This Halloween 2025 side project is an interactive, animated hero section for a fictional Halloween event agency. The focus was a character-driven scene built to feel reactive: a single hover interaction triggers multiple coordinated animations (typography, UI, character FX, and a reveal card), then smoothly returns to darkness when the user hovers out.

Create an atmospheric hero that instantly communicates a dark, magical Halloween tone

Use interaction (not just a loop) to deliver a clear moment of delight

Demonstrate a production-ready Rive setup: clean rigging, organized layers, and a readable state machine

Illustration: Adobe Photoshop (all visual assets)

Rigging: mesh deformation + bones for the character’s face (Jack O’Lantern)

Animation + interaction: fully built and refined in Rive, including the state machine, transitions, and timing

State machine driven interaction: a clear separation between an Idle/Dark state and an Active/Hover state (plus any intermediate transition states as needed)

Multiple animations triggered by one interaction: typography entrance, button flame, facial ignition + flame bursts, and the hand/card reveal are synchronized inside the hover flow

Rigged facial performance: the face was handled via mesh + bones to keep deformation smooth and controllable without frame-by-frame redraws

Layered FX control: purple flames were treated as a consistent visual system across UI and character, keeping the scene cohesive while maintaining readability

A short interactive hero that tells a mini story through hover: dark → ignite → reveal → dark, combining UI animation, character rigging, and stylized purple flame effects in a single, cohesive Rive build.