The Cartoon Director

Watching behind the scenes stuff is a huge inspiration for me and I never get tired of it. Especially about animation. It's just so cool. This Walter Lantz video may be old stuff to some, but still...it's cool. Enjoy!

Hoffman and Streep

Awesome!


Read more about the movie Doubt here.

Merry Christmas

It's been an exciting 2008 and looks like 2009 is going to be even more exciting :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

All the best for 2009!

Urmel voll in Fahrt Shots

About a year ago I worked at Ambient Entertainment in Germany on the animated feature Urmel voll in Fahrt. Now the DVD is out and it's cool to see my shots in context and fully lit and rendered. This was my first job ever, straight out from school.

Looking back at my animation in the shots now they're kind of...well, they could have been a heck of a lot better :), but the job the guys in the FX department, the lighters and render-guys did, is stunning. Also, I couldn't have gotten a better entry into the animaton industry than working at Ambient.

Here's my Urmel voll in Fahrt animation reel:

2008 Roy E. Disney Award

Goes to Richard Williams. Well deserved!


Richard Williams has been a huge inspiration ever since I started animation a few years back. Just watching documentaries about him, listening to him talk or hear others talk about him makes me wanna animate.

Here's some inspirational Richard Williams stuff:
I Drew Roger Rabbitt
The Theif who never gave up
Richard Williams Spline Cast
The Creative Person: Richard Williams

Also, can't wait to be able to afford the Animation Survival Kit Animated DVD-set.

Tribute to John Williams

Awesomeness!

An Update

So...I'm back in Norway! I left New Zealand September 15th to return to Norway and work the rest of my contract with HuHus remotely. Currently working on the children show Veggie Tales which is kinda cool.

My time onsite at HuHu in New Zealand has been really great. Made some awesome friends and the studio is a very nice place to work. New Zealand is also a truly beatiful country with the nicest people on the planet :)

Haven't been too much time lately to work on my showreel, but there's a couple of tests I've been working on during the past months that I will try to put up soon.

Cartoony - Breakdowns

Sorry for lack of posting lately, but here's the blocking breakdown pass (keys, bd's and inbetweens) on my cartoony animation test.

Feedback are very welcome.

Practicing cartoony animation

Alrighty. So, for ages I've been wanting to do some wacky cartoony stuff, but all kinds of other things has gotten in the way. Now, I've found some time to do it. I know this isn't the greatest gag/story in the world, but I just wanted to do something cartoony for the sake of practicing it. Here's my blocking pass (main keys/extremes only) of my first attempt.

Celebrating ONE year as an animator!

Exactly 1 year ago today, I planted my feet on German soil and started my first day as an animator. Woohooo!

It's been totally crazy and I've learned so much during this first year and met tons of awesome people.

I'm currently working at HuHu Studios in New Zealand and we're moving to London in January for new adventures.

Exciting times ahead :)

WOW!

Animation Mentor Summer 2008 Showcase

The Red Truck

Congratulations to Team Grojf for winning the FJORG competition at Siggraph. Their winning test, The Red Truck, is a stunning piece of emotional storytelling and animation, created under extreme conditions in 32 hours. Awesome!

Watch "The Red Truck" here

Sir Ian McKellen - On Acting

This may be old stuff to some, but still hilariously cool :)

Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Savages

Philip Seymour Hoffman talks about his part and acting in The Savages.

On structure


On the directors


On the script


On his role


On his co-stars

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Really inspiring lecture from Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch about achieving your childhood dreams.



There's a couple of really good quotes from this lecture that really stood out to me. "Brick walls are there to let us prove how badly we want to achieve something" and "'Luck' is where preparation and opportunity meets". Pretty cool stuff to keep in mind.

The Princess and the Frog

Yay! 2d features are back at Disney.

Workflows

I always find it very inspiring and useful to read about other animators workflows. At AM they showed us a bunch of different workflows and my current workflow is a mix of those. I think there's always something that can be picked up from seeing how others do things. Here's some workflows that I found on the net. If you read this and know about links to others that have posted their workflow, please shoot me an email :)

Anatomy of a shot - Kevin Koch
Reference footage and planning - Michael Makarewicz - Splinedoctors
Mike Walling Workflow
Keith Lango Pose to Pose workflow
Shawn Kelly Workflow
Turok Animation Workflow
Jacob Gardner Workflow 11 sec club test - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Making of Alien Song - Victor Navone
TJ Phan Animation Workflow
Glen Keane Animates a scene

Inside Pixar Animation Studios

This is an older short documentary about Pixar, but still cool :) I never get tired of behind the scene stuff like this. Super inspiring.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Disney Animation Special from 1981

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5

More quality online learning

It's awesome to see more quality online learning for animators is starting to pop up online.

David Weinstein's Digital Apprentice Workshop went online 4th of July and after a quick look at his site, it looks like a great addition to Jason Ryan's Tutorials and Keith Lango's Video Tutorial Service.

Animation is such a huge topic, so getting inputs and looking over the shoulder of different experienced animators are really valuable.

Check out the site. Looks pretty cool with (among other cool stuff) a video interview with the one and only Ray Harryhausen. Also, one of the animation tutorials are available free of charge :)

If you dream it - You can do it!

Awesome inspiring interview with Pixar animator Austin Madison.



Also, check out The Ending from CalArts 2006 Showcase (second film on the list) and Boy Meets Rex.

The Tale of Despereaux

I was so pleased when I saw the trailer for this movie. I've only heard great things about it, but watching the trailer made me think that maybe it's a good idea to stick around in Europe after all :) It looks awesome. It'll be Christmas for sure this year.

No charge for awesomeness

Well, I did pay $15 to see Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda yesterday, but it can be considered no charge for what we got in return. The movie will make you go blind from overexposure to pure awesomeness. Fantastic!

Jason Ryan Animation - The Basics

I've done all of the basics Jason Ryan tutorials and here's the Flipbook result of it :) Working in 2d is a lot of fun and it's amazing how much I feel that I've learned already from looking over his shoulder. I totally recommend it!

CG Excellence Award 2008

My short film, Forever Young is shortlisted for the CG Excellence Award at CG Overdrive in Singapore which takes place June 17th to 20th. It's such an honor to be picket together with fellow AM'ers Jure Prek with Crash and Anil Kapoor with Peppy, both awesome shorts!

Ramblings and more goodies

Wow. Time flies. Been quite busy the past month doing Jason Ryan tuts, 11 sec club and working away at HuHus, which by the way is still awesome. Learning tons on every shot and feel that I'm slowly moving forward. We're on our way into the winter here in New Zealand, but guess what, no snow! Woohoo. Can't really say I miss it. It's about 10-12 degrees celcius, which is kinda okayish for a winter :)

The big event lately has been the Jason Ryan site going live. And he's not letting us down. It's pure awesomeness. Doing the 2D Flipbook stuff really makes me feel like an animator and the most important thing that I get out of it at this stage, is that doing 2d forces me to think about the spacing at every frame. He's also big on opposite actions to get more entertainment into the animation. Great stuff! In addition to that, just peeking over his shoulder, getting into his mindset of how he animates, what he's thinking about and when, is invaluable.

Bobby Beck has posted a couple of really cool posts on his blog lately. Check out this squash and stretch video. Crazy stuff! He also shared some personal thoughts about your potential a few weeks back that I thought was spot on and super inspirational. He also have a follow up post, Positivity in the Workplace (scroll down a little) about how people found it hard to deal with his positive energy, which is just sad. Thank god he didn't manage to change. His energy is an inspiration which helped me a lot through Animation Mentor! To get a portion of the Boom-energy, check out the replay of the Webinar he did recently.

Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda is on its way. June 6! This movie looks awesome! There's a 2 min preview out and also a cool behind the scene clip just released. Tons of more Kung Fu Panda stuff here.

Carlos also keeps his blog going with lots of cool tips and thoughts. Check out his tips and tricks site! He also talked about 6 word stories a while back. "For Sale: Baby Shoes, never worn" (Hamingway). That's efficient storytelling and puts "less is more" in perspective. More 6 word stories here.

Kevin Koch has a very good post about the talk by James Baxter, Pete Docter, Andreas Deja and Eric Goldberg about mentor ship in animation. Interesting thoughts. He also got a post about the importance of physics and how it can throw the audience off without really knowing why, but just feel that something is wrong. Newton rocks!

Forever Young in the AM Newsletter!

My Animation Mentor short film, "Forever Young" is being featured in the May 08 issue of the AM Newsletter. Full article here.

Jason Ryan goes live!

Finally! Jason Ryan's tutorial site goes live Sunday May 11. This has been one of the big waits for me this year.

His Ramp Up tutorials has been awesome and with Flipbook purchased, I'm ready and set for getting an in-depth look at how he animate.

My current work flow is heavily based on one of his earlier lectures at Animation Mentor and I'm really looking forward to get more of his knowledge and to use it to hopefully take my own animation to a higher level.

Brad Bird on fostering innovation

Awesome article at Gigaom where Brad Bird talks about a few important things in our industry.

More Brad Bird stuff:
- Podcast by the Spline Doctors
- Pixar - A Human Story of Computer Animation
- Ratatouille Interview with Brad Bird
- Ratatouille Filmmaker Video

Get ready for Urmel!

If you're in Germany, get ready for the Urmel voll in Fahrt premiere on May 1st. It's a supercool movie and I'm very proud to say I've worked on it. I was invited to a pre-screening on April 20th, but unfortunately I couldn't make it to Hannover. I was at a screening back in December 2007 though and its a super funny and a very entertaining movie!

Hopefully it will get released internationally, probably under the name "Impy - Full Speed" or something (don't quote me on that, but the first movie was named "Impy's Island")

Anyway, if you get a chance - go see it!

Writing Cartoons at ASIFA

Director at ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive, Stephen Worth, is currently publishing a series of articles about writing cartoons.

Part 1 - The Gag Session
Part 2 - A Continuity Emerges
Part 3 - Structure
Part 4 - The Rough Board

(More to come)

Enjoy!

Jack Lemmon Interview

Four part interview with the wonderful Jack Lemmon from 1998

Jack Lemmon Archive Interview:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

A thought from Ollie

Hans Perk posted this on You Tube. An important message to all character animators from one of the greatest.

Ollie Johnston 1912 - 2008

The sad news arrived yesterday that the last of the Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston, has passed away.

- A tribute to Ollie Johnston by John Canemaker.
- Brad Bird's thoughts about the passing of Ollie Johnston
- The Walt Disney Company on Ollie Johnston


- Disney Family Album: Ollie Johnston (documentary) Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Idea boosting

I was surfing the internet the other day and came across Litemind, a great site with tips about how to boost your creativity.

I went through the archive and found, in particular three posts that was very interesting.



- Tackle any issue with a list of 100
- 6 tips to generate outstanding ideas
- Boost your Brainstorm effectiveness with the WHY habit

James Baxter Goodies

Notes from James Baxter lecture at Dreamworks - Day One - Day Two - Day Three (to come)

James Baxter Interview - The Animation Podcast

James Baxter animated himself dancing

Rough Animation from Hunchback and The Lion King

Ever Ever After - Music Video

Enchanted - Baxters animation from Enchanted

James Baxter Interview about Enchanted

Making of Enchanted short documentary

Part of the Making of Beauty and the Beast

More Goodies

There's been posted some really cool goodies on the net during the last couple of weeks. It's probably well known to most, but anyway, here they are:

Shawn Kelly's Tips and Tricks E-book - An awesome collection of gold from one of the Animation Mentor founders. This one is not to be missed!

Jeff Gabors Comparison Reel from Horton Hears a Who - This is super inspiring stuff and shows how far one can actually go when shooting reference. Awesomes!

Kevin Koch's post about using video reference (triggered by Gabors comparison reel). Theres stuff to be aware of when shooting reference for animation and Kevin Koch has some really nice thoughts about that. He also have a follow up post about the topic. Very interesting stuff.

John Kahrs Splinecast. Andrew Gordon talks to his co-worker at Pixar about polishing your shots. Great Stuff!

Dave Burgess E-Critique for the February 11 Second Club winner, Phillip Hall. This is Animation Mentor all over again. Brings back some really nice memories from my time at the school :) Anyway, this E-Crit is awesome and a must-see for any animator.

And last, but not least....The Goonies. I'm a huge fan of that movie and Matt Williames seems to be one too. He went ahead and visited the locations where the movie was shot. Cool post and some nice pictures from that trip.

Tex Avery Documentary

Cool documentary about one of the greatest in animation.

Tex Avery Documentary:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Hand Drawn Nomad - Awesome!!

I've been visiting Matt Williames blog, Hand Drawn Nomad, before and I've been returning to it once in a while. But recently I went through his site and checked out his archive - that guy has some seriously awesome stuff in his post archive.

Here's a collection of the tutorials he've made, but I strongly recommend to visit his site and check out all the posts! It's pretty amazing stuff.

Spacing: Tricks of the Trade
More Notes on Spacing
Motion Analysis
Ball Bounce
Gestures: The Revenge of the Tutorials
Walk this way!
The Eyes have it!
Emotion dictates design

Step 1: Planning your Shot
Post 2: ROUGH IT OUT
Post 2 and a half: Breaking it down
Tie Down: Refining your acting, drawings, and the technical side
From 2's to 1's
Fin

Eye Darts and the Social Triangle
Are you an Actor, or a Technician?
Construction and Pitfalls

Starting your Shot: THINKING, FEELING, AND PLANNING

Enjoy!

More inspirational stuff

Transformation sequence Beauty and the Beats Rough Animation


Pinocchio Walk - Milt Kahl


Glen Keane about Ollie Johnston



Andreas Deja about Frank Thomas


Glen Keane speaks at CalArts 2006

Daphne's New Broom

A classmate of mine from Animation Mentor, Ales Mav, has just finished his short film. It's a fantastic film!

Check out Daphne's New Broom.

Ready for a new Showreel

My initial plan was to get my desktop shipped down here to New Zealand from Norway, but it's actually cheaper to buy a new one here. So I did, yesterday :)

I'm having a good time at work. HuHu is a great place and I've gotten used to the rigs and got my head around the pipeline. With a new desktop in place, I'm now ready to start working on a new showreel in my sparetime. I have a bunch of ideas of what I want in it and I'll give myself the rest of the year to make it as good as it can get at my current level.

It's gonna be fun!

Happy Birthday Iben

This little cutie is my niece and she's 3 years old today. Check her pyjamas, she's already started to get into animation.

Happy birthday, Iben. All the best! Greetings from New Zealand.

SynchroLux - awesome blog.

I got directed to Kevin Koch's blog by a coworker of mine today and its really cool reading for animators. A post that especially caught my eye was about how do you animate good animation really really fast, and the answer was kinda cool, coming from a guy that has been in the industry for a while....you can't! :)

There are things one can do though, to get good stuff done in a decent amount of time. Check out the post and bookmark Kevin Koch's blog SynchroLux.

Thanks for the link, Rob.

Oscar to Ratatouille!

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature film to Ratatouille. Huge congratulations to everybody at Pixar that worked on it.

Marcelino and Bartolomeo: Bye Bye!

My wife and I met Mario Pochat and his wife last year in San Diego. In fact we graduated together in the second graduation class ever at Animation Mentor :)

I was really happy to see his awesome short film featured on the front page of YouTube. This film is an incredible piece of animation!

Watch "Marcelino and Bartolomeo: Bye Bye!" on YouTube.

Go Mario!

Art Babbitt

Awesome documentary on one of the true pioneers in animation. Enjoy!

Art Babbitt Documentary:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Beautiful New Zealand

Here's some photos from my new home in Snells Beach, New Zealand taken by my friend and co-worker Florent













This is pretty much what we see walking to work every day. Kinda cool ah?

Inspirational stuff

Don Hahn shows pencil tests and talks about Beauty and the Beast:


Glen Keane animates a scene Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Glen Keane talks about Tarzan:


Recording session 'A Whole New World'


Alan Menken Part 1


Alan Menken Part 2

To Infinity and Beyond - The Pixar Story

The book "To Infinity and Beyond - The Story of Pixar Animation Studios" popped into my mailbox a couple of days ago and I'm already hooked. It's an amazing peek into how it all started back in the 70's and became what's todays Pixar. Absolutely recommended.

Can't wait for Leslie Iwerks documentary to come out on DVD :)

First trailer from "Urmel - Full Speed"

There's a trailer released from the movie I worked on at Ambient Entertainment in Germany:



Trailer "Urmel voll in Fahrt"

None of my shots are in there, but still pretty cool :)
Enjoy!

First week in Middle Earth

Wow...a week already. The flight to New Zealand went pretty much as expected, but being in the air 24 hours totally sucks. Not recommendable :) But it's amazing what one do to animate eh? And of course the guys at Auckland Customs had to pull me aside and go through all my luggage. But they were nice and professional and after tons of questions and a short hour, I could finally enter New Zealand around 1am in the morning. A shuttle guy waited for me at the airport and drove me to Snells Beach.

The next morning I woke up to amazing New Zealand. My oh my! The landscape and nature you see in Lord of the Rings is all here. It's awesome! (Pictures will come) Then I got introduced to all the people at HuHu Studios and got to know the guys I will be working with. A great gang. There will be tons of fun with those guys. After pretty much no sleep for 24 hours I was happy to hear that I could take it easy the first day, then it was weekend and Monday was a national holiday, so I got time to recover from the jet-lag (12 hour time difference from Norway), which was totally needed.

I'm pretty much settled with all the practical stuff. Got a bank account, cell phone, applied for tax-number etc, and rented a house I'm gonna share with some of my co-workers. Snells Beach is pretty small, nice and quiet. The nearest town is Warkworth (about 10 min. away) and Auckland (1.3 mill) is an hour away by car.

A perfect place to learn and gain experience as an animator :)

Going to New Zealand

Tomorrow I'm leaving Norway again, after a few great weeks relaxing with my family, to start my new job as a character animator at HuHu Studios in Snells Beach, New Zealand.

I'm full of excitement about this opportunity and I'm really looking forward to start animating again after a short break. Staying away from the computer has been hard, but the re-charge feels good :)

I'm flying out from Sandefjord, Norway to Frankfurt, Germany and from there the flight to Auckland takes 24 hours, with a short 2-hour stop in Singapore. Crazy flight, but once there, it's gonna be totally awesome!

Relaxing back in Norway

2007 has been one of the best years in my life. So many exciting things happened. I got married to the most wonderful girl in the world, graduated from Animation Mentor, visited the US, met some awesome people and got my fist job as a professional animator at Ambient Entertainment in Germany.

It's been superfun, but also kind of intense, so now it's good to relax and just do nothing back in Norway for a few weeks before I move on to my next job.

I wish you all a great 2008!