Bamse och Tjuvstaden: More Layouts

Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi about the role of the layout artist:

“This poor bastard not only has to have great skills and talent, he (or she) has to balance a ton of rules at the same time he’s trying to make all the drawings look pretty. It’s not like drawing a random pose in your sketchbook and hoping it comes out looking swell – which is much easier to do than doing functional drawings, as we all know.
[…]
The layout artist is also not completely free to make up anything he wants. He is not anywhere near as free as the story artist. He has to use the story artist’s ideas as a guide – and clean up all its problems. This sounds like a dreadful boring, laborious task – and it can be while you are learning layout skills. But it doesn’t mean it isn’t a creative job. To me, it is the most essential job in the studio, because it’s where the characters come alive – if you know what you are doing.”

Well, I’m not sure I always knew what I was doing on Bamse och Tjuvstaden, but I think this sequence turned out quite alright. Poses by me, BG art by the king of awesomeness Ulf Sandberg.

Rusken & Slusken have carried a VERY heavy bag off the train. What’s in the bag…?

Bamse och Tjuvstaden will premiere January 2014.

ⓒ Tre Vänner produktion AB. Based on Bamse’s universe created by Rune Andréasson and published by Bamse Förlaget.

Bamse och Tjuvstaden: Layout

Layout is perhaps the least known phase of the animation process among people not involved in animation. I worked on Bamse och Tjuvstaden for 11 months. More than 50% of that time I spent on layouts. Something tells me layout won’t be the main thing journalists write about when the film comes out…

Layout is where “… the background layout artists determine the camera angles, camera paths, lighting, and shading of the scene. Character layout artists will determine the major poses for the characters in the scene, and will make a drawing to indicate each pose.”
Wikipedia

One of my heroes in animation, John Kricfalusi (creator of Ren & Stimpy) says layout is the toughest job of them all in the animation process. According to him a layout artist should be:

A great draftsman.
A stylist and designer.
An actor.
A problem solver.
Patient and focused.
A multi-tasker.

I don’t know if I fit any of those descriptions, but doing layouts for Bamse och Tjuvstaden was certainly a lot about problem solving. Most of the time I did poses.

The producer was kind enough to let me post a couple of layouts from the film. This scene was posed by me, background art by the one and only Ulf Sandberg. Rusken & Slusken carry a VERY heavy bag off the train. To be continued…?

Bamse och Tjuvstaden will premiere January 2014.

ⓒ Tre Vänner produktion AB. Based on Bamse’s universe created by Rune Andréasson and published by Bamse Förlaget.

Andreas Qassim’s Showreel 2013

I’ve assembled a new showreel. Thank you Niklas Ström for your awesome music!

Andreas Qassim’s Showreel 2013 from Andreas Qassim on Vimeo.

Music by Niklas Ström
finurligaljud.se

Cykelsuperstier – infomercial for web, Animationsbyrån 2012
Design, Storyboard, Animation

Citylogistik – infomercial for web, Animationsbyrån 2011
Design, Storyboard, Animation

Bamse och Tjuvstaden – feature film, Sluggerfilm 2012-2013
Character Design, Layouts
© Rune Andréasson, Tre Vänner, Sluggerfilm

Fritidsresor’s Bamse Show – animated backdrops to charter resort live show, Junior Productions 2009
Animation
© Rune Andréasson

Stinkfly Stan – personal project 2008
Design, Animation

3D Character Animation – Animation Workshop, Viborg, Denmark 2010
Modeling, Storyboard, Animation
© Jim Henson

Bamse och Tjuvstaden: More Character Design

Here’s some more character design sheets from Bamse och Tjuvstaden. I drew these when working for Sluggerfilm May 2012 – Mars 2013.

Buster, the diabolic (?) Captain of the Pirates.

Riviga Rutan the hedgehog. Don’t mess with this girl. Just saying.

Many design choices were based on Lars Bällsten doodles. As I might have mentioned in a previous post, Lars Bällsten is da man.

Tiger Guy 1 is actually a dog, member of The Tiger Gang (wearing striped sweaters).

Bamse och Tjuvstaden will premiere January 2014.

ⓒ Tre Vänner produktion AB. Based on Bamse’s universe created by Rune Andréasson and published by Bamse Förlaget.

 

Bamse och Tjuvstaden: Character Design

During the production of Bamse och Tjuvstaden, we spent the first five or six months designing everything. And by everything I mean EVERYTHING. From big locations down to trees and leaves, from houses and cars to gas pedals and tea spoons. I worked in character design, in the first instance making turnarounds to show the animators what the characters look like in different angels, and secondly drawing expressions and poses, which tell a little more about who the characters are.

The producer was kind enough to let me post some character design sheets for some of the crooks. None of these characters are new. Basically what we did was adapting them for the big screen.

Turn for Slusken, one of the pirates. The reason the lines are pretty is Li-Chuan Chang, Sluggerfilm‘s amazing clean up artist.

Some expressions for Rusken, another pirate.

There are many voles in the film. This is Farliga Flisan.

And here’s her friend Fixar-Fia.

An old favorite Bamse crook of mine, Kofots-Karlsson.

Bamse och Tjuvstaden will premiere January 2014.

ⓒ Tre Vänner produktion AB. Based on Bamse’s universe created by Rune Andréasson and published by Bamse Förlaget.