"Encanto the Panto" is a musical performance written and produced by Baldoyle Musical Society, based off of the Disney movie "Encanto". As a part of the production, they commissioned an illustrated and animated design for the house that the characters live in, which plays a prominent role in the story of the musical. Throughout the story, the house must interact and change in accordance to the live production on stage.
House Design
House Sketch - Draft
House Sketch - Approved
The house went through a number of design stages. It was decided that the house design needed to be relatively simplistic and have much more of a mundane Irish influence, as this version of "Encanto" is set in Ireland - however many of the design influences from the southern american setting of the original film were brought over into the final design.
Even after the final design was approved, the stage design team relayed that the door of the house would need to be touching the bottom of the frame to align with the physical stage design, and as such the illustration was zoomed in and enlarged to accommodate.
As the story progresses, the magic of the house begins to fade. This personifies itself in the house cracking, crumbling and breaking, which reflects the emotional state of the characters getting progressively worse.
Originally the house would also lose colour and become much more desaturated, however through testing it was found that the colour did not come through with the lighting and projection rigs that were used.
This scene was combined with the physical breaking of the set, such as falling columns and raining debris.
House facade Styleframe - Wedding Scene Variant
House facade Styleframe -
The next scene where animation was required, is a scene where one of the children gains a new power from the house. There is a scripted ceremony which required the door of the house to open and for light to shine out of the doorway. This animation was combined with physical lighting and sound design to enhance the magic and theatrics.
One of the final scenes that appears in the panto is a comedic chase scene involving the comedy relief duo and a series of actors dressed as ghosts. The client requested an animated introduction to the scary yet child friendly spectres.