Railroad Gala
Duration
5 weeks
Tools
AfterEffects
Illustrator
Blender
Photoshop
I had to find a very unusual sport to advertise a fictional event for, so I chose Teapot Racing. It’s basically what it sounds like—people building robot cars with teapots attached. In their Facebook group, I found an event called “Railroad Gala” so I decided to mimic it.
Research
The theme was to make branding for an unusual sport, nothing with a professional league in the US (like football or baseball) nor that has been in the Olympics since the year 2000 or earlier. I found out about Teapot Racing, which is exactly what it sounds like—people building robot cars with teapots attached.
Contestants have to complete a course and race their teapots against each other. They are graded on typical things like speed and ability to maneuver through obstacles, but also on hilarious things like bribery, showmanship, and foul play on other racers. They are also graded on who is the best dressed, as Teapot Racing is Steampunk themed, so a fancy costume is a must.
The Steampunk aesthetic helped me with theming my designs and creating visual assets, such as the teapot, gears, and goggles.
Drafting
First I had to make an animated logo. I started off with some drafts of what the logo could look like:
I decided on making two animated videos—one horizontal 1920px x 1080px intended for YouTube, and a vertical 1080px x 1920px reel intended for Instagram and TikTok. These were some initial storyboards:
Final Logo Design
For colors, I went with yellow (#edda7c) and dark green (#102b1e) since they were very prominent in steampunk settings.
For the fonts, I chose AM Udine for the title and Merriweather for paragraph text.
Assets
I made a few additional assets to include in the video, using Adobe Illustrator for illustrations of steampunk-ish outfits, and Blender to animate robotic teapots.
