FrutaBomba Animación was founded in 2010 by classical animator Juan Carlos López de la Torre and interactive designer Carlos Kaim Reynés. FrutaBomba is an animation studio based in Mexico City that specializes in classical animation, illustration, character driven projects, and interactive media innovation.
We have worked in our respective fields for three years before founding FrutaBomba. After working for advertising, graphic design and different cultural projects, we decided to do our own thing. Niño Radio is the first project in which we fully integrate the narrative language of animation with the interactive possibilities in the App development.
Carlos’s work as a digital designer has been selected to participate in the Microsoft Design Conference in Seattle. As a professional, he has experience in a variety of programming fields: All the way from HTML5 based programming, video-game design, and App development for iPhone/iPad. Carlos has been the lead programmer for clients such as TV Azteca, Colegio de Saberes and Chuen México.
Juan Carlos’s work as an animator has been shown in different film festivals such as the Morelia Film Festival, Shorts Shorts, Cut Out Fest Queretaro, and BANG Awards in Portugal. As a professional he has produced animation for companies such as Coca-Cola, Cru de Ladies and Kellogg´s.
We do all the character and FX animation using Toon Boom Animate Pro. In other steps of the production process we would use other software, especially for programming. Other software include: Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Cocos 2d, and Xcode.
Each one of them has a different strength during the production pipeline.
For the visual development, storyboard and prop design stages, we would use PSD and Illustrator. For editing and some extra compositing we use After Effects. Cocos 2D and Xcode are used for programming.
Please describe your workflow:This project started with a simple hand drawn storyboard for a short film. We decided it was a neat idea to get it into a new field for us: an interactive children’s book for the iPad.
The tricky thing about this project was to combine two different production logics. In one hand we were using the traditional process to produce the animation, and in the other hand we had to think in terms of economy, optimization and a more fluid user interaction.
From the storyboards, we designed the architectural programming, dividing each animation scene into slides and deciding which elements would work as an interactive component. We animated each scene as we would do in a regular production. Later on we rendered each individual animated element separately and re-ensemble them using Cocos 2d and Xcode programming. We constantly used the whole animated scenes as a reference during this stage. After all these elements were programmed back together in Xcode, the music and sound design was added, both for the App and the short film.
For weeks we’ve worked on different versions of the book, optimizing the animation and fixing bugs. Niño Radio and the color of sound will be released this December the 15th in AppStore Mexico.
We mostly work on character-based projects, trying to push the boundaries between a linear narrative and interactive experiences for the users.
Most of the time it would be a mix between cut out characters and classical animation. During 2011 we had the chance to include some CG animation, stop-motion, and real puppets into the mix.
One of the most important tools Toon Boom Animate Pro offered us during this project, was the use of multiple Write and Crop modules. We had the chance to render the same animation in different sizes, resolutions and formats, fulfilling our different programming needs in no time.
Did you experience any productivity gains in using Toon Boom Animate Pro?Thanks to the output flexibility of Toon Boom Animate Pro and its fast paced animation process, we were able to finish a Beta version of the Interactive book, and a 2:45min short film in just three months, and with a very small crew. We know that using Toon Boom Animate Pro’s tools to our advantage will result in a better job in less amount of time.
Definitely. The working pace using Toon Boom Animate Pro’s animation workflow is great. Once all the technical side of the process is learned, it gets very intuitive and fast on the creative side.
You would need two or three pieces of software combined to achieve what you can do in Toon Boom Animate Pro alone. It would obviously take way more time.
We’ve chosen Toon Boom Animate Pro as our main animation tool because of the high quality, flexibility and speed we can get from using either rigged characters, or go directly into paperless animation with the Cintiq. We wouldn´t change it!
Most of what we’ve learned about rigging techniques and cut out characters for Toon Boom Animate Pro comes straight from the tutorials. They are really well made. Clear and useful. Real problem solvers! The more we get into Toon Boom Animate Pro, the more we want to learn.
