Grimm-Life Collective - 3D Motion Graphics

Grimm-Life Collective – Vocal and Instrumental Show Openers from Jason Willis on Vimeo.

Michael Kolence and Amy Preston (the “Grimmest Couple in America“) compose the Grimm-Life Collective, and the Grimm-Life Vlog series documents their travels along America’s back roads and into the darkest heart of these haunted United States, seeking out real-life horror locations. Their life is a non-stop creepy road trip in search of “famous graves, filming locations, abandoned buildings, murder sites, haunted places and all the strange roadside oddities that can be found in between”.

Michael hit me up about creating a pair of video show openers after spotting an earlier piece of mine that he felt jibed perfectly with the offbeat horror-hearted vibe being mined by the Grimm-Life Collective. Our shared love of Spook Show Americana (not to mention folks like John Astin and Don Coscarelli) sealed the deal, and I started fleshing out some retro-inspired 2D line art to use as the backbone for the primary logo designs right away; paring extant Grimm-Life branding elements alongside a few new Spook Show inspired ghouls.

Dutch Psychobilly legends Batmobile gave Michael clearance to use their classic tune “Calamity Man” as the show’s theme, so my next step was to edit down a pair of music beds (vocal and instrumental) that could be swapped out as needed. I finalized a set of 3D elements using the logo designs and timed the camera moves out to the audio, then applied it all to the general visual springboard of “1970’s late-night TV”. A little more smoke and blood, some slight VHS style video damage and we were finally in Grimm Country. Enjoy!

Note: In addition to the compiled video introductions above, below you’ll find an abbreviated gallery containing various design elements and screen grabs.