Swedish summer night sky

Last night I came up with the idea to take a few snapshots of the summer night sky, so you can see how it looks. My camera isn't the best but I think the idea comes across quite well.
The bright summer sky is something I can't get enough of, I stand on my balcony and look up and just taking it in. Although I know that the summer solstice was last week, I'm in total denial over that, we will have many, many bright nights left to enjoy, so there!

Take care

This photo is taken 22:20, and we see the sky over Mölndal and Gothenburg.

23:00

23:40, here my camera decided to put horizontal lines in the picture, don't know why...

0:20, this one became quite dark, in real life it's much brighter, trust me.

Why animation?

After looking at the pile of drawings for the previously mentioned lipsync, one might ask that question. Why among the various ways of expressing art did I choose animation?

Well, as many kids I had a love for animation, as I got older my interest deepened and I started to read magazines and books about animation and comics. I've always read and still reads comics, but it was something special with animation. We're in the 90s now and animation has a boom going on with great movies coming out from Disney and other companies. I had a rough talent for drawing, and I believe it was in '95 that I made the decision to take steps towards the animation field. So I took art lessons. Those lessons led to art school and that art school led to animation school!

But why animation?
I mean no sound man can put so many hours on a clip that takes a few seconds to watch...
Well, to go deeper into this mystery, I think it has to do with the drawing that moves. I think that's the only way to explain it. The still drawing that moves. When I put the drawings into the computer and it works, that's the greatest feeling. That's when those hours by the drawing board pays off. And when it doesn't work, it's equally frustrated! For me animation equals hand drawn animation, even though I've seen lots of 3d movies and liking them, in my head animation still is hand drawn.

My next animation project will be to explore the digital scene, if it will be 2d or 3d I don't know at the moment, maybe it will be both? But before I do that I'm going to do a project of mine that's been calling on my attention for quite some time, more news will follow...

So here is the pile of drawings for the lipsync. I haven't counted them, because that is not so important to me, the important thing is that the animation works!

Take care!

New Demoreel

I've just updated my demoreel! It's on my portfolio and demoreel-blog, the link is to your right!

I want to extend my warm thanks and gratitude to my mentor to whom I've sent pieces of animation to look at, and he in his turn has sent notes to me. Sometimes within deadline, sometimes outside... ;-) Thanks!

Take care!

Lipsync

I'm now finished with a piece of animation that I've been working on for quite some time now, it's been an ongoing project that I've been working on, off and on. And now it's finished! Well, as you animators know, one can tweek the animation and work more on it, for me it's the piece itself that explains to me when or if it's done... I'm now going to share the linetests that I did along the way, so you can follow the process. The finished clip is at the bottom.

The character (Raccoon) is created by me.

The audio is "borrowed" from American Pie 2, it's one of the band camp kids that explains why you shouldn't bring food to band camp.

After analyzing the audio, thinking about what he is saying, how he is saying it. I did some sketches, took photos of the them and put them together with the audio, to get the feel of it.

Here I've done some more work on it, but still it's very crude.

Yet more work, and still keeping it loose to really find the right keys. On the above tests I haven't been focusing on being "on model" what's been more important is to find the right keys that can carry the sequence. My goal with this animation was to really breath life into the character, I wanted the animation to to be a "a piece of life".

Here is the first linetest with actual animation, although being very loose and still trying to work it all out. This was the first test that I sent to my mentor, so he could get me pointers on where I needed to do more work.

Here is the first cleaned up test, right about now I started to think that I was done with it, but I wasn't...

I needed to change a few things so I did...

When I sent this test to my mentor he gave it his blessing, maybe he was more tired of it than I was...? But I still found some things to work on...

...so I did and here it is, the finished animation! Ta-daaa!

Take care!

My first violin ever!

It's done!

This update might be a tad longer than usual so grab a cup of tea, just in case...

It's actually done! I'm so proud of it I might burst at any minute! This is the violin that I wrote about a year ago, the one that I had hanging in my kitchen window. This spring I've put varnish on it, 14 coats, and simply put the rest together, the bridge and so on. I've showed it to a professional builder and he suggested to lower the nut (which I did) and also to readjust the sound post, I might do that later on, when I have an abundance of patience...those of you that have put a sound post in a violin knows what I'm talking about! I'm also going to let some musicians have a go at it, so I can get their input as well.

This might sound silly, but I'm so pleased with the fact that it actually sounds, it makes sound! Alright, I'm not sure it could fill the Royal Albert Hall with music, but I've got no plans to go there, yet!

Why then have I built this violin, from scratch, out of pieces of wood that doesn't look violiny at all?
Well, as many of the things that I do, it has the basis from a movie! When I went to animation school I saw this french movie, Un coer en hiver (www.imdb.com/title/tt0105682/) with the always brilliant Daniel Auteuil, and Emmanuelle Béart. It's a slow paced love drama where two men falls in love with the same woman. These two men have a violin shop together, and those scenes in that shop, you could feel the craft of it all through the screen. The production must have had a luthier that helped the actors and the set. This was in '98 or '99, and I got the idea that some time in the future I would like to try to build a violin. But since I'm all thumbs, as I've written before in making the violin varnish box, how would that be possible?
Another reason why I wanted to build a violin, is that I like the shape of the instrument, it's kind of the ultimate beautiful object. It's curves and curls, that is present all over the design.

We go forward a couple of years and I get the opportunity to craft knifes, I think this is very important because without those knifes, there would not have been a violin. In making those two knives, that I gave to my father and brother, I kind of reawakened my more practical side and boosted my confidence.

We skip forward a couple of years and in 2004 I enrolled in this violin making class, and I can honestly tell you that I didn't know what I was doing at times. And for sure if they would have had an ability test in the beginning, I would not have been accepted. This has truly been a journey, with frustration, fun, craftiness and work. The reason why it has taken so long is because in the beginning I only worked on it in class, and I didn't do anything at home. This because I didn't know what to do! And I must also confess since this is my first violin, I've made all the mistakes that you possibly can do, well maybe not everyone, I saved a few, for later... In making these mistakes I've truly learned a lot. And let's face it everyone is a beginner at first, even Stradivarius was a beginner... But honestly for some time in the beginning, it really felt that I took one step forward and two steps back. But after a while I thought that if I move a little forward every week, then that's ok and even good! And now we're here!

The reason why it's red? Well...uh...it's...a movie! ;-) A couple of years ago I saw the movie The Red Violin (www.imdb.com/title/tt0120802/). Where we follow a red violin through three centuries, from being made to present day. It's also kind of slow paced. I can recommend it, and from that film I got the idea to make this violin red. The film also has a beautiful soundtrack.

I'm actually already working on my next projects. Hopefully these will not take as long to finish! So this is not the end, I'm going to continue working with these beautiful instruments! I'm looking forward to learn more and to be able to get better results.

Here are some pictures of the violin, as you know by now I'm not a photographer, this meaning that it looks even better in real life!

On the picture above, you see my biggest "mistake", I didn't get the roundness in the back as it should have, actually what I got was what they call a goats back/getrygg. Well, I learned from my mistake and on the belly I got the roundness that it should have.

Landscape in water color

Hi!

The last couple of weeks I've been looking at this old water color painting that I've got on my wall, yes, I'm one of those that has his own paintings on the wall...

I kind of discovered water color when I went to animation school. It was there and then I really picked it up. It was both acrylics and aquarelle, but mostly aquarelle. I can't say that I'm a painter of landscapes, all in all I've done five landscape paintings. Here is the best of them. I painted it in 2000, we were a couple of friends visiting a summer house up on the west coast here in Sweden. It was a beautiful day and the sun was warm and I did this painting, quite effortlessly. It just flowed, everything just got into place. And maybe that's the way you should paint landscapes or whatever, effortlessly!

Take care!