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In a corner of the World, South America, in a small country called Uruguay, a bunch of digital artists and animators were watching during several years, how the 3D animation for television and big screen were constantly growing and improving all over the world. Each one of these guys were from the same atmosphere, and although they were working separately and with different objectives, they carefully followed the techniques and technologies that were evolving.

Their ways met, and without thinking it twice they merged and decided to go for it. To be the best they could be. They shared the same premise: “to work doing what we like the best”. But to quit their jobs and start from scratch meant an enormous effort, some of them were underground, while others in prestigious and profitable jobs. In fact, professionals had to sacrifice years of trajectory for a dangerous project… it was an “animalada” (spanish noun that means “incredibly stupid”… It also means “made with guts” and “bunch of animals”)

“Animalada” was the name of the company (not for the stupidity, but for the other meanings) that was born towards the middle of the year 2002, but it would’nt be an “animalada” (guts) if they didn’t have this extreme impetus and attitude towards their goals. They promise that we will soon begin to see more stuff from them, because they do not intend to stop. They like animation with passion, and have like objectives to put ANIMALADA (and their country) as an excellent option at the time of making a 3D production for the international market. As a warm up, they have done a small first project, a one minute series with absurd and humorous circumstances.

“PELOTAZO”

The series is called “Pelotazo” (from spanish: “a strong kick on the ball”) and it’s about the well known sport of soccer. All kind of strange things can happen in these matches, in which funny characters will make even the impossible to score the appraised goal. The episodes are centered on a team captain bent on winning but ultimately foiled with unexpected and strange situations. These simple animations are designed to be made very quickly, so not much tweaking was allowed for the animators ( 26 episodes have to be done in a short period of time ! ) so they centered a lot in things that can be done in the pre-production stage; like the shading, illumination and the general look. In their website (www.animalada.com) you can download the first episode, various pictures and other funny stuff.

WHATS’S NEXT?

They already have other projects in hand, some more developed than others, at their Website you can see a second product which says: “no me moleste mosquito”, this will be another series based on an universal non-dialogue type of humor. (These are all in-house projects.) In this first stage they prefer to create their own characters and scripts, but they are open to studying interesting proposals.

WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?

Although separated, each one of the members of the team has always worked in different areas of digital imaging, 3D ilustration and animation. They have made projects for international companies like Johnson & Johnson, Danone, Nabisco, Colgate, Palmolive and also for leading companies in their own country. “Clients usually wanted simple 3D animation, photo realistic illustrations, visualizations, etc. That, wasn’t boring. However, we knew what we wanted, and we knew that we could do much more “.- Says Emiliano and Roque, co-founders of Animalada. “In the previous years, there were fewer works of 3D character animation, but that didn’t stop us from studying and improving our skills in this area. Character Animation has always been our goal”.- Emphasizes Emiliano while he shows their work.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHARACTER DESIGN

“We give extreme importance to character design in all of its aspects: concept, sketches, design, modeling, personality, behavior, movement, etc. We are convinced that the design of a character is not only its physical shape but the whole set.” “All these aspects of character design will arise and be based on the story that is desired to tell, after all, it’s the story which guides all the production”. -Roque said to us, who is also a specialist in character design.

Animalada is a multidisciplinary team where you find artists, animators, technicians, designers, engineers and an old lazy furry cat.

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