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o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 1 c g w 2 9 animated musical these musical sequences a look that was different from the rest of the movie. Some are anchored in the real world, such as emotional moments when the character ex- presses how he or she feels, while many are more fantasy-based and focus on the inner visions of the characters and filled with colors and geometric shapes. Each musical number, though, has its own look to evoke a certain emotion — akin to the musicals of the 1950s and '60s. According to Harkness, working on these musical numbers was like working on several different animated shorts all at once. "Each had its own color and design rules," he says. "Because there is an emphasis on a very graphic approach, they are more about feel- ing and color, and less about perfection." Webb estimates there are about nine different styles in the musical sequences. "That is definitely pushing the boundaries of what we can do in an animated feature," he says. "Not only do they have to fit within the overall vision for the movie, but every frame has to look beautiful. The music was everything to the animation of the film. The singing, the dancing, the instruments… it all had to be authentic and choreographed." A professional choreographer worked with the animators on several sequences. "We had incredible footage of an entire dance team performing 'One of a Kind' and 'My Own Drum,' which was invaluable to the animation team, and you can see it throughout those sequences," says Webb. Composer Alex Lacamoire further recorded sessions with all the musicians he worked with — "every tres chord, piano key, and drum hit is authentic and referenced." In fact, Lacamoire went so far as to build an entire drum rig to replicate the materials and sounds of the ra Gabi and Vivo drum on in "Keep the Beat." One of the big character-related chal- lenges was designing multiple looks in the fantasy sequences. For instance, Andres had three different ages, two of which need- ed a fantasy and non-fantasy look. "These fantasy looks relied on some new shading techniques while also being augmented with hand-drawn lines from the animators," notes Webb. As Herbst points out, the visual storytell- ing in the musical numbers comes from the point of view of the character who is singing. For instance, the Miami in the third act is quite different from the one introduced ear- lier during the "Mambo Cabana" sequence, which presented Miami through the eyes of Vivo, whose vision comes from illustrations on album covers and tourism posters from the past. "One of the early discussions for 'Mambo Cabana' was whether the art as a still, which is so inspiring, would feel too simplistic with the lack of motion. So we explored how to add what I refer to as 'luster' to those sequences to keep them alive and magical from frame to frame," says Herbst. "There's a lot of artistry exploration rather than tech involved in this film." The animation in that fantasy sequence was especially unique. "We wanted to have this hand-drawn paper cra look to the characters and the motion, so we animat- ed the characters on twos, and instead of using a typical cloth simulation, we sculpted the clothing silhouettes in animation. Then once we had completed the animation with the 3D character, we hand-drew line work over top to get that traditional animation look," explains Webb. "The process was very time-consuming, but luckily it only involved a couple minutes' worth of footage." DANCING TO A NEW BEAT With Spider-Verse, The Mitchells, and now Vivo, Imageworks has shown that it dances to its own beat when it comes to an anima- tion style. "People are looking at the story they want to tell and are deciding where they would like to push that story in anima- tion," says Herbst. "As for the next couple of projects I am looking at, some of them are more realistic and others are far more surre- al. And I think both are exciting for different reasons because they're designed around the kind of stories the filmmakers want to tell and the worlds they want those stories to take place in." Herbst himself is a fan of 2D animation, which uses shapes and motion to obscure the real world. And now, the trend is to em- brace that style once again— if the project calls for it —only now artists are using 3D tools. So now, artists are no longer bound to a specific look and are free to explore a range of new visual styles. Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of CGW. Artists captured the look and vibe of Andres and Vivo in Havana.