Thumbnail of .gif entry

I have created this animated gif for the "My Favorite Shoes" Contest being run by @agneslaczo! :)

My inspiration for the #myshoe challenge was of course, those famous ruby slippers from the classic film The Wizard of Oz!

I began with an idea to create an illustration of the original ruby slippers. The original shoes were pretty for the time period they were designed for, (Who would put those blue socks in them!?! LOL) but lack visual appeal, for me, when considered in the context of the modern era. So I decided to scrap tho original shoe design, and re-invent the ruby slippers altogether.

I believe I was successful in retaining the original appeal of the shoes which was the beautiful sparkly rubies! I also believe I have created this imagery in alignment with the original purpose of the ruby slippers, this being, as a tool for Dorothy to utilize in opening a pathway to find her way back home. In keeping with the story line, I have animated the shoes to click heels together three times.

Here is a basic outline of the steps used to create the animated image.

◉ I began with importing my shoes into Adobe After Effects as an obj file via Element 3D.

◉ Then I created a texture using Photoshop and imported it into Element and applied it to the shoes.

◉ I then added a bunch of effects to get the right crystalline look that I wanted to achieve. This includes the use of particle systems to create the animated sparkles.

◉ I then began to build the animated shoes into the scene.

◉ I added witchy boots and a green "Wicked Witch" arm signifying the things that were now behind Dorothy on her pathway home.

◉ I added Poppies and glimmering animated emeralds, (Emerald background was created from a stock footage clip that I created. I changed the color and scale of the clip.) along with a yellow brick road which I created using Photoshop. The poppies were rendered using Daz 3d and imported into After effects.

◉ I added all of the elements together as layers in the AE Composition and changed them into 3D layers and moved them into place.

◉ After several stages of rendering I imported the completed .mov file into Photoshop added the branches (with the paintbrush tool) and a few more poppies to frame the image a little, and saved the clip as a .gif image.

◉ I then went back into AE with the .gif file and added a border (using the layer styles panel) and transitions to make the loop work smoothly.

◉ I rendered the image as a .mov file once again and re- imported it back into PS to save the completed .gif image that I have entered in this contest!

Thank you so much @agneslaczo for providing this challenge it was a lot of fun for me to create this image! :D