube, this fantasy-adventure series follows Sam and her new friends, Dee and Maxis, as they navigate the challenges of their apprenticeship and track down the mysterious 'Spark Thief'.
I had the privilege to series direct on this ambitious show, created by Aaron Johnston, which was a huge challenge, but an immensely rewarding experience! Along with supervising the series, I was directly responsible for 3 episodes as well as creating the opening titles sequence.
Working with me were three fabulous episodic directors -Rob Byrne, Sara Barbas and Ray Quigley- who I oversaw throughout the boarding and animatic process, and Art Directors Sarah-Jane Williams and Robert Semple, who steered the redesign for the series.
The show launched exclusively on the Chick Fil-A Play App with the first 5 episodes airing in 2024. The latter 5 will air in Christmas 2025.
SERIES TRAILER
EPISODE ANIMATICS
Ep1 - Junkyard Rescue: While searching for a missing child, the apprentices meet an angry guard dog. The junkyard set was quite small so a lot of clever cheating had to be done in layout to make the chase appear as though it was covering more ground than it actually was.
Ep 2 - Fancy Restaurant: A cute scene where dad and son give mum, Kate, some much needed pampering after a day at work. I really liked the performances from the animation team here. *Sound not final*
Ep 2 - Stalaker Cave: The kids journey to the mysterious Stalaker cave to find the firelilies dropped by the Spark Thief. I loved how the lighting turned out in this sequence.
*Sound not final*
Ep2 - The Peregris: A great moment where we reveal one of my favourite characters in the show, the Peregris. Originally she was designed to have glowing markings on her face, but it was later decided to remove them. *Sound not final*
Ep4 - The Spark Thief: This sequence had to be massively reworked in storyboards to address some script issues. Myself and the ep director invented the fight over the bracelet to make the sequence more exciting. We also came up with Talia's frisbee portal as an easier means of getting them back to the floating doorway. *Sound not final*
OPENING TITLES
For the title sequence the show creator wanted something elegant and abstract, like the Rings of Power intro. My idea was to focus on the runes in the Sky Gate lighting up with spark magic and opening a portal to the aurora in Iceland. There the collected spark power flows into Evergreen Hills, revealing the title.
I animated the cameras myself in Maya and the storyboard artist drew the FX on top. Our color artist then mocked up stills to inform the lighting team for the final look. Initially we explored a night sky to make it more mysterious, but in the end we opted for a pink sunset.