Il Baracchino is a wild mixed-media animated series about Stand-up comedy, big dreams and disillusioned antropomorphic unicorns.

Animated by Megadrago and produced by Prime video and Lucky Red, the series was born from a garage-style dream and was brought to life using Blender’s magic.

In 2024 I supervised the first ever Italian Amazon Original animated series “Il Baracchino”. You can watch the trailer here:

As the first large-scale production for Megadrago, the project called for solutions that were both scalable and flexible, capable of managing complexity without sacrificing creative freedom. The team’s inventive problem-solving was key to making it work.

Our pipeline was built almost entirely on open-source tools. We used SVN for asset versioning and storage optimization, and Kitsu for production tracking, tightly integrated into Blender with the Shot Builder add-on that enabled direct linkage between layout, assets, and shot metadata. This setup helped streamline communication and maintain pipeline cohesion across departments.

I had the chance to give a speech at blender headquarters in Amsterdam for BCON 2025 with the director of the series Nicolò Cuccì by my side:

This talk offers a focused look at the production pipeline behind “Il Baracchino” with the Blender production pipeline serving as the backbone of the project, from layout to final cut.

One of the project’s main technical and artistic challenges was integrating diverse visual media into a unified look. The series combined 2D and 2.5D characters, Grease Pencil animation, stop-motion pigeons, alien puppet rigs, and traditional 3D characters, all within fully CG environments. To support this, we developed layered precomp workflows and used Eevee for real-time previews and finals. This setup allowed us to iterate quickly and deliver 4K renders within tight deadlines.

Our approach to character animation also evolved during production. With a wide range of stylized characters, we created a custom stop-motion-inspired facial animation system driven by shape keys for our hero-rigs. This tool, now refined into a standalone add-on, gave animators the freedom to achieve expressive performances while maintaining stability and control.

Faced with a complex and fast-paced production, many of our artists, including ourselves, were challenged to collaborate effectively and make critical choices about where to focus their energy. The project became a true proving ground for everyone involved.

This session will offer actionable insights for teams looking to build robust, flexible pipelines around Blender, especially when working under indie constraints with big dreams.