Ed

Ed is a 3D animated short film that blends drama, dark humor and a deep love for cinema. The story follows the final moments of its protagonist, Ed, while fragments of what appear to be his life unfold through a series of flashbacks. As the narrative progresses, the audience discovers that these memories are not exactly real: they are scenes from films in which Ed performed throughout his career.

Through this reveal, Ed becomes a metalinguistic reflection on cinema itself. The film plays with the boundaries between fiction, memory and identity, inviting the audience to question how much of a character’s life is truly his own, and how much has been shaped by the roles he has played. At its core, Ed is both a tribute to the seventh art and a playful reinterpretation of its genres, archetypes and clichés.

The creative process behind Ed began with a strong narrative and visual premise: to create a protagonist who appears to have lived many different lives. Across the film, Ed shifts from one genre to another, appearing as a gangster, adventurer, lover, action hero and performer. This fragmented identity was designed to create a deliberate sense of mystery, leading the audience to believe they are watching memories from his past.

Only later does the film reveal that these fragments belong to cinema, not real life. This structure guided the entire creative development of the project, from the storyboard to the character design and art direction. Each scene had to feel like part of a different film, while still belonging to the same emotional journey.

The character design for Ed was built around contrast. Ed needed to be recognizable as the same character across multiple cinematic genres, while also adapting to each fictional world he inhabits. His design moves through different costumes, silhouettes and moods, reflecting the many “roles” he performs throughout the story.

The supporting characters followed the same principle. Figures such as Cindy Lopez, Walter Campos and other secondary characters were developed with strong genre references, ranging from romantic drama to noir, action, family scenes and adult nightlife. Each design helped expand the illusion that Ed’s life was composed of many different chapters, when in fact the audience was watching a career built through fiction.

The visual development of Ed explored a wide range of environments and cinematic moods. The art book presents scenes such as film sets, corridors, dressing rooms, parking lots, mansions, bathrooms, countryside landscapes, robbery sequences, temples and nightclubs. Each location was designed to evoke a specific film genre, creating a visual journey through the language of cinema.

This variety was central to the project. Instead of creating a single homogeneous world, the team developed multiple visual identities inside the same short film. Lighting, composition, color and atmosphere were used to make each scene feel like a different cinematic universe, while Ed remained the emotional thread connecting them all.