Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1453602
j a n u a r y • f e b r u a r y • m a r c h 2 0 2 2 c g w 1 9 A nimator, director, painter, writ- er, voice actor, and character designer Jorge R. Gutiérrez has found success in feature fil (The Book of Life), VR (Son of Jaguar), televi- sion series (El Tigre, The Adventures of Manny Rivera), and more with his unique, bold style of art, design, and color that embraces his Mexican heritage. And once again, he has combined those elements in his latest proj- ect, Maya and the Three, an animated event series on Netflix The story unfolds in nine chapters averaging approximately 30 minutes each, totaling approximately four and a half hours of feature-quality animation — which Gutiérrez points out is equivalent to three movies. A unique animation feat, and quite the undertaking. The series delves into Mesoamerican legend and history with a warrior princess who embarks on an epic quest to fulfill a ancient prophecy and save humanity from vengeful gods of the underworld. Maya is an adventuresome teen, daughter of a king who believes that his three sons, known as The Jaguar Triplets, are the ones destined to defeat these vindictive deities. The gods of the underworld unexpectedly arrive at Maya's coronation ceremony on her 15th birthday and announce that her life is to be forfeit to the God of War due to a long-held family secret, or humanity will suffer the consequences. But, what if the prophecy is wrong? Or the family's assumption about The Three Jaguars is mistaken? Surely The Jaguar trio are the three great warriors destined to defeat these gods. The time has come for Maya's father, King Teca, and her older brothers to fulfill the p ophecy. Accompa- nied by brave warriors from their kingdom, they seek out and confront the underworld gods. Alas, even someone as fie ce as her father is no match for these gods, and in the heat of battle, he is badly wounded and her brothers killed. Determined to save her family, friends, and herself, Maya embarks on a quest by recruiting younger "misfit" membe s from the other three kingdom ruling families, and together this band (which includes Maya along with Rico, Chimi, and Picchu) defeat the God of War to save mankind. The inspiration for the strong warrior princess Maya came from those close to Gutiérrez, mainly his wife. "I grew up in Mexico surrounded by warrior women," he explains. "Also, I love Mesoamerican culture and wanted to do something to honor my wife, my mother, and my sister." According to Gutiérrez, the story originally was to encompass three animated feature films But, getting buy-in for a film eries was more than difficult; i was downright impos- sible. But, on a streaming platform, well, that was a different situation. Netfli was in. The roots for the film s concept were planted many years ago, inspired by a mu- seum tour, which, like the series, highlights the vibrant Aztec, Maya, and Inca culture and mythology. (The series throws in a bit of modern Caribbean culture, too.) "I grew up in Mexico City, and basically every kid there visits the National Museum of Anthropology, which is one of the greatest museums in the world," he says, noting that the progression through the various cultures in the series as Maya seeks assistance, closely resembles the curated exhibits. Design and Production Gutiérrez not only co-wrote the series, but directed it, as well. He was also responsible for the main character designs along with his wife, fellow artist Sandra Equihua. Aer reviewing tests from various studios, the now-defunct Tangent Animation (Toronto, Winnipeg) was selected to handle the pro- duction, converting all the designs into 3D and animating all 270 minutes of the series across the nine episodes. "Once I saw their test, which basically looked like what you see in the final version of the series, I was blown away," says Gutiérrez. There was one caveat, however. Tangent would be using its established in-house pipeline, which was based on the open- source Blender soware, for just about everything associated with the production — rigging, modeling, surfacing…. "I saw an animated movie they did called Next Gen, and I love, love, love the look of it. It just looks so different. But that is a sci-fi movie with hard surfaces and robots. This, however, is all organic, and it's about magic," says Gutiérrez about his initial hesitation in partnering with Tangent for his new series. Used to working with an Autodesk Maya- based pipeline, he asked what Blender's strengths were and what they should avoid The mysterious and powerful entity Ah Puch helps guide Maya through her journey.