the internet. it never ceases to amaze.
Lets go parachuting on tuesday
Reply
Author Archives: Alex
Autumn post
The last two month have been insanely busy for me. I drew this tree in the sketchbook and put it up for you guys. I really like the autumn so far. Best time of the year.
I’m looking in your big brown eyes
A still of a character of a short film that I haven’t finished yet. Won’t finish for quite some time. Constantly having something not finished can get on my nerves. Girl, I want to make you sweat.
Pata Pata by Milk&Sugar music video
The music video I produced for Milk&Sugar awhile back got some play at MTV, myvideo, youtube and even tape.tv (those smug fuckers). I wished they hadn’t compressed the video that much though. It really does not look anything like the crisp HD files I delivered to the client but I guess thats the way it is. I directed the video with animation support by Christian Retzlaff, Bob Wolkers (Dutchman, but I didn’t care) and wonderboy intern Doppeltim as cleanup and background artist. I even got After Effects wizard Derya Özturk to help with compositing for a day. I am really proud of what my team made and, of course, what a great leader and getting-stuff-done-r I have become.
Naturally, the deadline was torment but we managed to make it happen within 12 (!!!) days. Originally I wanted to do this kind of design which would have allowed for more fun animation and more animation total. But then client wanted some more like “jungle book” and this was the closest we could get within the timeframe. I think the video has some really nice characters, loops, cuts and colorful fun stuff that everybody likes. So I figured you should see it, yo!
Ein Kriegsschiff
My comic short for the respect.com.mx effort in Russia, co-produced with the Goethe Institut and the British Council. Many international comic artists (amongst them William Goldsmith, Igor Baranko, Erdil Yasaroglu) were invited and made comics on the subject of respect, xenophobia and such things. There are some scary fascist and rastic undercurrents in Russia today and this is an effort maybe to have some counter-propaganda. The comic will be printed in Russian, there is an english and russian version on the website. They have two additional pages that are supposed to help the mostly school kids audience interpret the story. It was a fun project and I am happy to have done the trip to Moskau, met many good people and drew a comic again. Scenario idea by Roland.
Aufgezeichnet.tv
This is the first chapter of episode 1 of aufgezeichnet.tv, the only german magazine for comics, graphic novels and manga. I really like this show. It is very informative, ballanced and produced by real fans and insiders of the comic industry and hardened tv veterans with hearts of gold.
I was asked to make the opener for it – my roots in both comic and animation made me a good fit I think. I made an animation with many hints to comic books I like, redrawing many famous comic panels (and changing them a little) and simulating all the different styles. I wanted to archive this sense of flying through a world of comics and underline some of the aspects of the show. In the end, it might be a little too fast paced to get all the details I worked on. Roland also worked on the drawings with me, providing his uncanny drawing skills to the project.
Stills and just the opener
battleship preview 2
Still doing this thingy. Fun but I’d rather go swimming now. Hope to be done tomorrow with all 14 pages + cover.
I had a stroke
…and then some more.
This is the comic first rendering of my current comic project. I am supposed to draw 15 pages and this is the first finished one. I hope, my cintiq pen survives this.
Catwalk
A year back, I was doodling away an array of silly ideas i had in my mind. Catwalk an animatic of one of those shorts that are just fun but not enough fun to put in the time to finish them.
First, I just wanted to do something with parkour since I am too big boned to actually do it myself. Then, a traceur friend of mine told me about this term “to pull a cat” which is some type of jumping technique or so. That’s how the cats got in.
Only 18 cats and 4 dogs were injured or killed during the production of this piece.
Onionskin
I wished there was something one could take away from this thought.
to be a better drawer
Don’t we all? I always thought, the term was “draftsman”. Anyway. This is not going to be a tutorial. Sorry, if I knew how to be a better drawer, do you really think I would tell you? So that you can take away my job? Do you want my job, you bastard? DO YOU THINK I AM THAT STUDIP?
rejected lion
I really liked this quick concept for a music video. Client did not. Back to the box of shame with you, Mittens. Awimbawat awimbawat awimbawat
of sharks and men
This is a layout 0f page 4 (of 15) of my current comic book project. The short story is for the international RESPECT.com.mx effort. I know, one should not post stuff of stuff that is not done and stuff. But, It has been great fun so far and I hope I will be done within the next month, and stuff. Having done so much animation lately, good old panel work is such an ease in comparison. Extra kudos to whoever recognizes the text and author whom I am paraphrasing. (If you studied with me, you’ll have an advantage and stuff).
bitteschön.tv animation reel 2011
So, we are back from a very cool FMX/ITFS week where we also premiered our studio reel. I cut the piece (which may see some more trimming later) on a track by my friend Niklas Kröger.
It is mostly stuff I have directed but I am happy to introduce work by my friends Nikolai Neumetzler and Christian Retzlaff. Nik brings a whole lot of 3D skills to the studio (check out his grad film Lokomoschine running on festivals right now) and Christian is a seasoned traditional animator. His stations as an animator include productions such as The illusionist, Little big Panda, or Dodo and we collaborated on many projects already. Having nice and capable people at arm’s reach is one main reason why Roland and I started this studio in the first place. I am so hyped about what cool stuff we will be making in the future!
How to get ideas
My new short film on creativity and some other things, too.
Done in After Effects, C4D and Flash and powered by the picture archive of robokid.
Edit: motionographer and F5 featured it on their own vimeo site. Yay!
Thank you Puberty Supporters
I am astonished that my little film one minute puberty gathered almost a million views within one month on vimeo. (EDIT: It surpassed the one million mark last week. woohoo!) If you add the views that my film gathered from guys who reuploaded it on youtube and other sites instead of just embedding the vimeo, it even has well over a million views. According to facebook, almost 60.000 people shared it on their facebook and many big and small blogs featured it in some way or the other. I want to use this post to say thank you to everyone who shared and supported my work. THANK YOU everybody.
How to get ideas title and f5
On friday, I done rendered my latest short film called “how to get ideas”. I am pretty happy with how this little puppy turned out. Finally somebody made a concise step-by-step about how to be creative and stuff. Best of all, HTGI will premier at this year’s F5 Festival in New York City, US of A! And while I am very sad that I can’t make it to the event myself, I want to tell you to participate in this cool thing if you get the chance. It will be so great!
And check out the end tag of the movie shamelessly promoting my own studio.
wiggle(1,5) nice and slow, baby!
superbrothers sword and sorcery ep
I played first chapter today with my gf and we are just blown away. Pure belly tingling art joy extravaganca super duper game. Anyone who ownes an Ipad and does not download this game imidiately, gets bitten by an ogre. Check out this pic by the superbrothers.
Geoburt
All shapes have to come from somewhere, of course.
Geoburt is a mix between the german term for “geometry” and “birth” (Geburt). I explain very scientifically how (the) everything is made. Have a great weekend!
bitteschön.tv
You might guess that i was a little overwhelmed by over 500k views for my puberty film within five days. Thank you guys for watching, sharing and all the nice comments and mails and invitations you sent me. As much as I like to work on a project for months and months – having people react to it just feels so awesome. Thank you! But until you can check in your internet fame and like-buttons for food and shelter, there needs to be some other mean of income. Introducing bitteschön.tv. I founded this creative studio with my friend Roland to make more cool stuff and have a place to do it, too. We are joined by a couple of friends and I am looking foreward to working in this lively environment. Here is our site for the moment. It will be updated periodically, the portfolio probably needs some serious trimming and I also want to put together a reel until May. Give us a little time. We are on it.