Post Office | Holmesville

Production illustration of Holmesville post office

In every town, small or large, there is always a post office, because people need their mail! So we present to you, the Holmesville Post Office. It's conveniently located in the northeast part of town, near Hobak’s Volleyball Factory. We kept the exterior humble to conceal a well kept vintage interior.

Pre-production sketch of post office for animatic

The interior of the post office boasts with walls of mailboxes modeled after early 19th century post office door banks. Those golden beauties are meticulously polished with pride by the small post office staff.  Speaking of the staff, Markus is one of the three delivery men and was originally hired on as a favor to Lolo (Markus’ grandfather). He’s proven himself to be the fastest delivery man in town, but unfortunately gets easily turned around; causing delivery delays and somewhat disgruntled citizens.

Pre-production sketch of Markus with mailboxes background

Production illustration of Markus' mailboxes background

Mr. Shim is an old friend of Lolo's, and the post office manager.  He's a kind yet stern boss, and expects all of his employees to be prompt, professional, and above all else for deliver the mail ON TIME. Unfortunately, Markus is sometimes unable to meet this requirement, much to the chagrin of Mr. Shim, but he keeps Markus on staff out of respect to Lolo.

Pre-production sketch of Mr. Shim with background

Production illustration of foreground counter and mailboxes background

The Evolution of Holmesville

"Holmesville...where everyone is home."

Originally, we were going to make The Lost Land of Yehey a children's book series because it seemed simpler and less daunting. But we rapidly realized that simplifying our story wouldn’t allow us to tell it faithfully. Plus, we didn't know a thing about breaking into the children's book industry! In fact, we had problems just deciding on what size to make the book. After a little back and forth, we realized that we should cater to our strengths, and firmly decided to produce Yehey as an animated series.  It's a much bigger undertaking, but it made the most sense because we both knew way more about animation, and could deliver a faithful telling of the story with all the depth and heart it deserved. Also, we could get it to the world easier via technology and social media.

Below is the visual evolution of Holmesville, the town where Markus and Chechi live. The images compare the book version and the animated version of Holmesville.

Original storybook sketch

Final storybook version used in the Yehey Trailer

The book version of Holmesville definitely has a more hand painted and organic feel to it. Also the texture of the paper really gives it a look of authenticity . There is something charming about this version, and we tried to transfer that over when transitioning to the animated version.

Animated pilot sketch

Final animated pilot version

The animated version received a bit of simplification to make production less daunting. It also received a bit of sprawling expansion across the valley floor.  However the Holmesville Post Office is still in the same place, along with the Hobak Volleyball Factory and Lolo's house. Things get a bit cleaner and more geometric in this version. However we tried to retain that organic feel by adding simple textures to edges and large expanses of flat color. We also added a few lighting effects to warm things up...it's quite cozy.