Trailer
SYNOPSIS
Our story follows an ambitious Salvadorean inventor who is too focused on making her teleportation device. She ends up neglecting her pet armadillo, Chiquito and he decides to take matters into his own paws.
As a way to catch her attention he steals the device from her at the exact moment it starts working. They accidentally get teleported to Brazil where Chiquito is running around with the device while the Inventor tries to catch him.
WHY
From the very beginning, we wanted to tell a story that took place in Latin America. We wanted to showcase our cultures through a unique lens in a lighthearted and fun film, using vibrant colorful places that are often not depicted in Western media. The characters are from Puente Arce, El Salvador, a real place where my father grew up. And our main character, the Inventor, has the goal to visit the biggest city in Latin America, São Paulo, Brazil. The city where Anna grew up.
Sometimes people can see all Latino cultures as very similar, or even the same. In this film, we want to highlight how different and singular each country is.
CHARACTERS
When looking at characters I wanted to go into the style of Entergalatic, a film on Netflix made by Kid Cudi. In the film they have hard angles and stylized faces that are very unique compared to the typical soft round cartoon faces we often see in animated films.
CHIQUITO
We asked for Locke Schloss to help us create the character design for Chiquito to get the specific shape language we were looking for.
I made a total of 3 different Chiquitos. The first one matched Locke's original design. The second one applied feedback I recieved to improve Chiquito's silhouette in 3D. The third iteration incorporated better stylization of his shells and ensured that he would be able to be roll into a ball when he was rigged.
Animation Test
After Chiquito had a first pass on his rig, I wanted to make sure that he could roll in and our of a ball. It was also a big help for me to get a better idea of Chiquito's personality.
THE INVENTOR
For the Inventor I wanted her to mix feminine and masculine clothing. I looked at traditional Salvadorean clothing that the woman wear and typical blue collar clothing Hispanic workers typically wear.
From the very beginning I wanted her to have a curvy body type because all the woman in my life had these body types and I wanted them to have more representation.
Teleportation Device
For the device we wanted it to reference salvadorian culture and look like a normal object till it opened to reveal its magical abilities.
ENVIRONMENTS
For the environments we wanted to make sure there was a clear contrast between Puente Arce, El Salvador and Sao Paulo, Brazil. We ended up showing more nature in El Salvador while Brazil was more concrete and in the city. For the Inventor Shop we wanted to make sure it showed how she spent every waking moment in that space working.
EL SALVADOR
INVENTORS SHOP
BRAZIL
ANIMATION
MEET THE TEAM
(Left) Lesley Marroquin: Co-Director, Story. Layout Artist, Character Modeler, Animation Lead, Additional Rigging, Editor, Additional Sound
