Disney
Christmas Special
A miniature Christmas Disneyland rollercoaster
Disney needed an opening title sequence for their Christmas and Thanksgiving programming.
Wanting to capture the warmth and charm of classic Disney storytelling, we imagined iconic Disneyland locations rebuilt entirely from paper.
It had to be festive, recognisably Disney and have the flexibility to serve both holiday seasons.
The Approach
Working with Lost and Found Studio, we explored several directions: from 2D paper-cut scenes to layered dioramas before finally settling on our look.
The Brief evolved from a 2D papercraft environment that had a charm in the concept art, but felt too static and enclosed for animation. We needed a creative solution to break us out of the flat 2D setting and into a world with dynamism and energy.
Keeping a nod to the original brief, we used paper materials and set about building a 3D paper world. Creating a fast camera-rig or ‘Tinker-Cam’ we were now free to fly through our iconic paper Disneyland, zipping over buildings, racing around spaceships, and crashing through magical forests.
The approach brought energy and a cinematic feel - like taking a wild rollercoaster ride through a festive Disneyland.
We now had all the papercraft charm, as well as the pace and energy that the show needed.
Setting the tone was a delicate balancing act that leaned heavily on our lighting. The brief was “dusk, but not dark.”
We imagined a festive landscape set in that brief, enchanting moment that’s not quite day and not quite night. Creating a soft sunset as our backdrop and lifting the foreground palette using fairy lights, delicate Tinker Bell trails, and warm pools of light in darker areas. The balance of twinkling, low-level lighting gave it a warm charm and sparkle that we were looking for. Finally, we layered in snow and tinsel for added festive cheer, and the tone was set.
The Craft
Technically, the challenge was flying through multiple locations in one single shot, whilst keeping render times and scene complexity under control.
We explored several approaches:
Building the entire sequence in one scene (a heavy lift for Cinema 4D).
Loading the world into Unreal Engine for performance and blazing fast render times, but at the cost of control over our aesthetic.
Or, matching camera moves scene-to-scene and stitching them together in post.
It’s a classic dilemma: do you pick the slick, technical solution or the laborious, hands-on route? I’ll usually work in the way that gives the most creative control and flexibility.
We took the third route - rendering each scene independently from Cinema 4D, matching camera moves by eye and finessing in After Effects, which gave us full creative control. It was a brief moment of uncertainty, but our counterintuitive solution allowed for greater flexibility in team collaboration and faster client iterations further down the line.
A Curveball
Towards the end of the project, experimenting with ways to add a little extra sparkle, our client fell in love with a test-render featuring a festive glitterball material.
“Can we have more of that… in everything?”
