In 2014, while I was in college, I decided to make an animated short film for a film festival in Madrid, in which the objective was to
reinterpretate a famous work of art in video form.
I chose "El Coloso" by Francisco de Goya or possibly Asensio Julià.
I chose "El Coloso" by Francisco de Goya or possibly Asensio Julià.
The making of...El Coloso
Storyboard
On my original storyboard (first row above) I wanted to make a much longer and more detailed film, in which the villagers summon the giant by burning a big straw effigy full of their crops and a chosen animal, the kind giant would then wake up from his slumbler and
light his cigarrette on the effigy.
My initial concept was to depict two different perspectives on this tradition, the cult like worship from the villagers
as well as the giant's indifference and confusion.
Because of a very short 4 months deadline I had to edit most of my initial idea to a much simpler premise, that could be done in a shorter time span (second row above).
Animation
The film was fully animated with a mix of watercolor pencils and acrylic paint.
In photoshop every scanned frame had the Multiply option selected in order to remove the white backgrounds by giving the layer transparency, so I had to create a opaque painted layer underneath.
The layers were then saved in png and imported to After Effects for the compositing.
Art & Backgrounds
The animation's art style was directly inspired by Goya's works and my intention was to make the film look like a moving painting.
The remaster attempt...
Early in 2017 I decided to remaster El Coloso by adding new effects, scenes and upscaling it to 1080p.
But alas...it remains unfinished...
People often tell me that of all the films I made their favorite is El Coloso and for a long time I couldn't understand why, to me the animation was notably weaker, the artwork wasn't that good because I didn't have time to work on it and even the story was to simple.
Unlike my other film Auto - Mutilação that took me a year and half to finish, El Coloso was finished in about 3 to 4 months, which I suppose it wasn't enough time for me to get emotionally attached to the project.
Even now looking back on it I can't fully understand why do people like so much, but I have grown to like it as well for my own reasons.
I think this video has a unique charm and confidence that came from the very short deadline and the speed that I was working, I had no other option than to embrace and accept the imperfections, I didn't have the time to overthink every single aspect of the short, so a lot was done by heart and instinct.
In the end I think this film greatly represents who I am as an animator and illustrator.
