Clue Curtainwarmer

For Thomas More’s production of Clue, they wanted to create a looping motion graphic to play before the show began to immerse the audience for the show. The idea was to get them fully prepared for the tone and aesthetics of the show while having an unobtrusive animation. I created the concept of this and executed it. I did a lot of research on Victorian mansions, where the setting of the story is, and created my own interpretation of the classic Clue mansion seen on the board game box.

After gathering my inspiration and doing some sketches, I drew the full mansion in Procreate. This is largely what ended up being the final product, however there were a few changes that needed to be made. The dark purple I had selected for the background didn’t appear well on the projector screen once in the theater. We went back and changed it to a dull dark grey, which appeared perfect in person for the dark stormy night the play takes place.

I also added a white dog, which was a late addition to the animation. It was a suggestion from Greg Procaccino, the director of the show, because the dog comes up later in the story. The dogs are part of the reason many of the characters stay trapped in the mansion and they get up to some hijinks later when different people come to the mansion. I created the dog in Illustrator and animated him, as well as everything else, in After Effects.

For the full animation, check it out here!