When the characters go haywire
There are many complicated shots in Everybody Loves Salsa, but there’s one that got increasingly more complex as time went by. The initial idea was simple: to show a static shot of an office with a few desks, where we see a character working on his computer. But then the imagination ran wild, and the question was asked: “What if we make this much more interesting and exciting?”
Inspired by the sweeping and unsettling first-person camera movements seen in Sam Raimi’s 1992 Army of Darkness, a very ambitious setting was conceived: to start far away and go straight inside a building, passing by a large office with multiple characters and end inside the screen of a computer.
Here’s a quick breakdown of all the process behind this scene:
To make this possible, there was a lot of planning before starting to properly lay out the elements of the scene. An animatic was done, and seeing that the shot would require many elements from different techniques (like 3d modelling and animation, frame-by-frame animated characters, and even stop motion), Daniel Cordero decided to seek help from some friends.
Luis Mejia, an animator and motion designer from Armenia, Colombia, and Jose Lun and Manuel Casares, two fellow animator friends from Granada, Spain, jumped in to help in creating the 2-second long shot with all its complexities.
Jose Lun took care of the initial 3d camera movement and setting. He then jumped into designing and animating 4 of the characters that are sitting down at the office table.
Manuel Casares took over the design and animation of another 4 characters (including the one throwing the donut at the screen).
Luis Mejia was in charge of the 3d elements: modelling the skyscraper (which is called “La Torre de Cali” and it’s the tallest building in Cali), all the screens, furniture, cables and pipes that populate the scene.
The “flying donut” is in reality a kind of bread called “pandebono”, which is traditional from Cali (and delicious!)
Projected on all the screens and monitors on the back wall, there’s an insistent head giving instructions to all the workers. This character was inspired by a famous 1984 Apple commercial.
It serves as an overview of the corporate culture and exploitation, as well as a stark contrast to the attitude of the rest of the characters in the video, who embrace life, happiness and dance in a careless way.
Setting the scene
The whole scene was set up in 3d first using Cinema 4D. Once the basic elements and the camera were placed, the movement was locked, so all the 2d elements could be added on top.
A lot of technological elements like screens, computers, pipes and cables were added to create a chaotic look. A few pre-hispanic sculptures and totems were also added to make a mix of the old and the new, and how technology and corporate greed take over art, beauty and tradition.
