UPDATE Nov.2012: Now for the first time in HD720P! Just in time for the Scarygirl 10th Anniversary. COVER feature of Stash DVD Magazine May 2009 • CREATE Awards: Winner, Digital Media 2009 Animation/Title Sequence: Design, Animation, Compositing, VFX, Effects Designer (After Effects) Loved by millions worldwide, Nathan Jurevicius's beloved and iconic cult character is brought to life by Passion Pictures Australia (http://www.passion-pictures.com.au/) in conjunction with Halo Pictures Sydney (http://www.halopictures.com/). I was lucky enough to land the job of compositor and effects designer for this animated mixture of 3D and cel animation, created to function as an introduction to the Scary Girl game. As of July 2010, this game has reached more than 1 million online plays and won numerous awards, helped along of course by the time and effort put into our stunning game introduction movie. Working freelance to Halo Pictures, I was asked to give the cartoon elements and environments a feeling of depth and atmosphere, bringing Scary Girl to life. Taking toon renders from the talented animators at Halo, and cameras and 3D renders from Maya, I proceeded to place toon cards in 3D space and started filling in the gaps, creating transitions, atmospheric effects, particles, water effects, extending scenery, creating non-toon special effects, post-lighting effects, and more - at all times treating this cult classic with the reverence it deserves. To do justice to Nathan Jurevicius's characters required some complicated shading techniques and many layers of precomps - depth and shading had to be of the highest quality, and for this reason, standard toon-shading plugins were not an option. Transitioning seamlessly between 3D maya camera moves and the sections that were built entirely in After Effects 2.5D space, we succeeded in taking the viewer on a wild ride through Scary Girl's world... If you'd like to know more about the shading techniques used to give the 2D toon characters the illusion of 3D depth without (and achieving more controllable results than) plugins, leave a comment. Featured In: Cover Feature of May 2009 Stash DVD Magazine (http://www.stashmedia.tv/archive/stash56.htm) Adobe Developer Connection (http://www.adobe.com/devnet/games/examples.html) Motionographer (http://motionographer.com/2009/04/01/scarygirl-game-trailer/) The Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald One of the top games in 1Up's list of the best 101 free games of 2010 Awards: 2009 CREATE Awards: Winner, Digital Media category AFI Award Nomination for Screen Content Innovation MTV Germany best video games awards nomination 2009 E4 Games Awards 2009 Runner Up FWA Site of the Day Merit Award in the 2009 HOW Interactive Competition Bronze award in the 2009 London International Awards Finalist in the Games category of the 2010 SXSW Web Awards IGNs Indie Pick of the Week Communication Arts Interactive Annual 16 Winner: Entertainment award Winner of the 2010 FITC Awards in the game category Credits: Production Company: Passion Pictures Australia (http://passion-pictures.com.au) Scary Girl: Nathan Jurevicius Director: Chris Hague Toon Animation: Halo Pictures Compositing/Animation/Effects: Scott Geersen Additional Compositing (City Sequence): Demis Lyle-Wilson Producer: Sophie Byrne Audio/Music: Luke Jurevicius Developed with the Assistance of the Film Victoria's Digital Media Fund.