Premium Invitation Thought Process
Lottie
I had to be mindful about keeping the file fully vectorized to save the lightweight file export. Lottie is an iOS, Android, and React Native library that renders After Effects animations in real-time, allowing apps to use animations as quickly as static images. Lottie was implemented at Evite, so animations like this was played smoothly at a smaller size of 638 KB on mobile and desktop.
Layout
Premium Animated Gallery Tiles
After Lottie was implemented for Premium templates, we ran into an issue where the devs couldn't get the Lottie mockups to show up in the gallery overview. Since we couldn't use Lottie in the gallery, I then collaborated with the devs to determine the best file-type options to use in its place. I landed on gifs; it allowed the files to be small in size and loop forever. I then created a spec sheet for how the animated gallery templates should be laid out to look seamless with the other static gallery templates for future animators.
Body
I had to be strategic about the file structure and body of this character that was too detailed to animate and look natural for Lottie. I gave it horizontal motion with a slight rocking rotation and added a mask shape. Then animated the mask path to accentuate the waist as the character moved back and forth.
Arms
The arms were reasonably simple to animate, but I ran into alignment issues in the Lottie export. Lottie is a vector format animation that shows all imperfections if not adequately aligned, but after a lot of QA, it turned out great. The arms have an elbow joint, which allows the arms to bend.
Legs
I kept the legs stiff since the movement would come from the hips. I did, however, add joints to the ankles to allow natural movement to the legs rocking back and forth.
Stamps, Liners, and Envelops
With each Premium design created, we needed to develop liners and stamp assets for envelopes and lay them out to get an overview of the whole design set.
Final Lottie Animation and Product Mockup
Context
This one was the most challenging among the hundreds of Lottie animations I created at Evite at the time. Backend data showed that around 300 users were looking for Fortnite-themed invitations on the Evite platform. I saw this as an opportunity to create a Premium Fortnite-inspired design with animation which brought in around $18k in increased revenue after the first month on the Evite platform.
Illustration and Ideas
The process started out by conceptualizing character ideas on paper. Since this would be displayed in the kid's events category, I wanted the design to be fun and weird. A character dressed for a battle that was also playful was starting to take shape and I envisioned it doing the floss dance, as that dance had a firm hold on the internet back in 2018. I used lemon drops for grenades and created a bear head with cool shades.