When approaching this animation, one of the initial excitements was to explore and mix a myriad of techniques and artistic ideas
The goal with the style of this animation was to have all the different techniques empower the story and serve as a visual treat that would present the characters and their surrounding in a bold and fun universe of colour and movement.
Since the inception of Everybody Loves Salsa, the main focus (and often, the only focus during the first few months of production) was a pure 2d animation, where frame by frame characters and After Effects rigs would be the way to represent both the characters and the backgrounds.
As the scenes developed more and more and the scale got bigger, new ideas emerged. It was then that the necessity of using different techniques came, such as 3d elements, stop motion, designs made with vectors and shapes and some others with hard pencils and even real food.
Combining miniatures, 2d and 3d
Representing sculptures and real monuments can be very tricky in animation. For this scene, where we see a flying shot of the 26-meter-tall “Cristo Rey” statue, with a sprawling view of the surrounding mountains and city, it was clear that a simple 2D illustration wouldn’t be epic enough. After going to many different souvenir shops in town, a perfect miniature of what it was needed of the Cristo Rey was found. To simulate an aerial shot, tracking marks and a gimbal for stability were used. The video was recorded at 60 frames per second so it would be as smooth and bump-free as possible. Then it was time to rotoscope the figure, track the camera movement, add 3d modelled mountains in Blender, textures and lights. With that base, all the colours were tinted and reworked so it would fit the rest of the animation. Lastly, frame-by-frame shadows with hard pencils and 2d characters were added.
Instead of Cali, the city in the background is an actual replica of downtown Toronto, where the project was kicked off and initially developed.
“Getting the right camera movement with the miniature was very tricky. Any small bump was very noticeable in camera, as the difference in scale adds up quickly. My dog Archie was very curious during the whole process!”
Daniel Cordero
For the “Willys” (a traditional jeep typical in the Colombian Coffee Region), a mix of vectorial elements, hand-painted ones and cut-out photographs created a vehicle made of collage. This added weight and a mix of realities to the jeep that better depict the ones we’d see in real life, but with an artistic and surreal point of view.
A multitude of elements like a TV, classic sculptures and vases, musical instruments, house appliances and even a bunch of bananas are transported by this peculiar form of transportation.
The macaw was animated in After Effects, and the reflections were done frame by frame using Photoshop brushes.
Frame by Frame goodness
A large portion of the character animation was done frame by frame, mainly in Adobe Animate and Photoshop (often using both programs for the same shots, but for different elements in them).
Figuring out how animals and other odd characters move, dance or play piano wasn’t easy, and often required many references, patience and imagination.
The open approach, while producing the animation, tried to take the best of each technique. In this shot, where a bird plays the trumpet, the first step was to sketch out the character turning and playing the instrument in a fun and engaging way.
Once the movement was set, a 3d trumpet was added and animated following the base animation. This made the instrument more solid and took advantage of metallic and reflective textures.
With these two elements together, colour was added and finally, shadows, hand-made reflections and a background full of shapes and colour composed in After Effects.
Anything can work !
Whether it was real food like the “Pandebono”, a typical Colombian bread with the shape of a donut or actual fruits, or pictures of bikes and photographs of palm trees, anything that could add to the visuals and scenes would be welcome.
“For the frame design and animation I took direct inspiration from one of my favourite albums ever:
1971 Paul McCartney’s RAM.
The whole mixed media approach to that cover design (and the free-spirited philosophy of the music) had a big influence on me.
I listened to this album many times while designing and animating this project!”
Daniel Cordero
“For the frame design and animation I took direct inspiration from one of my favourite albums ever:
1971 Paul McCartney’s RAM.
The whole mixed media approach to that cover design (and the free-spirited philosophy of the music) had a big influence on me.
I listened to this album many times while designing and animating this project!”
Daniel Cordero
“I used this same design in some Holiday postcards I created back in Christmas 2022-23.”
- Daniel Cordero
Stop Motion
An alternative to constructing and animating 3d objects was to make stop motion sequences with some personal items that would add more interest to some of the animations. For example, when planning to include a “sombrero vueltiao” (a traditional hat from the Colombian Caribbean coast), a sequence in 360 degrees was shot, and after cutting the hat frame by frame and adding different colour treatments, it was composed with the Juan Valdez characters.
A similar thing was done with several other elements, like the Christ statue or the “pandebono”. The stop motion elements were not only photographed inside the studio, but the Spanish Conquistador statue sequence was shot on location in West Cali. It was later cut out frame by frame, coloured and composed for a very dynamic and fun little scene.
3d elements
Creating and animating elements in 3d came as a necessity as the project got increasingly more complex and the scenes more ambitious. When certain elements needed to be more solid, real, or had to adjust to extreme camera movements, using 3d models came as an ideal choice.
One issue that was concerning starting the design phase was the integration between 2d and 3d elements. As the idea was to amalgamate all the techniques in a cohesive look, after some explorations, it was decided to streamline and tint the colour of all the 3d elements so they’d adjust to the ones in the other hand-made elements. Taking away the realistic textures and colouring of the original 3d models and filtering through the vivid and colourful palette made all the elements blend and mix in a more seamless way. This opened the doors to use more 3d models, and as the project advanced and went by, more and more assets made in Blender and Cinema 4D were produced.
The “Torre de Cali”, the tallest building in Cali, was modelled and reproduced for one of the shots as well.
Here’s a little video with some behind the scenes process, working on some fun animations.
