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 Peacock | The Burbs (2026)​

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Studio: yU+co

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Role:  Solo 3D Designer.

 

Responsible for establishing the full visual aesthetic of the paper-cut silhouette sequences in 3D, interpreting the director's 2D illustrations into a cinematic rendering language — including lighting systems, material treatments, and spatial composition.​​​

Concept 1: Window Watching


Through the window silhouettes, you see various characters doing activities that appear suspicious or dangerous at first glance - but are revealed to be mundane, everyday actions. I utilized natural sunlight casting shadows through windows. We collected and referenced various window patterns from houses featured in The 'Burbs to create authentic suburban atmosphere. I used a shadow puppet-inspired lighting technique, where the double shadows create a subtly distorted effect. The edges shift between sharp and soft, oscillating between clarity and ambiguity — heightening the suspenseful, unsettling atmosphere.

Concept 2: Paranoia


For this direction, I use theatrical narrative style to convey paranoia - where neighbors spy on each other, and everyone is gossiping.

Early Exploration​

To visualize Showrunner Celeste Hughey's suggestion of using paper cut silhouettes as a visual language to introduce danger and suspense, I explored several directions at the early stage:

  1. Building 3D models of houses from The Burbs neighborhood and placing them behind a translucent white screen, using backlighting to generate the silhouette effect

  2. Projecting clean, graphic silhouettes directly onto a plain white wall, emphasizing a minimal and bold visual language

  3. Referencing interior details from the hero house — such as wallpaper, flooring, and the basement — and projecting the silhouette themes onto these textured real-world surfaces.    

    While exploring the third direction, I discovered that adjusting the angle of the light source produced interesting elongated and overlapping shadows. I felt this added a layer of unease and suspicion to the visuals. This ultimately led me to land on the final approach — using two light sources positioned at different angles to create a double-layered shadow effect.

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Color & Lighting in AE​

I also did post-production color and lighting work in After Effects to match the art director's color treatment work in the PSD. I used Trapcode Shine to create the effect of sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows, because one of the windows in the main house is a stained glass window. (the color looks gitched here due to compressed gif format tho)

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Moodboard​

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I analyzed the received client visual references, which contained shapes with strong dramatic tension. The treatment of shadows demonstrated layered and grayscale variations, creating a sense of depth and dimensionality. She mentioned Kara Walker’s shadow puppets. There was also a reference from the art director featuring a house rendered in a 3D composition, accented by bright lighting, with human silhouettes visible through the windows. This reference concept inspired the subsequent direction of Window Watching.

Process​

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During the production, I created an ACES workflow document for the freelance animator's reference.

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Credit​​​​

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Creative Director: Garson Yu
Art Director: Mulan Leong-Suzuki, Grace Kang
3D Designer: Yuqun Huang
Animator: Yuee Seo, Yuqun Huang
Illustrator: Lydia Kim, Jieyi Lee
Editor: Dan Tegnelia
Post production supervisor: Gregory Jones
Producer: Johnny Ellsworth


Produced at yU+co
 

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