HOOK UP ANIMATION 10 YEARS

And we made it to 10 years, Hook Up Animation is 10 years old… From those informal beginnings around 2000 and the beginning of activities in 2001 there have been quite a few projects and stories shared together with friends and people we love. Some are still with us and others have taken new roads spreading some of the original spirit of the studio along the way.


We have called some of the main characters to help us remember a few moments of these 10 years. We want to thank everyone for the time we shared and the good vibes for joining us in this celebration!

AME VIDAL http://www.amelia-vidal.blogspot.com/


YEAR 2001

We opened the studio in a loft on Zapiola street in Nuñez neighborhood. The housing development had a community pool which many members of that incipient Hook Up knew how to wear off (to the neighbors disgrace) while they created the first animations for a project that would become our founding stone. The project was named "A Soñar con Disney" (Let's dream with Disney) and it consisted in a series of 5 spots where different Disney characters told kids that it was time to go to bed. Paradoxically this project slept and was never released but somehow it ended up being the key that opened many doors for us in the industry.

"A SOÑAR CON DISNEY" - MICKEY - ANIMATIC


"A SOÑAR CON DISNEY" - MICKEY - LAYOUTS

"A SOÑAR CON DISNEY" - MICKEY - SCENE 02
"A SOÑAR CON DISNEY" - MICKEY - SCENE 03
"A SOÑAR CON DISNEY" - MICKEY - SCENE 05
"A SOÑAR CON DISNEY" - MICKEY - SCENE 08


"A SOÑAR CON DISNEY" - MICKEY - PENCIL TEST




Some pictures:


THE 6
JOCHE
LA ENERGÍA
THE POOL
TRITÓN - ROUGH ANIMATION


YEAR 2002

In the beginnings of 2002 we approached the people of Ideas del Sur with a proposal to make the new opening for Videomatch (it was still called that way) replicating the Gorillaz's video - 19 -2000 replacing the original characters for Marcelo Tinelli and his gang. They liked the idea and we began, but in the middle of the process some doubts started to come up about the airing of the show and then about the participation of some of its members. Freddy yes, Freddy no, he didn't sign , we have to take him out. -But we already animated him! Ok, we'll take him out. Freddy is in, we have to put him in! - But we only have two days!!!!??? Let's remember these were times of economic and institutional crumble in Argentina, but what did this have to do with Freddy, no idea


APERTURA VIDEOMATCH 2002 - DESIGNS

 Marcelo Tinelli
La Feudale, Yayo, Listorti, Freddy, Larry de Clay & Pachu
Larry de Clay, El Enviado, La Feudale & El Raportero

Some pictures:

THE 23
EL BRUJO
FEDE RADERO
ISMAEL MON
GONZALO AZPIRI

By then we found an article in Noticias magazine about one Fernando Semenzato, who worked for Cartoon Network Latin America and we thought of contacting him, - If it's an animation channel it would probably require an animation studio?
After searching through land and sea with no success, we received one of those spam emails, with more than two thousand addresses and by kismet (although we don't believe in such thing) we found ourselves looking in the list of recipients and what a surprise Mr. Semenzato appeared there. We send an email, we introduce ourselves, he calls us, we meet, he offers us a job, we take it, he goes back to Atlanta, they laugh in his face -For that price? That cheap? Wait for it!!! we do the job. That first job was "Tom y Jerry Lado B" (Tom and Jerry Side B) then hundreds more will come.

TOM AND JERRY SIDE B

Hook Up Animation / B side - Tom & Jerry / Cartoon Network from Hook Up Animation on Vimeo.



That year we also did other two projects for Cartoon Network LA, a promo for the series "I Am Weasel" and "The Rubbles".   



Hook Up: spanish without borders.

The first time i worked with Hook Up was in 2002 for a little show called "The Rubbles", a parody of the MTV reality show "The Osbournes", with the family of Fred Flinstone's best friend.

Hook Up animated it. We did everything via e-mail, and at that time we didn't send material through FTP, they were tapes by post mail!, crazy! Mi contact at Hook Up was José María. From the very start we got along super well and had fun in every stage of the job. But there was a little detail: i didn't speak spanish well, and I had never written anything in spanish. And there I was, I had to write every mail with my feedback of the story boards, animatics, color tests and everything else in spanish. At first I showed my mails to someone else, but then I began sending them what I thought was okay, even if there were a few mistakes. They knew that I'm Brazilian, so I didn't care.

But one fine day I wrote "muestro" (showing) instead of "monstrou" (monster), and not just once, but many times. And they never said anything. Then the jokes in the e-mails began. When I finally travelled to Buenos Aires to meet them personally, they made fun of my muestros a lot and of everything else!
However it was with them that I learned to write in spanish!

Congratulations Hook Up for these 10 years of beautiful animation work, your muestritos!
How i love you!
Manu

Manoela Muraro
Creative Manager
Cartoon Network LA


THE RUBBLES - LAYOUTS:

THE RUBBLES - SCENE 02
THE RUBBLES - SCENE 03
THE RUBBLES - SCENE 05

 "I AM WEASEL"- PROMO - CARTOON NETWORK LA 


YEAR 2003

Good Night Disney's project had been supervised by a department called Special Projects managed by Ed Wekler, Gary Katona and Antran Manoogian, directly from Burbank, California. As a consequence of this first project the people in Burbank offered us the making of two 30 minute films for DVD, Winnie The Pooh ABC'S and Winnie The Pooh 123'S. We had to move. From the lofts in Zapiola we moved on to a new studio on Artilleros Street in Belgrano neighborhood. From a group of 15 people we increased to one of 80.

Some pictures:


ARTILLEROS




RITO - ROUGH ANIMATION
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
THE KITCHEN AND THE PING PONG TABLE
POLLITO
LA PECERA - POS
PENCIL TEST
LA PECERA
VERO AT THE FRONT DESK
KECHU, DIEGO PUENTE & GONZALO AT THE BACKYARD
POOH - ROUGH ANIMATION
GONZALO, TIEGA, OMAR & JOCHE
DIEGO , GONZALO, OMAR & JOCHE

Enthusiastic and happy with Hook Up, yhe people of Disney put us in charge of the Opening of the serie Lilo and Stich. Chuki Badala!



LILO & STICH - MAIN TITLES - TV SERIE

Hook Up Animation / Lilo & Stich the series - Main titles from Hook Up Animation on Vimeo.

That same year Cartoon Network turned 10 years and decided to celebrate it with us and we didn't refuse. The project consisted in a series of commemorative spots and the slogan was: "Cartoon Network 10 años, del Yunque a la Substacia X" (Cartoon Network 10 years, from the Anvil to the X Substance), where classics lived together with the new animation stars, of those times (today already classics…).


CARTOON NETWORK 10 YEARS, FROM THE ANVIL TO THE X SUBSTANCE

Another one of the projects we developed that year was the video for the Basilos' song "Caraluna", by Cartoon Network's request. It was one of the first jobs where we had the total freedom to create and propose our point of view, the only instruction was the song. The result was an award at the New York Festivals and an original and different piece we like very much.





CARALUNA - PREPRODUCTION


CARALUNA




YEAR 2004
.
Our fame had crossed the ocean and drowned. But before that it had managed to reach the United Kigndom and in spite of Diego's goals the people at Turner UK ordered us an animation for an image change of Boomerang channel.





One of the most loved producers of Cartoon Network, Carlo Olivares had a crazy idea, making a series of animated cartoons in a animated cartoons channel. Who could have come up with that? And the thing is, it was done! The first episode… but it was done and was called "Bobots".

BOBOTS - PREPRODUCTION


BOBOTS - MAIN TITLES

That year the people at Disney released a Platinum edition of "Aladdin" and asked us to rub the lamp and make some animations for a video game that was included in this special edition.
 
ALADDIN'S DVD SPECIAL EDITION
Hook Up Animation / Aladdin - DVD Game / Walt Disney from Hook Up Animation on Vimeo.


Hook Up in the memory

I've been thinking about anecdotes of those years and many of them would burn the people or the studio itself.
Beyond the classic paper wars of the middle, I remember one between backgrounds and postproduction in which the paper basket actually got to fly (fortunately without injured), a co-worker who enjoyed or did catharsis by destroying gadgets that were no longer functioning, another one that swam by on a chair with wheels, a pair of twins where one of them mutated every other day getting to look even like two different species, and an endless number of characters that were in general all very good people.
All very nice memories.

One Friday by the end of the day a very raging Omar (the moodiest of the bosses) pressing for the submission of some shots, I assisted and was an in-between artist and Leandro Corral did the clean up of a long shot of the Coyote. I won't say the animator's name but by that time the Coyote had mutated to the dog Juan Carlos and in that moment after several request of promptitude by Omar I said - this is absurd! and I began to laugh making Leandro and the very Omar laugh too. Well yes, he knew how to laugh too.

I also remember the first shot I had to assist was one of Aladdin, it took a lot of work and I received through Kechu a congratulation from Joche for how well the model had been kept. When the shot got to pencil already set, Gonzalo Azpiri saw it - … and… he doesn't speak?!… talk to me, son of a bitch, talk to me!! - reprimanded Gonzalo looking at the monitor, I had forgotten to look at the vocalization column in the sheet.

Ramiro Cabrera - Kevin
HYPERLINK "http://ramirocabrerailustraciones.blogspot.com"     




POS
SAWA
VERO
MILI AT HOOK UP
LEANDRO & LA MAMI




YEAR 2005

How could we forget that year! A project that had been circling around two years before was finally confirmed and we were starting to work on our first and until now only complete feature film (from the first storyboard sketch to the last frame of the movie), Una Película de Huevos, en busca de mamá gallina (An Eggs Film, in search for Mamma Hen). And we put a lot… it wasn't an easy project even though the director was the friendliest guy, though a little forgetful. The movie was a success and became the 3rd best "mexican" film in the box-office in history.

UNA PELÍCULA DE HUEVOS, EN BUSCA DE MAMÁ GALLINA



Apparently the people at MTV were in need of a mouthful of freshness and vitality, a cool studio and they also decided to call us. That's how these first works were born.



Artilleros

When one is lucky enough to have worked a long time in what you love the most, in my case animation, and having passed in more than 15 years for over 10 different places (it's quite a nomad profession, we have to accept it) the memory becomes more selective, and one remembers strongly and with more love those places that, even without realizing at the moment, marked them the most. In my case I can assure that nowadays the ones that I yearn the most are the times I spent in Nuñez's Hook Up… and not for just one reason, but for thousand different ones: the quality and quantity of people that I was able to meet, the inevitable professional growth thanks to the varied complexity and demand of the jobs that appeared, the people and incredible characters that paraded through the boards along the years, the chance to draw those beloved cartoons from childhood that I never thought I would come to animate -and the proud that causes-, thousands of anecdotes of all kinds, funny, complicated, comforting moments, worries and relieves, back and froths, days and nights spent between those walls…).

But well, the road sometimes opens and in some moment I took another way. The years pass, Hook Up moves, I change once again from one company to another… and another… and another… and destiny wants years later for my new job to be exactly next to that mythical Hook Up, of the thousand anecdotes, the most beloved of my memories. To get there, the same bus, walking the same blocks, watching the same houses and sidewalks from those times go by… some things changed, but not many… except when I arrive I go on a few meters to enter through the next door, not in the one of that Hook Up that is no longer Hook Up… the memories come down like a waterfall: the Jokey Club to buy snacks at lunch is still there… and the Showcase… and the candy store of the nice lady!!!! She even recognizes me when she sees me!!! And Doña Rosita!! And the toy-store around the corner, and the horns outside the door and the traffic when River plays, and the park with the basketball rings… and this, and that… so many memories… and the turns of destiny, what a surreal feeling, of daydreaming. And going to the new terrace, through little windows, the chance to see the new face of that place where so many spent so many hours drawing, painting, scanning, composing, rendering, eating, chatting, laughing, discussing, playing, learning, suffering and enjoying… I lean over though I know nothing is left of the tables, PCs, boards; Hook Up moved years ago and still goes on but in another place, another neighborhood, but what was lived in that building is very strong. You can see it changed, dirty, different, but the memory flies to a dear place, the mind completes it and with some nostalgia many of us would love to go back there, to those adventures and misfortunes of 'Artilleros 2361'
Congratulations Hook Up!! We'll cross paths again, I have no doubt…

Regards to all Joche, and a big hug!!

PL.

Pablo Lorenzo
Animator



Artilleros versión 2011 - Foto Pablo Lorenzo



YEAR 2006

Our friend Fernando Semenzato settled at Fox summons us to make some shorts of a couple of spies for Universal Channel and unconsciously gives us the freedom to create aside from the designs and the animation, the scripts. Incredibly they turned out okay! With you Spy games.

SPY GAMES
Fernando keeps testing his luck and entrusts us the designs and animation of a new series, "The League of Unnecessary Heroes".

Fernando sigue poniendo a prueba su suerte y nos encomienda los diseños y la animación de una nueva serie, La Liga de Los Heroes Innecesarios. Innecesario.


THE LEAGUE OF UNNECESSARY HEROES - LAYOUTS

Episodio "Holly Caliente" - Scene 23
Episodio "Holly Caliente" - Scene 24
Episodio "Holly Caliente" - Scene 24
APERTURA DE LA LIGA DE LOS HEROES INNECESARIOS



DESIGNS



Another memory of 2006, the shorts for "Open Season" directed by Jim Cox (Ring Tales) for the DVD of the film "Amigos Salvajes" (Open Season)

Hook Up Animation / Open Season / Ring Tales from Hook Up Animation on Vimeo.


And a new move, a rainy day of September we moved to Galván 3465, an old lingerie factory, just what we needed. And all of this in the middle of a remodeling, construction workers, painters and cartoonists… everything very nice.

  

GOOD BYE ARTILLEROS...
E
NEW NEIGHBOR


WELCOME GALVÁN

DIEGO PUENTE AT COMMAND

1º ANIMATION DEGREE COURSE
GONZALO AT PROMAX
ANA , PAXTON & CARLO DE CARTOON NETWORK - DIEGO & JOCHE FROM HOOK UP
5º ANNIVERSARY



YEAR 2007

"El Show de Cuello for Natgeo y Yo", was another one of those projects with a special taste for Hook Up. From the designs, the art and the direction we were in charge of all and produced again by Fernando Semenzato. The kids went crazy, another hit.

DESIGN

ART

THE NECK SHOW
"Lucky Luke", another classic comic character took to the big screen that counted with Hook Up's collaboration. "Lucky Luke Go West" from the french studio Xilam was probably the most demanding project we worked on. Jean Se and his friends made us work flat out but we have to acknowledge that the final result was impeccable.


LUCKY LUKE GO WEST

After the Open Season shorts, Jim Cox happy with Hook Up called us again for another series of shorts based on famous graphic jokes of the prestigious North American publication The New Yorker, what a laugh.


RING TALES CARTOONS




Some pictures:

JUAN CANCELLERI - AMELIA - JULI - EL GALLO - DANIEL DUCHE

YEAR 2008

Under Ed Wexler's direction, an old friend of Hook Up, we did the animation of the series "Global Wonders", a multicultural show with the healthy intention of educating and entertaining children age 2 to 7.



GLOBAL WONDERS


"Mosca y Smith" was one of those strange projects where in spite of the long time dedicated on it, never gets to see the air. Under the command of the legendary Carlos Bachetti and his team we made the animated version of that peculiar TV series.




MOSCA Y SMITH EN EL ONCE

Mosca & Smith en el Once - Animatic apertura 
Hook Up Animation / Mosca & Smith en el Once - Animatic apertura / El Cielo - Argentina from Hook Up Animation on Vimeo.

Finally in 2008 we finished with the ultimate Hook Up remodeling! Thanks to the Architects (well, almost) María and Yesi. Enough working and suffering now let's go partying and laughing...



WELCOME!
 TO GALVAN 3465
THE LITTLE TREE
HOOK UP'S WINDOWS
AME & FRANCO AT PRE PRODUCTION
PRE PRODUCTION


YEAR 2009

And the slaughter began!!! The international crisis blew-up on us and many projects were cancelled, our clients' budgets shrank and the work in big part faded away… Let's paddle along. Even so some things did make it like the persistent Spy Games.




Another project to highlight of that year was the design work for the production company Kidsplant called Grim & Jerm where a group of cells and bacteria are the characters of this story.





Luckily our old friends from Cartoon Network didn't quit on us and kept on despite the tempest.



YEAR 2010

After months of drought a new and ambitious projects is confirmed, Bondiband. We'll have to do the modest sum of 52 episodes of 11 minutes each, everyone get on the Bus!!!! and we get moving!






YEAR 2011

And the year of the anniversary found us on the Bus and right in the middle of the route, while a few of our old clients like Cartoon Network (for whom we did over 700 projects), Fox, Disney, MTV among others keep trusting in Hook Up and we are happy to have it that way. It's our wish to continue creating, designing and giving life to many characters and imaginary worlds, for much, much more time.



KECHU   http://kechu82.blogspot.com/

Hook Up - 10 years, and part of history




Although in Argentina the first animated feature film was made in the year 1917, our country never had a great flow of productions, nor a continuity in the productions, that would allow the art of commercial hand-drawn animation to develop to the point of reaching a level according to the international market.


However, we must emphasize, that there were along the years great attempts and bets, that taking the form of studios or teams made it to materialize specific projects, they contributed considerably to the development of the artists, and therefore to the development of the art of animation, in a country where one who aspires to train as an animator, has to do so by working.


I allow myself to point out chronologically the moments I consider most important:


- The feature film "Upa en apuros" produced by Dante Quinterno in 1943, is maybe the first approach to the American standard of commercial production. The final product is a piece of considerable level for the time, and it's known that the very Dante Quinterno visited the main animation studios in America, and even hired foreign artists who came to the country to capacitate the cartoonists and collaborate with the production. Unfortunately that is the only fruit of that outstanding company.


- Gracía Ferré's productions between the 70's and 80's allowed the making of several feature films, and gave continuity (training) to another generation of cartoonists.


- The studio assembled by Jaime Díaz in the beginning of the 80's and middle of the 90's, brought to the country the American method for production of television animation, the making of productions for abroad, and was the school for many young artists.


- During the last years of the 90's decade multiple local feature films productions are generated, doubling the amount of job positions, and this implies the need to incorporate new manpower to the animation scene. However, in all of these cases the production times were too short, the budgets too low, and quality products are not achieved.


- Entering the new millennium, the economic situation of the country reduces notably the production of local products, but favors again the possibility of producing for abroad. It's within that context that "Hook Up" is born. And it's here where we'll make a stop, around the celebration of the 10 years of the birth of this studio, and pass to analyze why it's worth to point out "Hook Up" in the history of animation in Argentina.


I warn you that this analysis is based on my very own experiences inside the studio, working as an animator, in the period that goes from the beginnings of the year 2003 until May of 2005, period in which the Studio gave its services mainly to "Cartoon Network", "Boomerang" and "Disney Home Video".


Just like big companies looked for services in a young company led by artists that gave their first steps as enterprisers, these enterprisers, opted to summon young artists with little road travelled, but with hunger and capacity to take over these challenges. And it's this conjunction of elements that generates the studio to produce pieces of considerable degree, at the precise level of the client's requirements, and elevates a few scales the standard of quality of commercial animation in Argentina.


There's no doubt certain factors exist that favored this step to be taken, and, even though they might seem essential matters for any production, they were not common in Argentinian studios:


-The production times, in most cases, were according to the requirements of the product. The animators counted with more time than we were used to in other studios and that allowed us (though we charged by animated second) to face more calmly our job, to polish the drawing better, and even to check the assistants and in-between artists' work.


-The studio implemented (by the animators' request) the everyday pencil test. Animators had the chance to test our animation sketches at any given moment and as many times as we considered necessary.


-The most skillful cartoonists of the studio (used to work in the layout area), checked and adjusted the characters' model.


-There was training in terms of drawing for the members of the team, and forming for the new employees.


-The exigency increased notably at clean up, with a very tight supervision of the final drawings.


-The boards had discs!!!


-The background artists copied exactly the aesthetics of the television shows


-The digital composition of the shots was carried away with very good eye and criteria.


-In terms of motivation, working with classic characters, was always a plus when facing the shot. Although numbers of times we worked without "model sheets" and we had to take references of the character's model from photocopies of some book, or screen captures from bad quality videos.


Some of the artist that worked at "Hook Up" through those years, were fully conscious that these factors, that added to quality had to be seized. We were standing in front of the possibility of doing our job in very different conditions than we were used to, and many of us knew how to benefit from that. (And if the artist elevates it's level, the studio elevates its level, because the studio's quality is guaranteed by the artists that form part of the team). Ten years ago, we were ten years younger, and even though some of us had been walking longer, the years at Hook Up were the real starting point of our careers.


Today is worth to highlight Hook Up as one of the studios that left their print in the history of argentinian animation, not only for elevating the quality standard, but also, for being a place of learning and growth for many artists that nowadays are key pieces in the main studios and productions of our country, and that will might be the ones to take the lead of history.


Thanks Hook Up


Happy Birthday!!!




Ignacio Carlos Ochoa
Animator
http://ignaciocarlosochoa.blogspot.com/




HOOK UP'S GALLERY 10º YEARS
SAWA http://www.fernandosawa.com/
 
FRANCO SPAGNOLO http://francospagnolo.blogspot.com/
 
ROBERTO CRUZ http://rodanz.blogspot.com/

JUAN CANCELLERI - http://juancancelleri.blogspot.com/


HOOK UP'S ALBUM!!!

ANGELITA
CLEAN
DANIEL DUCHE
DE ROSE
EL ABUELO DE GILLIGAN
EL BRUJO
EL HOMBRE MONTAÑA
EL PIBE BAZOOKA
FEDE RADERO
FIRULI
GORGATS
GUADA
GULK
HERNANCIN
I TELL YOU
ISMAEL MON
JOCHE
JUAN
JULI
KECHU
LA MAMI
LA STONE
LAURITA
LIBI
LORENZO
LUCIANA
MARIANITA
MARTÍN LARA
MENGUE
OCHOA
OMAR Y GONZALO
OMAR Y VERO
PABEL
PABLO RAGO
STALONE
TIEGA
DIEGO PUENTE
IRINA
AME
LAS ARTACHAS MARTA Y ANA
CAMBIAGGIO Y ESTEBAN
CHECKI
DIANA, EUGE Y ANTO
DIEGO PUENTE Y JUANCITO CANCELLERI
GRISO
KEVIN
LA NENA
LUCHÍA
MARAÑA
MARCELO Y EL VIKINGO
KECHU Y MARIAN
MARU Y MARCELO
NANO
PATO
PERLA DUCHE
POCHI
SAWA Y FRANCO
VIÑAS
WESTERN
CARLITA Y VERO