Netflix recently showcased the animation techniques used to bring Love, Death + Robots Vol. 3's eeriest episode, "Jibaro," to life.
Released to coincide with Netflix Geeked Week 2022, the behind-the-scenes footage is narrated by "Jibaro" writer-director, Alberto Mielgo. It touches on every aspect of the episode's production, including how Mielgo and his crew filmed real actors to portray deaf knight Jibaro and the enigmatic Golden Woman so that the animators could recreate their facial expressions and physical performances. It also delves into the process of creating photorealistic character models and environments, and how the episode's cinematic atmosphere was achieved.
Love, Death + Robots co-creator David Fincher opened up about the Netflix anthology series' origins in a recent interview. The acclaimed director revealed that the show was inspired by the experimental animated shorts of the 1970s, which he was eager to emulate. "They were usually made really well by people who didn't get an opportunity to do a lot of different things... We started talking about 20 years ago about the idea of having a sandbox for people to come and play in," Fincher said.
When the first season premiered in 2019, it reflected Fincher's goal of giving the artists involved a platform for telling stories that vary wildly in terms of genre and tone. Supervising Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson added that this variety was the key to Love, Death + Robots' success. "You need a mix in an anthology like this in order to appreciate each different one. If everything is the same, none of it stands out," she explained. "You have to have contrast to understand what each unique thing has got going for it. So if something gets too dark and serious, we try to find one that's a little bit lighter and sort of mix it in."
Love, Death + Robots also changes up its aesthetic from episode to episode, with the hyper-realism of "Jibaro" contrasting strongly with the more stylized, cartoonish visuals of an episode like "Kill Team Kill." Yuh Nelson personally oversaw "Kill Team Kill" and recently talked about the early stages of her creative process. "When I storyboard, I do these really rudimentary little sketches. But it shows the acting, the extreme moments and all the pacing and the cutting," she said.
While Love, Death + Robots episodes typically avoid narrative, thematic or visual overlap, there is at least one notable example where two of the Netflix series' stories are closely connected. Season 3 episode "Three Robots: Exit Strategy" is a direct sequel to Season 1's "Three Robots," a bold creative decision director Patrick Osborne recently described as "stressful."
All three seasons of Love, Death + Robots are currently streaming on Netflix.
Source: Netflix
