THE ART OF MAYA AND THE THREE
“There really is no toning it back,” laughs production designer Paul Sullivan as he remembers trying to wrestle the complex shape design and colour of Maya and the Three into something that would work for an audience. Such exuberant detail is what writer and director Jorge Gutiérrez brings to an animation, and it’s Paul’s role to make it work and leave nothing behind.
“He loves skulls,” says Paul to give some background. The jungle lands of Jorge’s Mesoamerican fantasy are covered in skulls. It’s what gives this area of his world an identity, and the more the better. “If we made the layout of the city shaped like a skull, he’d love it. And then if we put skulls all over each of the temples, he’d love that. And then when you get in even closer, and you see the details, they’re skulls on top of skulls inside of the details, and so
