the secret of Kells - pencil tests

...and speaking of the secret of Kells, here are some pencil tests uploaded to youtube by Alessandra Sorrentino who was an animator on the project.



For all of you who don't know about penciltestdepot.com yet; that's where I found this clip. Go and check that place out - it's full of interesting stuff!

The secret of Kells

I had not seen or heard about "the secret of Kells" until the academy award nomination for best animated feature some time ago. Last night I had my first chance to see it in full length - and it was a really mindblowing experience. The artwork is so beautifully done. And the mythological story is so magic and captivating. A beautiful story about the power of the imagination in hard times.

Here is a little sample. But I really do recommend you to do whatever you can to get a chance to see the whole thing. Don't miss it!



And if you want to know a little more "behind the scenes"-stuff you can read this AWN article here, where Karl Cohen talks with director Tomm Moore, exploring both the historical and thematic origins of the film. Very interesting!
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This is where the "humble" part begins.

Class 1 starts this monday. I just found out that my mentor for the following 12 weeks will be Eric Lessard - animator / senior and supervising animator at incredible stuff like all the Shrek movies, Antz, Halo3, Madagasqar 1 & 2 (oh, I love them!), Sarila, The lion of Judah - and more.

This is Eric talking about 'the lion of Judah' by Animated family films. Check out the trailer at their site. link to imdb here.




And here is the link to the trailer of "Sarila", where Eric is animation supervisor. This one is still in production I think? Anyway, looks really interesting!
Directed By Nancy Savard and coproduced by Carpediem Film & TV inc., 10th Ave Productions inc., Shax Animation France and Los Hijos de su Madre.


And let's stop here for a moment now and think: Here I am, little me, nervous newbie and excited freshman standing at the gates to the art of animation... and I, little me, get the honour of having a guy like this as my teacher and mentor!
- Woah, it's just crazy, man!

This kind of thing makes you feel really humble. :-)
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Thank you, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland

A big applause and a heartfelt, warm THANK YOU to the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, for supporting my studies at Animation mentor!

Some pictures from my regular job directing children...

I just wanted to share some pictures with you to show you were I come from, professionally speaking...
These are some photos from the most recent tv-show I have worked on, "BUUS-fredag", it's a kid's magazine about fantasies, dreams, play and stories... The kid's in the show tell their stories and then these stories are acted out in small live action segments. The show is scripted, but the kids have a lot of influence on the content, which is an important point, really. It makes the show come alive..

"Directing a scene... Granny doesn't hear too well anymore. Her grandchildren have already tried to get her to notice them by shouting and waving - witn no success. Now they will try to get her attention making their balloons explode in her face."

"Sometime's you have to double as an actor too. This businessman has had some financial problems lately and has been forced to live in a box for the last two weeks. The dog in the foreground is about to lift his leg and pee on him."

"This is a love scene... the girl on the bench would like to approach the boy in the blue and green shirt and talk to him - but she's shy... :-)"
 
If you are browsing from somewhere in Finland you can watch the latest episodes of the show at http://areena.yle.fi/   , look for "BUUS-fredag" or "BUUklubben". But I'm sorry to say that the videofeed isn't available abroad. Sorry, guys.



Now I'm off on a long vacation to study at Animation Mentor. No television work for 18 months. It's really a shameless luxury I have here, to be able to study full time - and I am going to enjoy it to the fullest.

And it's nice to know that the tv-show is in very good hands with all my trusted and super capable co-workers. I'm so excited to see how they continue developing the show in my abscence. It's going to be great! :-)

Sketches, sketches...

One week to go before start of class 1 in the core program of Animation mentor. Yipee! Can't wait!

Meanwhile, here are some more sketches for you...

and even more drawings...

I had a really enjoyable day today. I have been drawing all day, which is fun in itself - but it got even better because while drawing I listened to a webinar from Jason Ryan's site with storyboard artist Robb Pratt.
Very interesting interview! I recommend it. (It's long, over 2 hours, but it's reaally worth tuning into!)

Here's the link to Jason Ryan's site, thanks, Ryan for putting this one out there!
http://www.jrawebinar.com/Robb_webinars/interview/

And here are some of the drawings I did while listening:

Books: Mattesi; Force - the key to capturing life through drawing

I am reading this book now, highly recommended by many people who went through animationmentor before me. Between each chapter I sit down and draw, draw, draw. Mattesi's book is very inspiring and the illustrations in it are absolutely beautiful. But I have to admit that I have a hard time understanding the main concept of "force". Lots of arrows and arcs everywhere... 

- Oh well, maybe I'm not just smart enough. :-)

OR then I am going to have a big moment someday soon when I finally get it.

Until then I keep drawing.

Here is a new sketch... (trying to incorporate some 4-point perspective into it)

maya springboard is over - now; life drawing and some reading

So, the Maya springboard workshop has come to an end. I learned a lot, met a lot of nice fellow students, got over the worst fears of getting into 3D and I am now really looking forward to march 29th when class 1 of the core program starts. And now I have two weeks time to prepare. What shall I do?

LIFE DRAWING
I am definitely going to give some serious time to more life drawing exercises. I found a local course meant for amateurs like me :)    Just around 20 euros but with access to live models. What a deal! Sadly this course doesn't begin until april, so I have to wait for it.  (Jeez...!  I would like to start NOW!)
Meantime I'll sit at my desk or at some local cafe and draw, I will check out some literature and anatomy books and maybe experiment with some different materials. I like to draw, I think I have a little talent for it, but I have never developed any skills, never been to any art school or anything like that. Still have to get those "one thousand bad drawings" out of my system... Now I have my chance to really do something about it! And I think I'm going to have lots of fun diving into it.

Here is an inspiring site I found the other day when I was googling around looking for inspiration. Go and have look yourself at Mark McDonnells blog site at http://markmcdonnell.blogspot.com/







So I will devote some time to life drawing. Secondly; I will read some books about animation production in general:


ANIMATION PRODUCTION

Part of my aim with my time at AnimtaionMentor - besides the obvious; to become the best animator I can be - is to learn as much as possible about the animation industry in general and especially about the producing side of the business.
This book I recently aquired from amazon.com

Winder/Downlatabadi; producing animation.

I have just turned a couple of pages in it and it definitely looks very interesting. Exactly what I need to get a clearer picture of the production systems of the larger animation industry. I come from live action television myself and I am more used to rather small production units, so I need this. :)

link to amazon.com; producing animation

Slapstick on one leg

Another animation mentor exercise. We were supposed make the onelegger take one step. Only that.
Well, of course I couldn't resist...

Some more exercise drawings, full body and sleep poses

Some sleep poses, drawn from photos...

 

And some full body poses drawn from head...

More life drawing exercises...

Feels like I'm Alice in Wonderland.

This week in our Maya training we were given a model of a robotarm and our assignment was to pick up a green can with the arm and place it on the box on the right.

It looks simple when you see the finished version - but for any of you who, like me, are newbies to 3D animation, let me tell you that it's like falling down a rabbit hole when you start looking behind the pretty pictures and actually try to build a thing like this yourself in 3D.

This is what my finished assignment looked like:



But THIS is what it looks like on the inside:



All these curves represent movement of different objects and parts of objects in the animation. And the animator spends a lot of time looking at these curves when he is animating.

It's a little like this:



Which makes me feel like this!:


No wonder that I love animation! :-)
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Get out

Here is another short I stumbled upon the other day. There's something in this clip that is making me think of the previous one I posted here a couple of days ago... ("out of a forest"), something very similar between the two...

I challenge you - can YOU find out what that similarity is?

Get Out
by Esma-Movie

Site Officiel : http://www.getout-lefilm.com/

Réalisé par : Charlotte BOISSON, Julien FOURVEL, Pascal HAN-KWAN, Tristan REINARZ, Fanny ROCHE

Voix : Gary - Philippe PEYTHIEU
Le Psychiatre - Jacques BRIERE

Enregistrement et mixage : Studio des Aviateurs
José VICENTE
Yoann PONCET
www.studiodesaviateurs.fr

Musique :
Composition : Guilhem ROSA
Flute : Hélène VAILLANT
Violon : Cédric BOUBET
Récitante : Julie CUCCIARO

Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques. Montpellier. France. ©ESMA. 2009