Trailer Project: Vertigo

Trailer Project: Vertigo from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

A project made in collaboration between our two classes.

3 CGAs got a classic movie to reinvent artistically. They did all character designs, modelling, rigging etcetera, and then we did all the animation in two weeks under their direction, with Alex Williams overseeing the production. It was a great experience and I think the end result looks great, as do the other trailers.

The CG artists in charge:
Dennis Jensen
Stinna Liholm
Søren Falske

The Animators:
Christoffer Andersen
Josefine Hannibal
Aimall Sharifi
Me

11 Second Club

The Angry Visitor (11 Second Club Competition) from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

I spent around 10 days on this for the November competition for the 11 Second Club.
Finished Nr. 135 out of 295

Hogan box lift

Animation and acting exercise in Maya, our final assignment with Sydney. A guy finds a box of puppies out in the street, while on his way to work... in no position to take it with him.

Hogan lifts box of puppies from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Week 44-45: Daisy the cow trots

Our first assignment with Sydney Padua was a cycle for Daisy the cow from "Agricultural Report". Here she is trotting along:

Daisy the cow trots from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Cartoon sketches

Here are some sketches I've done in the past month to cartoons.

Hogan walks & runs

The last few weeks, we've dealt with walks.
Here is a basic walk cycle:

Hogan Walk Cycle from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Then there is a character walk, towards the enemy:

Hogan's Angry Walk from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

And finally a run cycle:

Hogan's Run from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Week 39: Hogan bow

Here is my week-long bow assignment with the Hogan rig. My Hogan is a knight bowing before a lady he likes.

Knight bows from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Week 36: Flour sack jump

Our first flour sack assignment. My flour sack is scared of jumping but knows he has to.

Flour sack jump from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Week 36: 3 balls dancing

Done in one day, this was a fun exercise; 3 balls dancing to the same piece of music. These balls are friends having fun at the discotheque.

3 Balls Dancing from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Week 36: Luxo Lamp

Our main second week assignment, Luxo Jr. doing a take. My lamp has the nasty feeling that someone is following him.

Luxo Lamp Take from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Week 35: Ball in room

My first assignment in Maya; a ball finds himself rudely awakened and panics at what woke him up.

Bouncing ball exercise (in Maya) from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Showreel for the 2nd semester

Well, I passed the test and here is my showreel to officially end my first year at the Animation Workshop.

Showreel 2010 from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

1st Year Final Exam: Dad watches TV

The end result of this year, a week-long animation test in TV Paint. We were given a rough storyboard and the result is the following. The dad from Family Dog sits down to watch his favourite TV program, only to find that he sat down on the dog, reacting accordingly.

Exam, 1st year, 2nd semester from Atli Hafsteinsson on Vimeo.

Eat UP

The short movie "Eat UP" I did with Kenneth Ladekjær and Glenn August. I'm very proud of this film.

Our starting points were the emotion competitiveness and the random word "synaesthesia". The style was John Kricfalusi (Ren & Stimpy). The rest came completely from our own heads.

I animated most of the wolf scenes. Kenneth did most of the scenes with the little man as well as the cheerleader scene. Glenn then painted all the backgrounds by hand and did the morph scene.

If you are epileptic, be advised before viewing! Otherwise, enjoy.

Week 14: Dance animation: Hyacinth Hippo doesn't stop

Christian Kuntz taught us dance animation for this week, where we could choose between six characters and six songs. This is Hyacinth Hippo (Fantasia's "Dance of the Hours") dancing to Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough":



I was very happy with how this exercise came out, much more so than the last one. We had a break before this week and I used that to practise a lot of drawing, to get more three-dimensionality, and I got some good critique that it's showing.

Week 12: Dialogue in TV Paint: "I'm good"

Our last week with Fabian Erlinghauser from Cartoon Saloon, who taught us for this fifth straight week. This was our first two character exercise. We had a voice track where a man tries to get a woman's attention and she turns down his offer, softly. I chose the gorillas Kerchak and Kala from Tarzan. He's trying to get in her good books after a fight, but she's not in the mood.

Week 11: Dialogue in TV Paint: Everything's OK

This week, we got our first taste of dialogue (or monologue as it were). We could choose from two voice clips and four characters.

Here is the Sultan from Aladdin, trying to convince his subjects that everything is okay (when clearly it isn't). I was quite happy with this one, though I need more work on the lip-synch:

Week 10: Non Dialogue in TV Paint: Roger's date is late

This time, the acting had to be quite subtle: a character's date is late, and he/she has already had to wait awhile and so is starting to get worried. I chose Roger from 101 Dalmatians.

Week 9: Non Dialogue in TV Paint: Baloo's temptation

Our assignment this week was a character being tempted by money lying on the ground, but deciding against it. We had a choice of ten characters to work with.

My choice was Baloo. This was a very fun exercise to work on. It took all week and parts of the weekend, and I'm quite happy with it.

His arm is a bit funny towards the end, and I didn't manage to clean it all up. I think I made too many rough drawings without cleaning up. However, I am pleased with the overall animation, especially how he doesn't stop in his poses but moves organically.

Week 8 - TV Paint introduction

This was our first week of not only working with the animation program TV Paint, but Wacom tablets as well. I think it's a nice way of animating, and we spent this week getting to know this new way of working.

Here is Scooby-Doo turning his head (I'm very happy with this one):


The character Jock from the Lady and the Tramp, also turning his head:


And finally Hogarth from the Iron Giant, doing a take:

Week 5: Midway test featuring the Pink Panther

The first semester officially ended with this, our first test, a week-long assignment featuring the Pink Panther. This is what I am able to do after one semester at the Animation Workshop.





If that's too hard to read, here's the same animation, only without the background.

Week 4: Storyboarding w/ Tod Polsen & On Krapook

We had Tod Polsen & On Krapook this week and got a 2-person assignment on making an animatic for a popsicle commercial. This commercial features some kids and their dog as they daydream their way to outer space, thus showing how cool popsicles are. This is what I did with Kenneth Ladekjær. I did almost all the second half (Kenneth doing the final logo and fly-by)

Week 3: Inbetweening w/ Uri Kranot

Uri Kranot came back for this week and taught us inbetweening. We inbetweened this short scene from Balto featuring Boris the goose. I was a bit worried that, not having really animated for a couple of weeks, this would turn out hard. But no, it went quite well.

Week 2: Clean-up w/Lee Huxtable

Lee Huxtable gave us this short scene from "American Tail 2" to work with, that of Cat R. Waul falling down and exclaiming "Humans!".

Week 50: Composition w/ Lawrence Marvit

Lawrence taught us a lot about composition and the feel of a picture. This first picture is an abstract interpretation of Miles Davis's album "Kind of Blue".


Then we worked for two days on the following composition, that of the interior of a burning building. I chose a burning town hall. Here is the original linework:

And the finished, rendered picture:

Week 49: Drunken Goofy w/ Meelis Arulepp

Now, this was a very fun exercise to work on. It was great to work with Meelis again, and this was our fourth straight week of animating, so we were fairly confident at this point.

Week 47-48: Animating w/ the Danish Filmschool

These two weeks, we had the pleasure of working with directors from the Danish Film School, working on their final projects. Me and the other three people in my group worked with a nice guy called Troels on his Blacknisseiflm about the black metal elf in Santa's Workshop who wants to be able to make good toys, not menacing ones ('cause he'll get fired if he keeps donig that). This was the first time we animated without a teacher being on hand to help us, and it was a healthy experience. Please note that the following is not in story order.

This scene was the product of the first week. The elf's doll (his travel partner of sorts) is about to slip off his back.



These two scenes came the week after. Here, the elf is sad that the drawing he made is that of an evil toy, not a good one.



Here, the elf is showing his evil toy to Santa, thinking it's good work.

Week 46: Goofy lifting weight w/ Meelis Arulepp

We had Meelis from Estonia twice, animating Goofy. This week, we animated him lifting a heavy ball. This was a fun exercise and it was great to work with Meelis, a very inspiring guy. I was rather please with this one. Sure wish I'd have got the chance to clean it up a little, but Meelis wanted us to work rough.

Week 43: Animation drawing(w/ Zdenko Santini: the Clown haven

Zdenko came back the week after the autumn break and we kept on doing drawing exercises with him. The week's project was one we picked ourselves, about these clowns in a post-apocalyptic world where laughter is now a privileged thing. Our clown protagonists want to escape their oppressors and escape to the "Clown Haven". The following is the result, which I'm quite happy with. It was a fun exercise to work on. Concept development looks like fun.

Week 40-41: Animation walks w/Anders Nessum & Slaven Reese

For our first animation walk exercises, our assignment for the two weeks was the Pink Panther.

This first exercise was a simple side-step:




Here he is angry, slamming a table (upon reflection, it could've used some ease-outs):




Here is our first proper walk:




Then finally, this exercise took all of week 41, a personality walk. I chose a confident attitude: