PLUM

An original bedtime brand built from a blank page and taken all the way out the door. EP01 is in production and the brand is live at goodnightplum.com with a real waitlist. I created the character, directed the look development across five styles and three worlds, boarded and cut the first episode, and set the visual rules a year of episodes runs on.

ClientPLUM (original IP)

RoleCreator / Art Director

Year2026

CategoryCharacter IP & Series

PLUM is an original bedtime brand I created and direct: a wordless dream keeper named Tuck who opens a new dream world every episode. Every call, from the shape of the character to the tempo of the edit, was mine to make and mine to defend. And it shipped: EP01 is in production now, and the brand is live at goodnightplum.com with a real waitlist behind it.

That is exactly why it leads this portfolio. Client work shows how I direct inside constraints. PLUM shows the whole spine of the craft with nothing handed to me: research, character R&D, look development, storyboards, animatic, production and delivery, in order, with the decisions visible.

Art direction, end to end

From blank page to a world with rules

PLUM is the fullest picture of how I direct: every decision, from character to color to cut, mine to get right. This is the actual process, in order.

Research & direction

Find the feeling before the frames

The brief I wrote myself: bedtime content is either saccharine or screen-candy that winds kids up. The direction had to feel like being tucked in. Slow arcs, warm practical light against cool night blues, softness you can almost touch. Every reference call came back to one line I kept on the board: the lantern is the heartbeat.

The inspiration board, gathered before any design

Character R&D

I explored twenty. I kept one.

Character is the most expensive thing to get wrong, so I cast wide before committing. Twenty fully rendered directions for the dream keeper, each turned front and side and put through the full emotional range. And I did not stop at one: I took three directions all the way into motion, a full set of looping animation studies for each, so I could cast for performance and not just looks. Running that much R&D in parallel, three characters explored before a single frame is locked, is exactly what my AI pipeline makes affordable. The three motion-tested directions lead. Click any character to unfold its full turnaround and range.

Character development

Tuck, taken all the way

The chosen direction grew into the final Tuck: the nightcap, the lantern, the blanket he carries like a cape. A wordless character carries everything in the eyes and posture, so the acting range had to be proven before a single episode frame was rendered. These are the locked-design hero studies that set the bar for production.

The keeper, on model: nightcap, lantern, blanket

Look development

The same dream in five voices

Before committing a year of production to a look, I ran the three signature worlds through five full styles: soft cinematic 3D, painterly storybook, felt stop-motion, cut-paper diorama and watercolor dream. Seeing the same world in every voice is the only honest way to choose one.

Storyboards

EP01, The First Night, drawn before it was built

The pilot episode was boarded shot by shot before production. Wordless storytelling lives or dies in the boards: if the story does not read in twelve rough panels with no dialogue, no render will save it.

Animatic

Cut it before you build it

Boards went straight into an animatic against temp music to prove the pacing. Bedtime pacing is its own discipline: the cut has to slow a child down, not wind them up. Holds run long on purpose, and the whole edit breathes at lullaby tempo before a single shot went into production.

EP01 timed against temp music in Coveboard

Animatic cut in Coveboard ↗, the AI-integrated pre-production and editing platform I designed and built.

Production

From viewport to bedtime

Built in Cinema 4D, rendered in Redshift. The direction rules from chapter one survive contact with production here: one warm practical against cool night ambience, cloth-soft materials, and Tuck lit like a character in a film, not an asset in a scene.

The worlds

A year of episodes, one locked look

Every episode opens a new dream world through the same visual rules. Establishing frame, hero moment, Tuck inside the world: the consistency across all of them is the proof the look development held.

Delivery

Story stills & key art

The frames that carry the brand out into the world: poster pulls, expression sheets, product and story moments. EP01 is in production now, and the brand is live at goodnightplum.com with a real waitlist.

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