"Dumbledore's Blood Pact" is a conceptual third film in the five-movie Fantastic Beasts series. Grindelwald's (Johnny Depp) forces grow with the addition of Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol) and Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller). Dumbledore (Jude Law) - along with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner), Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), and Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam) must find a way to destroy the Blood Pact which prevents Dumbledore and Grindelwald from dueling.
Establish some consistency in the Fantastic Beasts marketing materials and branding, as the first two films seem to have gone completely different directions
Create a unique character layout different from past posters with a new key color to make this film and its marketing distinct
Connect more with the original Harry Potter audience, which doesn't seem to be taking to the Fantastic Beasts series as well
To help meet one of the primary goals of this project, I decided to use the existing "Crimes New Roman" font that was part of "The Crimes of Grindelwald" branding. This logo uses the Deathly Hallows symbols - the circle, line, and triangle - in different ways. The triangle is used as it was in the past film, the circles are incorporated via the word blood, and the elder wand - the line - is actually present in this logo. Because the blood in the pact is what binds Dumbledore and Grindelwald, the o's are connected as a representation of that bond (this theme with resurface in the title sequence).
For the poster, I decided to do a little 3D modeling. I started out sketching a few different ring designs, and used the pen tool to create one in Adobe Illustrator before extruding it and setting up lightning in Cinema 4D. I also modeled my own Blood Pact, as I knew it'd be an essential part of the project, and being able to use it at a variety of sizes and angles seemed important. It is based closely upon the Blood Pact in the film so that the two can be used interchangeably.
While assembling the characters, I used my 3D models - the blood pact, and the ring, which uses the Deathly Hallows symbol as a recognizable Harry Potter symbol with relevance to the current plot. I also used an iPad Pro and Apple Pen to paint in some hair and highlight edging on some of the larger renders for the best possible sharpness and lighting.
The first finished post utilizes the 3D ring as a containing element for the three biggest characters in the franchise. It glows to further emulate the center of the Blood Pact, and provides a transition from the Hogwarts background (yet another Harry Potter tie-in to attempt to connect to that audience). This section of the poster is primarily blue, with additional coloration used for separation of characters.
The bottom of the poster introduces a new key color: red. This makes for a great transition from "The Crimes of Grindelwald" branding, which was primarily white and blue, into the red of the blood pact. This section is separated by a layer of clouds, but uses the same back lighting at the top sectionThe logo is on full display. A billing block is not included, meaning this might be more of a teaser poster or alternate release poster.
The film series, after "The Crimes of Grindelwald," has shifted to focus on characters, which are the focus of this poster.
There are two potential series styles for the character posters. The first prominently utilizes the ring and displays the name of each character and the actor or actress who plays that character. This version of the ring is able to properly showcase the Deathly Hallows symbol. The second set of posters utilizes a heavier background and the ring becomes a frame element rather than a centerpiece of the poster. In this case, the full logo is used instead, along with the release date.
This was a bit of a turning point in the project. I decided that while I liked what had been produced so far, I had a few issues with the pieces. Furthermore, I wanted to fully explore at least one more potential direction.
Utilize a more unique character layout - while the three most prominent characters of the series are clear and must remain clear, are all characters necessary?
Make the marketing more consistent with "The Crimes of Grindelwald" - this set doesn't necessarily match previous marketing materials, but especially not those of the second film, which tend to be cleaner and simpler.
This poster derives its overall shape from an element which I have not seen used in any other Fantastic Beasts branding or fan posters - Gellert Grindelwald's skull. Being a seer (and able to view the future), Grindelwald inhales smoke from this to project his visions to follows. This is his big scene at the end of the previous film. But what starts out as a wispy smoke becomes an almost fire-like substance near the top of the poster. This key art has successfully established a new key color that has been not used in Fantastic Beasts branding to keep the movie distinct. However, the light cobblestone flooring texture at the bottom is a callback to The Crimes of Grindelwald marketing materials, establishing some of that consistency we were after. The character arrangement is completely unique and cuts less important characters so that the rest can be featured more prominently. The characters' wand flares are now entirely blue, which is not only consistent with the previous marketing materials, but also with the magic in the movies. This poster also includes the full billing block and logo materials as a proper one-sheet design.
This poster utilizes the logo in black and an upside-down Deathly Hallows symbol. Grindelwald, who seeks to control non-magic individuals, uses the slogan "For the Great Good," which is written in German on his skull (shown in the poster). However, this phrase actually came from a letter Dumbledore sent him when they were young. Grindelwald has taken his concept and flipped it on its head - hence the upside-down Deathly Hallows.
This round of character posters also mimics the key art. In this case, the phrase "For the Greater Good" is connected with the associated upside-down Deathly Hallows symbol (as well as the Elder Wand - not only is it one of the Deathly Hallows, but it is also held by Grindelwald at the moment and will later be owned by Dumbledore). Below each character's name, their unique wand is used as a divider.
I have begun coding a website that uses the same overall aesthetic and incorporates a pure CSS parallax effect - using about 5 layers - on the homepage. It features the three main characters and the blood pact, while continuing the smoke look across the page. The upside-down Deathly Hallows is also part of a divider. On the mobile version of the site, the menu expands underneath this symbol.
Amazingly, this complex parallax effect is fully responsive - it works on a wide variety of sizes using traditional media queries as well as media queries that look and both browser height and width simultaneously.
As I expanded into the digital and motion side of the project, I considered what I might want to create for the intro and title sequence. I decided it would be interesting to attempt the following.
Newspaper fly through - a common Harry Potter (also used in Fantastic Beasts) method of displaying news, used to recap the events at the end of the previous film
Blood Pact scene - recycled from "The Crimes of Grindelwald" to explain the significance of the blood pact
Blood Pact zoom - 3D model created in Cinema 4D and integrated into the film scene to transition to the title sequence
Title sequence - cloud fly through using 2D layers in 3D space in After Effects to show off the title/logo
I started with the newspapers. I designed six cover pages for "The Daily Prophet," a famous newspaper featured throughout Harry Potter and at the beginning of the Fantastic Beasts series. I incorporated headlines relevant to the end of the last movie and created the final headline so that the moving images (which are standard in wizarding world newspapers) could fade into the Hogwarts and blood pact scene. Some stories and arrangements are reused in different areas, but they are created so that no duplicate story shows up in the film sequence.
The creation of the newspapers, along with other experimentation, led to the creation of two other potential character poster styles. Both of these examples show Jude Law as Dumbledore. They include both the character name and the film title and logo, as well as the red smoke/fire used in other branding pieces. One features a neutral, dark background and the other features a copy of The Daily Prophet.
This sequence is accomplished via one of my favorite After Effects techniques - using 2D images in 3D space. Although After Effects offers the ability to choose the lens length and zoom on a camera layer, it does not produce distortion effects like a real camera would. By applying effects via 2D adjustment layers, an Optics Compensation and other effects can be used as if they're part of the camera rather than an effect applied flatly to a layer.
The newspaper fly through uses effects that are standard to other fly throughs in the Harry Potter universe. These include the simulation of a fish-eye effect (accomplished via Optics Compensation and NOT via a Fisheye warp effect, which looks much worse), depth of field that falls off on the edges of the frame, a vignette, a slight flicker, and moving images.
Below are a few of the early motion tests for the newspaper fly through. They show the slight motion across the page when viewing it, demonstrate the flickering and other effects, and show the quick fly through motion to the next newspaper. As mentioned above, most effects are applied via adjustment layers, so rather than one layer looking like it's warped, the wide-angle camera lens effect is achieved and looks good as the camera moves.
The other big creative part of my title sequence is the blood pact spin and title sequence. I used my Cinema 4D model and animation along with a composition of 2D cloud layers in 3D space to create this portion. I also 3D modeled my logo in Cinema 4D, manually chiseling out the text for the best possible appearance. This current version does not have the sound editing complete, but is prepared with the music. Because this movie is all about breaking the blood pact - a pact which literally binds the blood of Dumbledore and Grindelwald in a vial, and is represented by the joined o's - the o's break apart in the title sequence.
This part of the sequence would be intermixed with the blood pact scene from the rest of the opening sequence. Part of the compositing process is demonstrated here between these two frames, where the background and various effects have been added.
