From pencil to life
After the first song for Everybody Loves Salsa was recorded in February 2020, the next step was to sketch out the story. Although he already had some ideas in mind, Daniel wanted the process to be as spontaneous as salsa itself—full of improvisation, fluidity, and rhythm. The first phase of sketching was full of loose ideas and messy drawings that captured inspiration as it came, while Daniel was listening to salsa.
After that was completed, Daniel edited all the storyboards and sketches against the music to make an animatic. This quickly revealed areas that required improvement, such as incomplete transitions, uneven pacing, and missing story elements. This led to a second stage of sketching, where new ideas and new scenes were developed to make the project more fluid and attention-grabbing.
A main example of this is El Dios de la Salsa transforming gloomy, negative characters into joyful salsa dancers, making the story go beyond dancing and into a deeper message, which was a new idea that Daniel ended up developing down the road.
An ever-changing process
As the project moved forward, the development of the animation became an ongoing process, refining and reimagining the concept over the years since Everybody Loves Salsa’s inception in 2012. However, production for the project stopped in early 2022, and resumed in early 2025. Once production started again, the sketches were revisited with fresh ideas and new inspiration that was acquired over the last three years. This brought in various elements, including El Willys, the iconic Willys Jeep that has become a symbol of El Eje Cafetero, The AI Preacher, new scenes across Cali, and the scene in La Torre de Cali, the skyscraper.
Tracking everything
Since Everybody Loves Salsa was mostly a one-person project, organization was vital for managing the multiple characters, backgrounds, techniques, and timeframes. To keep everything under control, Daniel created a detailed tracker in 2020, dividing the film shot by shot. Each segment included information about duration, elements, characters, and visual details, allowing the project to keep its structure through the years. This tracker was essential when the project was picked back up after the three-year hiatus, as it allowed for an easier transition back into work thanks to its detailed logs.
Want to see the tracker up close?
Go to this link
