Tree of Forgotten Dreams
Online ARG and Interactive circus performance with puzzles at the Woodford Folk Festival 2017/18
Create images and animations for promotional materials and puzzle elements
Design Font & UI elements for website Unity project
Create physical props used for puzzles around the festival
About
The Tree of Forgotten Dreams was a multi-faceted interactive project for Woodford Folk Festival 2017/18. During the festival, physical puzzles were laid out around the festival grounds that patrons could solve during the day. At night, there would be an interactive performance that would be influenced by whether puzzles were completed.
In the lead up to the festival, I worked with a team as the sole artist to create the visual media for an online Alternative Reality Game (ARG). This involved creating a visual representation of the tree that would also become a poster image for the project, animated videos and images for puzzles and announcements, font, and UI elements.
In the immediate set up period for the festival, I worked with the set and prop building team to help bring the set and puzzles to life.
Images & Animation
Videos that I created for social media posts and puzzle clues
Finished Poster Image
The Brief
- Create a poster image of the Tree of Forgotten Dreams - to be presented on social media and in print (festival catalog)
- The tree is a spiritual tree of hopes and dreams, cared for by two ravens (performers) Hugin and Munin - inspired by Norse mythology
- Visually, the tree is made of an odd assortment of objects and bits of pieces with a whimsical, dream-like feel
Concept sketch provided to me by the lead of the set building team
The Process
Given this project was all about dreaming, I wanted to capture a surreal feeling about the image of the tree that used very real textures. To do this, I created a real model of the tree using cut up carboard and string which I photographed to use as a base for the image. I also drew sketches and images on real paper and scanned them. I then used Adobe Photoshop and After Effects to montage the images together – resulting with the final image of the Tree of Forgotten Dreams.
Photo of the cardboard model I created and scanned drawings.
Font & UI Elements
Website Unity Project
I worked with programmer Caleb Barton to provide visual assets for a Unity project embedded into a website for participants in the online ARG to work on puzzles and submit answers.
This involved creating UI elements and I also developed a unique font for the project.
Prop creation
Physical Puzzles
In the immediate set up period for the festival, I worked with the set and prop building team to help bring the set and puzzles to life.
- Painting
- Polymer Clay modeling
During the five days of the Woodford Folk Festival, during the day there would be puzzle boxes set up next to the Tree of Forgotten Dreams set. During the day players would look at clues set up next to the boxes and would have to go elsewhere in the festival grounds to find the solutions to open the box. Inside the boxes would be some sort of item or knowledge that could be used in the performances later that evening to solve some sort of problem the Ravens would come across.
