"ACHILLES, MYTH AND LEGEND"
A TEDEd Animated Short
"ACHILLES, MYTH AND LEGEND" a TEDEd Animated Short.
A love letter to the work of the master Ray Harryhausen, and a homage to classic films like "Jason and the Argonauts" and "Clash of the Titans". This animation was created and produced by TEDEd, depicting the life and myth of Achilles, his legend and his legacy.
DIRECTOR STATEMENT:
This animated short became very personal to me regardless it was commissioned, created and produced by TEDEd.
When they approached me and show me the script I was definitely on board on directing and animating this piece. Since I was a child, I always loved stories and films depicting myth and legends, specially the ones containing monsters and heroes, and specially greek mythology overall. Having the opportunity on sinking my teeth and creative approach to a well known story that has been represented in different mediums from books, documentaries and film, and that in some manner we all have and image formed in our head, was a challenge that I happily accepted.
My first challenge was to create a visual style that was reminiscent of greek artistry but that showed a new approach to it and didn't fell in a cliche of other pieces of animation and art work that had been done before and are the go to techniques regarding this particular themes. So I reached to my childhood and my love for films, specially for "Jason and the Argonauts" ( the skeleton fight scene at the end is still breathtaking and amazing ) and " Clash of the Titans" that were my favorites of the genre. So when I envision this film I basically wrote a love letter to the work of the great Ray Harryhaunsen and particularly created in some way an homage to his work on the two previous films mention before.
Also my love for art, specially for the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti defined the visual style and look of this piece. The other challenge that really got me invested on this was to have the opportunity to show another view into the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus that was the back bone of the whole story.
Two years on the making and a personal loss along the way as my aunt that I loved dearly unfortunately died in this period, made me really sensible and aware for the themes of love, death and transcendence, that Achilles, Hector and Patroclus were entangled within the story. In some way this permeated into the animation as I was in grief while creating this film, as Achilles should had felt when he lost Patroclus, so this really transformed this work in a more intimate and personal film to me.
CHARACTER DESIGN:
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
STYLE FRAMES
Final look
ANIMATION TESTS
ANIMATIC
PROMOTIONAL MEDIA AND POSTER
TEASER CAMPAIGN
POSTERS
