a walk and a lift

Two new animations.
First up a quadroped walk transisioning into a cantor.

four legged walk/cantor + transition. from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Next is the classic box lift.

box lift exercise from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Both of which was under guidence by Sidney Padua.

Cheers

The cycle weeks

Last last 2 weeks was spend on cycles - walkcycles and runcycles.
We had some great lectures and demonstrations from both of our teachers: Magnus Møller and Erik Scmidt which was a huge help.

Maybe cycles aren't the most fun in the world, but it was certainly very challenging and after working with them for two weeks I feel like I've learned a lot on both how to do it, and how NOT to do it :)

So here is the result. First up is the standard walk. This is by far the toughest one to do I think.

standard walk from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Then the character walk based on the standard:

Character walk from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

and finally the run cycle:

runcycle from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Cheers

The bow

The first "long" assignment this year, where we had a full week to make a bow, how ever we wanted to.
This was a super fun week for me, where I was able to relax and have a good time, while still being productive.
I think I'm slowly finding a workflow that suits me well, which of course makes it all a lot more fun and less stressful and frustrating.

I decided to render it out, so that all my animations aren't just playblasts.
The fact that there are contact shadows and stuff, reveals things that aren't visible in the playblast.

I hope you enjoy my super serious knight, bowing in front of his mighty king! :)

The Bow from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Cheers

Weight shift

A two day animation exercise in weight shifting and reaction with the "hogan" rig.

Hogan Weight shift from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Cheers

two new animations

Two new animations made this week, where we progress from the simple lamp into a bit more advanced floursack rig.

Bellysack from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Floursack jump from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Cheers

3d intro week 1

Summer vacation has ended and the first week of second year has just ended.
This was the very first week with 3d animation, and a really nice introduction to this whole new media.
In between small tests and lectures we worked on a "bigger" piece, trying to build a small story around a sphere and a room.
I decided to tell the story of a kid trying to get his dads attention, but he is watching tv and wont be bothered.
The playblast ended up a bit dark, so a few of the details dissapears, but generally I'm satisfied with it - simple as it is.

Bouncing ball exercise from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

I've included the quick thumbnailing I did.
I really want to use the 2d knowledge I gained last year, and roughing out the animation in stickfigure style in a 2d package is really neat.

Withing 30 minutes or so, I've tried a few different concepts/solutions, nailed the timing as well as the most important poses.
From there on, it is just a matter of plussing it in CG :)

Ninja Animation

I wanted to brush up on my 3d animation skills before school start in a few weeks, so I did this shot. Initially I just wanted to do a fast jump/land, but it evolved a bit.
I have a few likes and dislikes about the result, but ultimately I feel I can take a lot with me from this shot, and right now, that is very important to me :)

Have fun!

Ninja animation from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

First year animation exam

Alright, so this is my first year exam animation.

It's planned, animated and inbetweened in a week (monday to friday).
I think it went alright although I see a lot of mistakes.

First year Exam from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

I have some thumbnails and stuff to show as well, but I don't have them on this computer so in a few days maybe

Edit:
Okay here is the extra material.
The first thing I did was to think about what the character feels, what is his needs and wants, and even try to make up a story of what happens before and after my shot.
I like to write stuff like that down, and here it is:

Then I started thumbnailing and even tryed to act it out, to know where the weight is.
I tryed a lot of different possibilities and here is the final thumbnail page:

Finally I did a small facial expression sheet. In the end I didn't really use it, but it was a nice opportunity to think about facial expressions, so maybe indirectly it helped me.

So this is pretty much all the stuff I have to show.
Hopefully someone will find it interesting.

Cheers

Animation Jam

Alright, a bit late but here it is.
A two week project produced with two fellow class mates:
Samantha Torres and Erik Thygesen.
A couple rule/contraints were given:
Emotion: Optimism
Random element: Telephone
Length: 30 seconds.

Here it is:

Instinct Calling from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Animation Reel

Alright, my first serious animation reel.
Another one is probably coming up arund summer break, but who knows. Maybe I wont make anything good by then, haha.

Check it out:

Christoffers Animation Reel from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Layout exercises

The result of this weeks layout assignments, taught by Lawrence Marvit.

It was quite a stressful week, but on the positive side, I learned a lot and created 3 different "pieces" througout one single week.
Here is the first one, a layout drawing in pinocchio style, the begging scene from Hamlet:















Next up was a layout sequence from Yogi bear, based on a real production story board:

Yogi Bear Layout from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Last but certainly not least, was an "action piece" with inspiration from The Bourne Ultimatum.
We were to do a chase scene together with a peer. I did it with Stine Agerskov Frandsen.
Done in just a day and a half. Check it out:

Chase scene on roof tops from Stine Agerskov Frandsen on Vimeo.

Flying birds

This week we had introduction to After Effects (adobe), and how to use it in our work, to speed certain things up.
For our final assignment, which lasted the last part of wedensdag and first half of thursdag, we were to make something apear to move with high speed.
I wanted to combine the exercise with character animation, and animated a bird.
This was also the first time I got my animation out of the application (TV Paint), got it coloured and put it "to use".
I really like it, and hopefully I'll get a chance to do something similar again.
I just gives a whole different feeling, when you see it as a finished product :)

Check it out:

Flying birds from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Cheers

Dance animation

Our five week run with Fabian Erlinghäuser from The Cartoon Saloon in Ireland has ended, and a new week with Christian Kunzt began.
The focus this week went to dance and animation timed to music, a succession of the previous dialogue exercises I suppose.

It was a tough week, with only four days availeble and completing the entire 10 seconds, which was the length of the soundtracks given, proved to be quiet a hard task.
I'm satisfied with some parts of the animation, though it lacks a lot of work in others.
I really feel like a learned a lot, though and I'm pretty happe with the "quality/amount of work" ratio, an aspect I put a lot of emphasis on.

Milo (atlantis) Dance scene from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Intimacy sketch

I don't usually put spare time work in here, but I do now, because I thought this turned out rather good.
It's a quick and dirty sketchbook sketch.
I have a project going on, which I'm linking to on the right hand side (Deep), which is a short film, that is currently in pre production.
For this particular short film, I want to add in a scene where an old couple is re-united after long time seperation, so for that I need a scene of love and intimacy.
That was the idea behind it.
The reason why they are floating, is because they are under water, but that's a totally different story (actually same story, but trivial to the emotion I'm going for).




















Cheers!

Dialogue shot

Another school assignment.
This was a real tough one. The first dialogue shot ever, with two fairly complex characters, in only four days.
Again, like last time, I focused a lot on the drawings, and making sure they worked, as this is by far my weakest side.
I think it payed off, but it means less time on making fluid motion.
Hopefully some day I can combine the two :)

Here it is, hope you like it:

Kala and Kerchak Dialogue from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

There never was much hope...

The first animation here at school, including soundtrack.
That was great fun.

Sultan Animation from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Bernard at bar

Another animation created about four days with lectures and such.
This time around I chose Bernard from The Rescuers to animate.
I had a hard time keeping it on model, I guess my 3d preference came through pretty clearly ;)

anyways, the story layout was, that the character is sitting in a bar waiting. That's it!
And it HAD to be five seconds. Nothing more, Nothing less. I added a few frames after it was done, just to hold that last pose a bit, so it ended at 125 frames or so.

I had a great time working on it, and got a chance to do some more subtle animation, which I absolutely love to do!
I had focus on not doing to much pose to pose animation. Hiding the keys is probably the wrong way to put it, but floating smoothly through the keys rather than key-hold-key-hold.

'Nough said, here it is:

Bernard at bar from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Curious Baloo

A new animation I did last week.
Have a look:

Curious Baloo from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

The red line underneath is my construction lines (tied down versions), and as you can see, it diviates a bit at some points, because of changes I did during the clean-up (or tie down if you will) stage.

Temporary Animation Reel

So here is the reel as it looks so far.
It's not finished yet, even one shot in there is only blocked in.

The finished reel should be finished around april.
Inside the video is stated which shots are private and which are school stuff.

Temporary animation reel from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Midway test

This is the first test we have had at school.
No teachers to guide us, only our peers.

The rules were that he should lie down across the door, change mood from sad to determined/angry, get up and try to open the door.
The whole thing should last no more or less than 120 frames (five seconds).

It was quite a challenge, first of all to hit exactly 120 frames, but later on the room we were given, was very small and a big challenge to get him in an interesting way from one side to the other, as there wasn't really enough room for a run.

I shot some reference of my self, and based a few important pieces on that (the was he gets up, and the slide in the end).

he are my initial thumbnails:















And here is the final animation, created in one intense week:

midway test from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Morten Korch

We had a character design class, and the first assignment was about clear shapes and easily read silhuettes.
For this we made a silhuette film in just four hours, from brainstorming to final product.
It was loads of fun, and I'm really thinking about doing that again in a more serious manner.

Here it is, created with Carmen Hannibal and Mikkel Mainz

Dus med Morten Korch from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Storyboard week

This week we were taught storyboarding by Tod Polson

This is a storyboard for a fictional commercial, created with Stine Frandsen:




Created in one day.

animatic for fictional commercial from Stine Agerskov Frandsen on Vimeo.

Summing up the first semester

Drawing I've made throughout the first semester here at the Animation Workshop.
Some a drawn for class, others at town, and some are doodled down during lectures.

Check them out:

quadruped

A couple of four legged shots I've animated in my sparetime.
I've never touched (studied or animated) four legged creatures before, neither their anatomy nor their movement, so this was a pleasant break from the usual biped stuff.

These are done in my sparetime.
I take only credit for the animation.

The rigs can be found on creativecrash.com

Running dog, final version from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Scared deer from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Inbewteening

Inbetweening assignment in school.
The animation was given (Boris the Goose from Balto).

First up is the keys we were given, then the entire animation, inbetweened.
Done in four days.

goose inbetweening from Christoffer Andersen on Vimeo.

Drawing Jazz and Fire!

First up, I did a visual representation of Jazz music.
I don't really feel that I nailed it, but here it is anyways:

Then I spend quiet some time focusing on texture and value, how to shade/render an object, to make it feel different than another, to give it texture through value/shading.

I got the assignment to make a fully rendered "final" drawing, of a interior house burning.

That proved to be quiet a challenge.

Here is the lineart:

Then I spend a long night rendering it, trying to make sure the smoke felt diffrent than the fire, the focus point was the right place, the right levels of value, and so forth. A lot of things to keep in mind.

Here is the final result:

I've also investigated how abstract design could give a universal feeling of something, without being too specific, and thereby not as open.

The first picture is a abstract representation of Strawberry Icecream:














The second one is a abstract representation of Dark Chocolate:















It was all very interesting and super usefull for all design purposes :)


Cheers!