Behind the scenes
A lot of people ask about the technology behind VivaCalaca!!. Some of them think it has been made with 3D software, as 3DStudio, Maya or Cinema4D, while other people think it has been created with Stop Motion, or even paper puppets. All those theories are wrong. This is the whole creation process in few steps:
01. Pre-production: Select a subject. Look for references. Choose the music. Write the script.
The first, and probably most important step on the whole creation process is to decide what to talk about. You have to think what subject, what context you want to work on. I have always wanted to make a video about the Mexican Day of the Dead, as I love the way the Mexican people live the Death. This is the perfect background to mix Happiness and Sadness in one single piece.
Once I decided what to talk about, it was the moment to look for references. You cannot make a video about the Day of the Dead if you have never seen Day of the Dead images. Google Images, and Flickr are the most important tools on this task. It is so important to collect a huge amount of pictures about what you are talking about.
The second important step on the process is always to choose what music will appear on the piece. In fact, this is extremely important for me, as everything is made from the music, so the video looks as it does because I chose 'Day of the Dead' song from Voltaire. If I had selected other music, the result would have been totally different. But it is curious, and this has been a secret until now, that Voltaire's song was not the first audio track selected for VivaCalaca!!. It was another song, from another artist, which was going to be the soundtrack for the video. I am not going to reveal the whole secret, because that song will probably be used on the future, but I can tell you that the result would have been absolutely different from current one, if I had used that song.
When the song was selected and the audio edited, the moment of learning the song arrived. I had to listen to it some thousands of times. With my eyes closed, and the song being repeated in my iPod, I tried to visualize the story the song was telling me. With this information I wrote the script. This is not a script of the characters talking, but who is appearing on screen on each moment, and what are they doing. Also the camera movements and zooms are simulated on the paper script. Something similar to a story board.
02. Production: Drawing the characters and creating the scenario.
As soon as I finished the 'invisible' work, it was time to start making the production. First of all was to make pencil sketches of how the characters and the buildings will look like. It is important to make a hard pencil work before moving to computer, that is the only way of actually knowing what you are going on the screen.
Then, both Mexican skull characters (calacas) and village buildings were drawn with ©Adobe Illustrator, with the help of ©Adobe Photoshop for adding lights, shades and textures. This was a so lovely step on the project, because it is the first time that all your ideas are taking shape, and you can not only imagine them but see them with your own eyes.
When I had all the images, characters and buildings, I moved to ©Adobe After Effects to create the village in 3D. But it is not an actual 3D because all the images are flat, they are 2D. We usually call this '2D and a half'. You have to work with ©Adobe After Effects the same way if you were working with paper puppets, creating a scenario, like a theatre, were the characters will be playing their roles.
Last step of this process is to work on lighting with ©Adobe After Effects. With the helps of the lights and shadows you will get a lovely atmosphere to the scene, adding a realistic touch. Lighting was even more important on this piece, because the style of it is a little bit dark, thrilling...
You can see above the difference between the same scene without lighting (left) and with lighting (right).
The process of animation is the hardest one of all the processes. And it is particularly hard when you are working in a videoclip-like piece, where the characters and the camera will be moving at the same time as the music is playing. You have to carefully synchronize every movement with music rhythm, and it is very frustrating to be working a whole day for just a couple of seconds of film. The good thing of this, is that when you have got a full scene and hit play button, you get a big, big, big smile at your face.
However, I don't want to tell so many tricks of this animation process, because secrets are secrets, and if all the tricks are revealed, the piece will probably lose its magical feeling.
04. Post-Production: Adding some effects. Final old film looking.
And after a hard work I finished the animation. It was amazing, I could see the entire piece of my characters dancing and singing; but the video was still far from being finished. Once the animation is over, you have to look for the final looking.
This is time to add some special effects, like the fireworks, the explosions, and even the blood for the James Bond tribute scene (Yes, there is a James Bond tribute scene!! Have not you seen it?!). I don't like using plugins for these special effects, so I usually make everything with actual footage. As example, all the fireworks exploding at the whole video are actual fireworks recorded with the camera.
There is also a color / hue correction and a final old film texture. This texture was, as the fireworks, not made with any plugin, but with a blank old film recording. That is more realistic, and more similar to the result i wanted to get.