Tip of the Hats: Sally & the Sunbeams Max’s Head
A while ago, I posted the outro for Tip of the Hats to my Youtube channel. I also posted up the 1080p version of the promotional poster that was used to announce Tip of the Hats 2015, which you can find here. Those four children featured in that video and poster - particularly the girl in pink - have gotten way too close to my heart.
The girl in pink, who I named Sally, became my mascot for Tip of the Hats. Originally she was supposed to have braids, but that was saved for the girl on the very right of the promotional poster. At the surface, she’s a modified Olivia Mann model, with Multitrip’s “Passion Ribbon”, Uncle Grumpskin’s “Greatest Gift”, a reddish-brown Brutal Bouffant, and big brown eyes. At the core, she was a symbol - as was the Unusual Sunbeams Mann Co. Orange Max’s Severed Head, which didn’t actually exist in TF2 ever and we joked that Reddit was going to give us a hard time about it. (We wanted Sunbeams, and we wanted a cute hat that we felt kids would like. It felt right at the time.) I LIED IT’S REAL OH SHIT
I knew I wanted a Heavy - very friendly compared to canon!Heavy who seems a little more apprehensive about children - in a Tipped Lid and a Jaunty Pin as the mascot of most of the SFMs I’d churn out for ToTH; Sally would also be right there with him a majority of the time, wearing that one-of-a-kind non-existent Unusual Hat. There were posters and SFM work where I wished I could have showcased the other kids as well as Demo/Pyro/Engie/maybe Miss Pauling a little more, but with the time given, I had to make due with what I was capable of.
The ToTH staff’s reception to Sally and the other three kids was positive. Kurt said he felt like her when he first saw the poster, and was really excited to put it out. Sean joked about who approved her name to be Sally, which was initially a placeholder, and said he loved it. This actually came in handy when Salamancer AKA Sal AKA “it says Sally! it was meant to be” was signing the print of the promotional poster that would also be given to the winner of the ToTH quilt.
I really wanted her and the kids to appear in the trailer, which Kurt took over for in the end due to physical and mental health issues that came up during then. I insisted to Dashner, who helped me out a bunch during Tip of the Hats, that I really, really wanted these kids to re-appear from the poster to the outro. I wanted that connection not just to make the marketing match, but for the emotional impact of seeing them again (particularly the girl with braids: the way she was made for the promo from the front view was utterly terrifying).
The outro, which was done live on-site (with an actual ergonomic, non-carpal tunnel inducing setup holy shit my wrists and back felt so much better) and done with a “hey, how can we animate this but not actually animate anything within SFM because your wrist is almost RIP” was that opportunity.
The outro description has the original story plan for the credits sequence: Sally would stop Heavy, give him a hug - or give him a wrapped gift first, Heavy would unbox it with Demo and Pyro watching, and it would be a jaunty pin, THEN Sally and Heavy would hug. It would be cute, light-hearted, cheery and heartwarming - for whatever reason, I changed the game plan.
I’m not sure if I did it because I love giving people heart-wrenching emotions, or if somehow I foresaw that the outro would be incredibly emotionally invested to the point where I was holding back tears. I didn’t think anything involving Sally or the kids would be in anyway even a little bit sad. I didn’t think I’d have Sally be on the verge of crying, while the other kids watched her with understanding smiles, as she ran to hug Heavy, as though she wasn’t ready to watch him and the other mercs go.
Our Heavy understands, and he reaches down to give her a big hug. They can’t be bloodthirsty mercenaries on the battlefield all the time - they’ll be back next year to give the kids some more sweet hats (probably picked off the battlefield TBH), as well as play games and have fun. Hopefully, all the kids he and the mercenaries have helped that year will be there next year, unless they’ve checked out because they’ve found life. Hopefully with them, Sally will shine on and shine brightly - just like her ridiculous rabbit hat.
tl;dr: i invested way too much time crafting DEEPEST LORE about my stupid OC do not steal or recolour created solely for ToTH 2015 marketing content but she stayed with me & HEAVY WEAPONS GUY from begin2end thus I got sick with a feels
