“I’m A Monster” by Headless Productions

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on

I had the pleasure of moderating a Q&A with Adrian Garcia, Alfredo Torres and Victor Maldonado of Headless Productions at the recent CTN Expo in Burbank. This Barcelona-based trio is fighting the good fight to revive hand drawn character animation in new exciting ways. Case in point: this test piece created for their latest project-in-development I’m A Monster. We sneaked this at CTN and I’ve been waiting for them to post it online to share with our readers worldwide – now, the wait is over. Someone, please, give these guys the money to make this movie:

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  • http://exitplanetwhom.blogspot.com doctorwhom

    Wow, that’s just awesome.

  • Lib

    And if they ever give them the money, please just let them make the movie the way they envision It.

    I met these guys last summer in Barcelona and from what I learned, it’s pretty awful the kind of shit sometimes people has to go through to get a project done. Financing a feature like this in Spain usually means getting a lot of parties involved, many of which may not even have a proper filmmaking background and a clear idea of what’s best for the film, yet they won’t hesitate to impose their views, which invariably results in tragedy.

    • Magnusson

      I don’t think these kinds of issues are specific to Spain. The investor model for movie production in the US system is also full of meddling executives who have MBAs but little to no understanding of art, good filmmaking, or even culture.

      In order to get them to contribute money, one has to somehow find a way to assure them that it’s a safe investment, which means relying on market data that is actually as accurate in predicting success as a coin toss but given more credence by the investor class than it should.

  • http://tresswygert.blogspot.com Tres Swygert

    This truly is inspiring and brings new life to traditional animation for sure!! I hope more opportunities open for them to where they can do full length features, awesome storytelling and visuals. Thanks for sharing this, really made my morning!

  • http://robertkohr.com Robert Kohr

    Thats like animation crack! Amazing!

  • http://www.andrewchesworth.blogspot.com Andrew Chesworth

    Absolutely stunning. The design, the color, the character animation… executed with such stellar nuance. The confidence attention to detail makes it seem so effortless. Any way to donate to this project?

  • AJ

    that is very nice. If they try to make make the expressions a bit more varied ( a cheat copy real actors in a film)just to make it even more special.

    • dany

      aj – i dont understand what youre saying here. you think this could be better if they copy real actors ? perhaps you could explain yourself before i decide your comment is really stupid.

      • AJ

        o.k although I like the film a lot I found the stock facial expressions really dragged it down. I then suggested that coping the expressions of actors in movies would help as a referance point, as they make their own charecters and are for the most part differant. You may now pass judgement lol.

  • http://www.srami.com Sean

    Absolutely Beautiful!

  • http://www.danyboom.blogspot.com dany

    fantastic ! incredible.

  • http://www.danyboom.blogspot.com dany

    fantastico !

  • Do’ethe

    They could try going on kickstarter.com and starting a account. I’m pretty sure everyone here would be able to lend a hand in financing.

  • Scarabim

    Very VERY nice animation, and an interesting idea behind it. My only criticism: I agree with AJ, the expressions are just a bit too “formula”. Studying real faces and extrapolating from their expressions to create animated emotions is the key. But I do hope this gets the big-screen treatment. Very very nice!

    • tonma

      yess I also felt a LOT of disney formula in the expressions. The rest, just great…

  • Mark

    Very nice. I do wish the characters were a bit more specific, with more character–they all move exactly the same.

    That said, the technique is spectacular.

  • DanaT

    Agreed with Lib. It would be wonderful to see these guys make a movie the way they want.

    And I kind of like how squishy and exaggerated the facial animation is. It’s very different and quirky from what I’ve seen recently.

  • Joe

    I love the Muppet-like design of the characters

  • http://Brewtoons.blogspot.com Aaron B

    I had the pleasure of sitting in on the interview at the expo. I really like the stuff they’ve produced. Their style is refreshing and the animation is fantastic. Hopefully one of their ideas get’s picked up.

  • Justin

    Great work! I’ve seen these guys demo reel with clips of all these various stylized, brilliantly animated shorts, I’m glad I got to see the extended version of this one, now if only I could see the extended version of all the other shorts they have in the demo reel, and I hope they get the no monsters allowed feature project going as well!

    these guys have a lot of great ideas going!

  • Brad Constantine

    I really enjoyed the lower camera angles in this piece.It helped to draw the viewer into the scenes in a very childlike way. It also helps with the believ-ability of the characters moving through the space.
    Very nice…Little touches like that add a lot to the already nice animation.

  • http://www.taberanimation.com Taber Dunipace

    “Someone, please, give these guys the money to make this movie”

    Seconded.

  • Baron Lego

    Wow! That was great! I really miss animation like this.

  • tomm

    quality jollity

  • http://www.jasoncampbell.com Jason Campbell

    Tell them to put it on http://www.kickstarter.com for funding I’ll pledge.

    J.

  • Aaron

    While the effort and skill involved in this animation is obvious I would find it hard to sit through much more than 10 minutes of this. The animation is over done, particularly in the face where the features are constantly writhing around.

  • Patrice

    Proves that animated movies CAN please both the crowds and the animator community (even including the grumpy old cynical farts), on a reasonable budget!

    this is the reason i keep coming back to this blog; the occasional truly inspiring movie! :)

    well done!

  • dr. truth

    FINALLY!!!!! Something that’s actually hand crafted and
    worth getting excited over!! This just may be the best indie animation I’ve ever seen on cartoon brew! truly inspiring!! A hand drawn cartoon!! What a concept!!

  • VGREER

    Awesome stuff!

  • http://www.mukpuddy.blogspot.com Mukpuddy

    LOVE IT!!!!!!

  • Ben

    I love their work and would gladly donate!

  • Clare

    Lovely character designs and use of colour, if a bit too much reliance on 21st-century-nuclear-family cliches (kind of a shame as it started off so wonderfully).

    • Jm

      agreed cliches and over acting is killing animation.
      it’s like all cartoon characters have to move and deliver the lines in the same way. but I understand “to sell this they have to do it like that”

  • http://tanyajscott.blogspot.com Tanya Scott

    Someone pllleeease give them the money! Absolutely fantastic to see people taking 2D forward like this!

  • Ash

    The artists at Headless Productions just did an interview over at the Character Design Blog at http://www.characterdesign.blogpot.com. There is a lot of amazing artwork that they are showing at the end of the interview too.

  • http://www.daryl-rhystaylor.co.uk DarylT

    Give them money to make this.

  • Some Girl

    This is why we want to be animators!

    • maxeythecat

      I second that! Really gorgeous work!

  • http://dgderrick.wordpress.com David

    Whoa, Totally inspiring, unique beautiful everything 2d can be.

  • Stephen Levinson

    Everything is incredibly beautiful! The animation, the design, the layouts, the lighting… But just because it has all that doesn’t mean they should make it. I don’t find the story all too “OMG let’s make it!” You barely know anything about these characters at all.

  • Bob

    Love it! And good music too (a seeming impossibility of contemporary films — animated and not).

  • Mark

    I miss traditional animation so much it hurts.

  • Anthony D.

    Really good idea for a film! Hope it gets off the ground.

  • Hans

    Just Awesome! I hope u will find the money!!!

  • joe

    Beautiful animation. Great character designs! But I agree with some of the posters that it could do without the Pixar-stock acting and music.

  • http://www.boingieworld.com CarlEdwards

    Who did the music? It’s as animated as the pictures.