For Tierra Mexicana, Mosscrystal’s flagship animated short, I served as Lead Animator and Technical Director, tasked with translating 60 unique hand-painted illustrations into a cinematic narrative.
The core technical challenge was preserving the organic texture of gouache and watercolor while introducing cinematic depth. To achieve this, I architected a Hybrid Pipeline utilizing a custom in-house parallax tool that applies 3D mesh deformation to 2D layers. This allowed the static art to "breathe" without breaking the painted illusion.
My workflow included:
- Asset Integration: Using Mocha Pro Mesh Tracking to seamlessly composite animated sequences onto footage of physical sketchbooks.
- 2.5D Rigging: converting static scans into multi-plane environments to support the film's "living travel journal" aesthetic.
- Atmospheric Motion: Leading the compositing stage to ensure lighting and visual effects amplified the emotional resonance of the mariachi score.