From initial story to concept art to final render, this took me three months to complete. I was hoping to have finished this card by the middle of October, but I'm glad I finished it before Halloween.
I wanted the story to be different than typical, scary Halloween stories. Since it is the one day of the year the dead can come back to the realm of the living, I placed love as the focus. There is one scene at the end that, taken out of context, would seem spooky, but hopefully would not pass as terrifying, as the girl finds comfort in that scene.
I actually lost the original storyboard while working on this, but I still have the animatic. I changed a couple parts from the original concept to final card, because I felt they conveyed the emotion better (e.g. the part where she falls to her knees in the animatic switched to her clenching her wrist in the final).
-Starry background done in Photoshop
-Dark, hooded figure created in After Effects
-All other graphics drawn in Illustrator
-Animated and composited in After Effects