Most of the drawings in this section are from two projects: “The Animated Kabaret”, a TV pilot you can watch in the NUPA film collection, and the short film “Kurupyra at Anhangabaú.” The storyboards can be seen in the storyboards section of this portfolio.
For the design of Animated Kabaret, I was aiming for a highly stylized, unrealistic 3D CG with many 2D solutions. Like Mickey Mouse’s ears, which always face the viewer, regardless of the direction the mouse’s gaze is directed. Likewise, Hoppin’ John’s eyes and hair, for example, always face the camera.
Hoppin’ John’s eyes and hair, for example, always face the camera.
Manny Roll’s arms and shoes aren’t attached to his body. They just sit next to him. The character actually has no shoulders or legs. This gives this CG-3D a cutout animation feel.
Joe With Cream, I drew with Rubber-Hose-style arms and legs.
Luiggi the Cat, like a very simple and loose sand toy. And Tia, I drew like those unidentified animals from Carl Barks comics, but with a very small body, in contrast to her hair, which is the most complex part of her form.
Animated Kabaret was conceived as a show for TV or streaming. So, I designed it this way to simplify animation production and reduce costs. The shapes are simple to animate, but they have the potential for creative and expressive animation.
For prop design, I researched bakeries and old theaters. Then, I designed all the objects and sets, adapting them to be ergonomically suited to the characters already created.
In the character design project for the film Kurupyra no Anhangabaú, Kurupyra himself and his Black Boar are a development of the existing hand-drawn character.
All the other characters in this film, except the dwarf and the boar, were developed in collaboration with two NUPA students, Michael dos Santos and Leo Conceição. In fact, what I did was refine and finalize the concepts they created. We researched the collection of the Museum of Folklore Handcrafted Toys to provide a starting point. I particularly liked the Spirits’ solutions; they were very simple but offered many possibilities for animation.
The budget for this film, based on a script by Guilherme Fonseca, was insufficient to complete it properly. The setting, a reproduction of the Anhangabaú valley in downtown São Paulo, was very complex to model. We completed all the character and scenery modeling in Maya, as well as a detailed animatic, with soundtrack, Foley, and voices. But NUPA was shut down before we could request additional funding to improve the rigging and animation. You can see the storyboard in the storyboard section.
The other images in this post are from three different projects:
Zelda is a version I was asked to create for a Canadian production company that was negotiating the rights to a spin-off of The Legend of Zelda video game. But that never happened. I liked the project, anyway, and I keep it in my portfolio.
The Tree is a sort of Magical Fig with Infinite Branches, which I called MãmMãmBuge, and which gives its name to a comic book series and an animated pilot I developed, which you can see in other sections of my portfolio.
The Lippi Monsters are from a commission I did years ago, for a special edition of a children’s cheese brand.
Céu D´Ellia
