In 2023 I started working with the wonderful director and stopmotion artist Sandra Suarez on her hybrid animation project roots, that got funded by the Latinx in Animation Spark Grant sponsored by Netflix. It uses a mixture of 2D Animation and Stopmotion to tell two different sides of the story of Isabel. Isabel has trichotillomania and struggles with her identity, this small project sheds light on what it’s like to live with the condition but aims to do so in a lighthearted, loving and kind manner, that embraces being alive, opening up to others and finding self-acceptance. This the official summary:
“Isabel is a young woman who lives alone with her cat and her hair-pulling disorder manifested in a pesky creature called “Hair-Hand.” She hides Hair-Hand and her bald spots from her one and only friend, afraid that she'd leave her forever if she knew.”
On this project my role was mainly being a concept artist, designing the main characters, some major props and also helping a little with the overall art direction of the project, Sandra wanted the style to be mostly in black-and-white, simplistic and imperfect. It was important to show the characters as human, somewhat fragile and flawed, especially Isabel. After testing a couple of directions we settled on a very minimalistic ink style for the designs, that was used both as the basis for the stopmotion parts and the 2D animated characters.
Roots wrapped up in early 2024 and had its first screenings in spring/ summer 2024. For further information, fun behind the scenes footage and updates check the official website below:
