The project involved 20 animators, 14 of whom are graduates, students, and faculty members of the Bachelor's Degree Program in Animation and Video Games at Universidad ORT Uruguay.
Among the graduates are Nicolás González, Pablo Hornos, Andrés Cubel, Lorena Barrán, Emiliano Bianchi, Añes Britt, Maythe Duarte, Eliana Fernández, José Luis Lorenzo, Almicar “Roko” Paz, Leandro Cámara, Milagros Arrieta, Daniel Soulier, and Max Argibay.
Also participating was Martín Invernizzi, a video editing instructor in the Photography and Video Editing course and a graduate of the Bachelor’s program in Animation and Video Games.
A notable opportunity at the start of the pandemic
Invernizzi began working on the animated project in 2020, shortly after graduating. Mariana Núñez Castro, a professor in the Bachelor’s Program in Animation and Video Games and the film’s art director, was looking for students and graduates interested in participating.
“Alejandro Erramún (academic coordinator of the Bachelor’s Degree in Animation and Video Games and the Bachelor’s Degree in Multimedia Design), who is always spending time with the new graduates and willing to lend them a hand, approached Mariana and suggested that I and others join the animation project,” said Invernizzi.
However, the animator didn't know what the project was about.
Alejandro said there was going to be an animated feature film based on a Uruguayan story, but he didn't know it was for Disney+ or that it was about *La Cumparsita*. When they told me what it was going to be about, I turned pale, and I was really nervous until I signed the contract.
The work behind the animation
Martín Invernizzi was first hired to work on pre-production, creating character art, and then went on to do 2D animation during production.
In the first phase, he worked with six other artists to design all the characters in the film. The characters were created using thedigital cut-out technique, a method in which individual parts of the characters are drawn and then altered or moved using software as the story progresses.
“The main character had nine possible head poses that had already been drawn; the animator chose which of the ones he had already drawn to use and when,” explained Invernizzi.
During the production phase, the ORT graduate animated the characters according to the script or storyboard.
“They’d give me Becho’s father and tell me, ‘Make him walk,’ and I’d create a walking sequence using the pieces I had,” he continued.
At the start of the project, the character team created generic animations of people walking or waving, but as each animator familiar with certain scenes or themes, they began to assign specific roles.
"They saw that I was better at dancing and playing instruments, so they started assigning me to most of the bands that appear playing in the background. I was the one who did most of the background music and all the tango dance scenes," he said.
The software they used to create the animation included Photoshop for character design, Adobe Animatefor animation, and After Effects for post-production work on the characters.
What is the movie about?
The film is about Gerardo Matos Rodríguez, known as Becho, a composer and journalist who wrote "La Cumparsita " in 1917, a song that went on to become one of the most iconic pieces of tango.
The film begins with the Uruguayan composer’s childhood, when he already showed an affinity for horses and music. That is how Becho began to sense a golden energy emanating from horses, rhythms, and melodies.
Everything changed when the protagonist, now an adult, heard a group of musicians playing with such energy that he absorbed it and began to radiate it himself.
This leads him to compose La Cumparsita and other adventures.