With the animation test up, I turned my attention to a documentary scene of the film. We chose to cut a scene showing 72-year-old Pablo getting one of his life time achievement awards. The scene shows Pablo "arriving on the scene" in New York, "getting showered with gifts" and then getting his awards to great applause.
The documentary elements of the film will still be treated with a painterly animated layer, turning Pablo's red scarf into a sort of magic wand that brings color and shine into the frames, juxtaposed to the animated scenes that have colorful backgrounds, but with black & white characters.
Here's the scene, still without the "magical realism filter". WIP, work in progress.
We came up with the idea of re-sampling the classic UPA/Mr.Magoo design of wild colors and asymmetric shapes, and build it with photographic elements within 3D modeling, all of it layered with a wealth visual effects. A look that sets out to be both modern and familiar.
At the end of two months, we developed a handful of environments for the film and created this animation test, based on the Grand Royale Cinema scene in Hell's Kitchen, 1951. WIP, Work in Progress.
