Mexican animators are taking over Hollywood

Some Hollywood movies would just not be the same without their high quality special effects, which usually involve the talent of Mexican designers and animators. One of the latest American blockbusters, Men in Black: International , is proof of this.

Aldric López

, a digital animator of Mexican origin, was in charge of bringing a new character to life, which can be seen in the movie trailer.

“We animate between four and five seconds per week,” claimed the 26-year-old artist.

López was also part of the team behind Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and other major Hollywood productions.

“You can see my work in some scenes, like when Pikachu is looking for clues in an apartment floor,” he added.

Other Mexican talents have worked in movies such as The Justice League and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse , which won an Oscar for best animated picture in 2019.

“In the Justice League, for example, the actors didn’t have capes and so it was our job to create them digitally and make the movement feel natural so that people didn’t realize it was fake,” stated Cruz Contreras, another Mexican animator.

“For Detective Pikachu, we had to see some animals that resembled the creatures and learn about their movements to make the characters feel more real,” Aldric explained.

Some world-known Mexican designers and animators took courses online with teachers who had already worked in the industry.

Charlie Iturriaga, Jaime Jasso, and Josimar Altamirano

have also left their mark on American cinema, with projects that have traveled around the world.

Iturriaga was a visual effects supervisor for Deadpool, Fast & Furious 7, and X-Men: Days of Future Past .

For his part, Jasso created an entire city for Star Wars: Rogue One and Josimar Altamirano created the miniature versions of the characters seen in Ant-Man & the Wasp .

Cruz Contreras, who is now working on Angry Birds 2 , believes that the animation workshop that Guillermo del Toro plans to open in Guadalajara will be a huge step for Mexican animators.

“People usually think that Mexico is lagging behind in digital animation, but this is not true. There is a lot of talent here, what we need is to support it,” he stated.

The young Mexican behind ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’

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