Jeroen Jaspaert animation

Rennie 'Happy Tummies' TV ad

2012-02-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

I was asked to re-design and direct the new RENNIE campaign, in which Mr Tummy encounters a whole new world of other tummies.
In this first outing you find him in the restaurant, where romance is only a table away...
This was an incredible satisfying job, trying to combine the latest digital animation tools with some proper 'old skool' design and animation.
A big thanks to Rick, Pete, Tim and Filipe at Tandem for their invaluable help, and the guys at JWT for being such a trusting agency.

I hope the world of tummies will become a vastly populated one :)

Big Bad Bill

2012-01-29T02:35:00.000-08:00

Together with Wip Vernooij and Cako Facioli, I worked on another Moshi Monsters music video. In this song 'Moshi expert' Buster ventures deep into the jungle where he encounters Big Bad Bill and the woolly blue Hoodoos. A perfect excuse for a big bad jungle party!
As usual, all the animation was done in Flash, and then taken into After FX to ad some warmth and atmosphere.
We welcomed Mel Northover and Jason Kotey to the team, who are by now specialists in conga and limbo dance moves :)
This is a montage of the scenes I animated on.
To see the full music video, click here.

Muller Wunderful Ad

2011-11-01T04:08:00.000-07:00

Last month I animated on the ambitious Muller 'Wunderful' ad, which is getting a lot of airplay at the moment.
I worked both in Flash and traditionally on paper, which felt like a nice luxury, not often being able to afford lately.

As an unexpected surprise, I just noticed myself in Creative Review, highlighting 'the making of'
Here is a link to the article.

Tandem's recent short films

2011-08-31T08:24:00.000-07:00

Save Our Bacon from Jeroen Jaspaert on Vimeo.

Speechless from Jeroen Jaspaert on Vimeo.

Sticking to the world of short films for another post, here are two exports from the Tandem stable, which I animated on; Daniel Greaves' SPEECHLESS and Peter Baynton's SAVE OUR BACON.
Both very different in style and technique, both very enjoyable to work on.
Short films are great to make you think again as a character animator, as there's more room for observation and acting than in your standard 30 second ad. They're also useful projects to help you tick over inbetween the more lucrative commercial jobs.
Both clips are scenes I animated.

Wedding Invite

2011-08-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I designed the wedding invite for my cousin Lode and his partner Kristof.
I got a lot of nice compliments about it on the wedding itself, and to my surprise it has recently been used in a national news report, highlighting the rise of gay marriage in Belgium.
This wasn't really planned, but it's nice to know that it has traveled beyond that one fantastic day.
Next time I just need to remember to actually sign it :)

Dr. Strangeglove song

2011-08-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

Dr. Strangeglove from Jeroen Jaspaert on Vimeo.

Together with Wip Vernooi and Cako Facioli I created a music video for Moshi Monsters.
Here we meet their formidable adversary 'Dr. Strangeglove', who in his secret lair turns innocent moshlings into gormless glumps (if you don't know what this means, ask your kids :)
I'm quite proud of this job, as the short time frame hasn't sacrified the quality of the animation. I tried my best to make full use of the limited amount of symbols I had to work with in Flash, to make the animation as full of character as I possibly could.
Which wasn't too tasking to be honest: animating a sinister and ever so slightly camp character breaking out into a song and dance routine... it's a dream come true! :)
These are a few of the scenes I animated.
To see the full video, click here.

The Tortoise

2011-06-22T05:41:00.000-07:00

The Tortoise, directed by Pedro Lino from Sparkle Animation on Vimeo.

Here's an animation test I recently finished. It's for Pedro Lino's upcoming shortfilm 'The Tortoise'
My task was to animate a few scenes and explore a style that fits with the story.

I've been on a massive TINY TRIP

2011-06-08T12:48:00.000-07:00

Indeed, indeed...My laziness has reached another gear: 6 months of no blogging action.
But this time I've got an excuse; I've just been too darn busy!
So, ironically, whilst absolutely no-one will check this blog anymore, I've got lots and lots of goodies to show. Like TINY TRIPS for instance :)

TINY TRIPS animation reel from Jeroen Jaspaert on Vimeo.

TINY TRIPS is an animated show about Rosa, a girl who travels around the world in a hot air balloon, discovering new cities and friends. It's fun and educational, and has exactly the kind of whimsical storylines that I like (who wouldn't like to be trapped in the Guernica painting, or have a picnic with Albert Einstein)
I truly enjoyed the animation style, which was my prefered 'do it in Flash, but make sure nobody can tell it's done in Flash' combined with lovely designs by Joao Fazenda.
We created 5 episodes in total (Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, London and Berlin), which was quite an accomplishment, regarding our little micro team. It was a wonderful crew that remained remarkably upbeat for various months, but I'm sure the discovery of the only Shoreditch pub that serves pints for £2 has something to do with that :)

This is a montage of my scenes (assisted by Jonathan Clarke). In the near future I'll be able to show a fully finished episode. So you better brush up on your Portuguese!

VW Desert Island

2011-01-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

Desert Island, for VW Caddy from Peter Baynton on Vimeo.

Happy New Year strangers!

My new year's resolution is (just like last year) to faithfully post my animation work with a considerable delay.

This one is from late November 2010, a VW ident for the Discovery Channel, directed by Pete Baynton at Tandem.
I tremendously enjoyed this job because every animator had their own 10 and 15 second ident to animate, making it more like a personal project than a job. And by now, we are all masters in the new school of black&white animation, so stress levels were quite low.
The style was inspired by 'The New Yorker' designs,but I have to admit that my character occasionally looked more like Papa Smurf. That's the Belgian in me, I guess :)

Suspiciously looks like Elvis

2010-11-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Elvis 'Suspicious Minds' music video from Chris Hemming on Vimeo.

Here's a music video I did a small stint on, directed by Chris Hemming at Passion Pictures. It's a re-release of Suspicious Minds, using Elvis as a silhouette shape, performing in front of a LED screen display.

I was part of the rotoscoping team, doing the scenes where the live action footage wasn't clear enough. I had to ad 2D animation on top of the footage to make sure Elvis regained his usual bouncy quiff and trembling lip.

Feliway Dog

2010-09-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here's another Feliway commercial I animated, currently on TV.

This time a dog is added to the scene, obviously afraid of fireworks.
It was fun to try and get some realistic dog behaviour into this character, despite the cartoony design. Not that straightforward as I'm very much a 'cat person' who never had a dog in his whole life. Therefore I had to put myself on a strict diet of youtube and Muybridge. Seems like those books I bought in college weren't a waste after all :)

No pencils or paper were injured during this 2D production.

To see the ad, click here.

Shell Guitar Girl

2010-09-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here's another animation of mine that I've seen on telly recently.
Well, 'seen' is a big word...it features on a television screen in a live action commercial, somewhere in the background, roughly 7 pixels wide, 5 pixels high. But I know it's there, and that's what matters! :)

I did the character animation. Design by Max Oginny. Visual graphics by Jasmina Jodry.

boing boing

2010-08-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a little animation of mine I keep seeing on telly lately. (should stop watching children TV)
Done by Tandem's micro team, this little 'tag on' ad might be short in duration, but elaborate in animation techniques; a concoction (I hope this is a word) of rotoscope, Maya, Flash and After Effects.

Save our Bacon

2010-05-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

And another short film :)

This one is 'Save our bacon' created by fellow Tandem director Pete Baynton.

Pete designed the film in a nicely textured 'cut out' style.
This technique was a bit of a challenge at the start, not being able to distort the characters into my usual squashy stretchy ways.
But I really started to enjoy how this limitation made me think more creatively and inspired some quirky animation.
I animated most of the final scenes, where the tensions run high. When the film has had a proper run at festivals, I will be able to show a clip.

The Man with the Cardboard Head

2010-04-19T03:39:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to the trailer of a short film I animated on at the start of 2010.
The last bit of the trailer is one of my scenes, so don't switch off in the middle!!

Only nice memories about this one: nice director (Pedro Lino), nice studio (Trunk), and a nice team (too many to mention)

There is more information and bits of the film on Pedro's personal blog, here.

About Memory Problems

2010-03-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Last year I designed and animated two virals for the Delinquent boys, to highlight the common symptons of early Alzheimer's disease.
As usual a long-ish script and a short-ish schedule meant to go immediately to the wonderful world of flash, but as usual I tried to go a bit beyond the 'look at it tweeeeeeeeen' mode. With only two weeks of animation on each viral, I'm happy with the result, especially as they seem to work as little mini-films....and get the message across in a not too boring way.
I did 'Tippy Toes' all by myself. I designed and started to animate 'Purple Scarf', but my pre-planned Swedish holiday (tip for freelance animators: book a holiday...you'll always get called for a job) meant I had to pass the rest of the animation (and a design change) on to the more than capable hands of Tom Baker (no puns please).

To see the virals, click here

The Marriage Ref

2010-03-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a little animation jobbie I did at Passion Pictures.
It's the title sequence for NBC's latest entertainment show 'The Marriage Ref', produced by Jerry Seinfeld.
I got asked to animate Jessica, Jerry's wife.
It was great to figure out baseball moves, not immediately a sport I'm affluent in. But thinking about it...which sport is? :)
The animation was originally done in old fashioned 2D, but due to the workload I animated my scenes directly in Flash. It saved a lot of time in the clean up stage.
I'm happy to find out that the difference between the flash and pencil animation isn't too obvious. But if you want to make up your own mind, the whole animation is below, or you can find a bigger movie here.

Speechless

2010-02-03T11:14:00.001-08:00

I just discovered a short film I animated on has been nominated at the British Animation Awards 2010, in the section 'Public Choice Award'.
Daniel Greaves' 'Speechless' is a beautiful film which combines his trademark quirky humour with a strong view on our evolving ways of communication.

Over the course of a year I animated the mother character, every time I was inbetween commercial jobs at Tandem.
I enjoyed working on that character a lot. She had small mumsy mannerisms and a nervosity which was interesting delving into. And the fact that a scene could last for 30 seconds or more gave us animators a good oppurtunity to think about proper character acting.
On top of that, it was all done in an old fashioned animation style, on paper!!!!!! Blue pencils, dopesheets, a hot hand from the lightbox,...it all came back in my life. A nice little nudge that made me realise why I wanted to become an animator all those years ago.

I hope the film will do well on the BAA's and other festivals.

Feliway

2009-11-02T05:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a cute little ad I animated on.
Although it was a very nice and relaxed job, I learned a very valuable lesson the hard way: in 2D animation, try avoiding stripy animals at any cost. Once starting inbetweening, it's fun fun fun in a masochistic kind of way :)

Kids aren't that smart

2009-09-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

OMG - an update.
Here is a commercial I animated for CalciYum,a drink in New-Zealand. Directed by Daniel Greaves and designed by Helene Friren.
With a fairly open brief, basically saying 'have fun with the subject', this was a nice little project to work on. Especially as every animator got one commercial to complete by themselves, it felt a bit like a mini-film.

I also had to turn it into a longer version for the online campaign. To see that one, click here

Paddington Bear illustration

2009-05-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

About time this blog got a little update (I seem to say that with every post)

Here's an illustration I did for today's Evening Standard in good old fashioned Paddington Bear style. It accompanies a quirky 'Micheal Bond' article about London.
Hmmm, doing one single drawing and the job's done.....why am I doing animation again :)

Director Reel

2009-03-11T04:07:00.000-07:00

Director Reel 2009 from Jeroen Jaspaert on Vimeo.

A little compilation of the jobs I directed at Tandem over the last few years.
I'm enjoying editing clips to music at the moment. Me and Premiere are starting to become firm buddies. Does anyone out there need a show reel by any chance? ;)

Animation Showreel

2009-02-13T03:37:00.000-08:00

Animation Showreel 2009 from Jeroen Jaspaert on Vimeo.

I haven't done a showreel since 2001, about time to get the cow out of the stable again! So I collected my many VHS tapes from under the dust (oh yes, the concept DVD was just a whisper in the wind in the olden days), and started something that might easily become a new hobby...posting movies on my blog!
Bizarre though, a showreel; my professional life crunched in 3 minutes. Feels like the world couldn't possibly spin without me ;)

Aren't they nEYEce

2009-02-02T05:42:00.000-08:00

Here are some more Acuvue designs I did for the Grey's Anatomy sponsor idents.
And beware, one day I'll be a techno geek.......with a bit of luck you'll find underneath this text an actual movieclip!!!!!!!!! Can you tell which film I ripped the movement of? :)

To see all the idents we did, click here.

Acuvue Sponsor Idents

2009-01-22T02:16:00.001-08:00

A bit too late to say Happy new Year isn't it?

2009 started with a truly fun job...I designed and directed little sponsor idents for Grey's Anatomy on Living.
We had to achieve 8 10 seconders in two weeks....which meant no complicated characters or precious clean up... just some fun simple bouncy character animation, straight in flash...I loved it!
Many thanks to Helene and Pete for their wonderful work and for retaining a particular good mood, even when faced working the first few week-ends of 2009 AND on the 1 of january!!!!!! Honestly, I''m such a slave driver :)
Click here to see one of my own animations.

Things I find on my old pc

2008-11-24T04:21:00.000-08:00

Let's have a dip in the archive. Here are a few stills from a pop-up animation for Marvel's website I did a while ago (I was still in my twenties, wheiiiiiiiiii) I have to admit, the Thing doesn't look the best in individual stills (awkward angle when fist comes to the front, etc). Because of the required low filesize for web stuff, I couldn't draw every frame, but had to re-use as many assets as possible. Hence only one design for a foot, leg, knee, arm, ... and just flipping them over to construct the whole body. It's a piece of cut-out animation really.

In the end, the animation wasn't used because the Thing in my design looked different from the Thing of the recent movies (he never wears a blue top). But sorry, if there's something I refuse to do, it's drawing muscly men with their tops off! (erm, you better ignore previous post then :)

V&A saturday

2008-10-26T06:47:00.001-07:00

I've been treating my poor little blog poorly lately. And to say it recently celebrated its 2nd birthday......shame on you, Jeroen!
As usual my main excuse is that I've been extremely busy lately (on a job I will only be able to show early next year). But also, everything I draw I don't particularly feel like sharing, because there is always room for improvement.
But hey, after saying this for the past two years, lets just show the blogging community what they've been missing out on :)
Last week-end, we had one of our little 'lets get out in London and do some drawing' saturdays. The V&A was a perfect place for me, so many sculptures...... models that stands still, hurray!

Payback Olympia

2008-08-05T01:34:00.000-07:00

As Belgium never performs that well in the Olympic Games (if you see me as an average Belgian, then you know why :), I switched my alliances to Germany this year.
So here is my latest Payback instalment, sponsoring the Olympic Games in China.
Talented as our little doggy is (still no name) he displays a few Olympic sports like shotput, table tennis and that most notorious one of all,........ erm, sitting on a swing.
Thanks to Ben, Ginny, Matt, Rich, John and Mike for their Gold medal effort without the need for a performance enhancing drug.

Cannes Lions 2008, advertising festival

2008-06-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

Working hard...

Betfair idents

2008-04-28T03:29:00.000-07:00

Croeso! Just came back from a relaxing break in Wales. Done it all: the beaches, castles, mountains,..... and Doctor Who exhibition! Jeroen is officially a relaxed and happy boy (man).
Here are some stills of the Betfair idents I finished before I left.
These stories are set in the wildest reaches of Betfair world, where hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs literally experience 'survival of the fittest'. It was a good exercise in character animation, to give those simple shapes recognisable animalistic behaviour, and the right balance between agression and humour.

Betfair commercials

2008-04-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

I myself am constantly missing them, but I hope the sport fanatics (and clandestine gamblers?) amongst you will have seen these babies on telly. Based on Nick losse's designs, I created 3 new ten second commercials, promoting the online betting company Betfair. They were fun to do, because of the graphic simplicity of the characters and the surreal animation. I learned a lot from this project, mainly the offside rule, and an insight in the behaviour of football fans: apparently there is much more to it than kicking a ball around :)
By the way, can you spot Wally in the crowd?

My first grown up post

2008-04-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

First of all.... Happy birthday to me! I tried to conceal the big 3 - 0, but my blogger profile refused to keep up the lie :(
It's time I showed some pencil drawings. I'm doing life drawing, so one day I'll have the confidence to share that here. But in the meantime, these designs from a recent pitch will have to do. Can you guess which job they were for? I'll give a clue.... they're greaaaaaat!!!!! (not my drawings, the cereal :)

Payback Plus

2008-03-03T05:34:00.000-08:00

Late January, I finished another part of the Payback saga.
To my delight, the script went back to basics, with the concept of a rich futuristic city. And hoorah, after being snubbed for the leading role in the previous ad, the little dog was back on form, baffling critics with his portayal of a cheeky, fun loving, daring, yet loyal canine. Of course he got some damn good support from his lady boss (in gold this time) and a mysterious 'plus' credit card, who, although relatively new in the world of Payback commercials, carried one particular scene all by itself. Keep your eyes open for this new talent!
It was one of those projects where everything just seemed to work out; great team at Tandem, great agency and great clients. So, no hiccups or unfortunate changes hours before delivery.
I'm becoming a bit bit of a Payback veteran, maybe no one dares to question my knowledge about German shops (and how to visualise them) any more :)

Calpol Night

2007-12-08T08:39:00.000-08:00

Click here to see the ad.

After a year of only directing foreign jobs, I can finish 2007 with a commercial for Bristish TV, the latest 'Calpol Night' ad.

It was inspiring to create an old fashioned animation, referencing a hand rendered pastel look, with the emphasis on slow, subtle acting. Thanks to traditional talent and the new digital connaisseurs at Tandem, we pulled that off in a fairly short time.

Payback Pinball

2007-10-08T07:54:00.001-07:00

Perfect time to show some stills from that good old shopping planet, Payback (where women definitely don't wear sizes 36).
I directed the latest commercial, this time the little doggy being upstaged by a little blue ball, hitting one shop after the other in a pinball machine.
And for once I don't have to utter the words 'it was a nightmare schedule'. Nice to be able to take your time to create a proper animatic before production starts.
The style hasn't changed much: flash animation in a 3D background. Thanks to Mike, Gillian, Felipe, Simona, Chris and Sam for all their help, without starting to feel insecure about our blue haired goddess' waistline.

Paddington fancies a change

2007-09-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

Tandem's commercial for marmite, starring Paddington bear is now on air, re-creating the incredible charming style of the 70's TV series.
I didn't do much on this job, except for a few days design and animation work. (see stills below). So really, this item shouldn't be on my blog. You either love me or hate me (see what I've done there), but as self appointed set photographer, I feel like I should share some production pictures with you.

It's back

2007-08-22T06:13:00.001-07:00

Another German commercial, another thin woman in a red dress......
This is a still from a job I did last year (or was the year before that?), together with Oblong.
I'm currently directing a new one, so can't tell much about it yet. Stills will be up soon.
In the meantime, click here and here for the links to the ones I've done so far.

Big Screen Patissiolle

2007-08-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

One for the parents to brag with: Patissiolle showing on big screens in the streets of Tokyo.
click here to see!
Good for the ego, allthough, the people in the street don't look that impressed :)

Patissiolle

2007-07-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

I directed a commercial for Patissiolle, a iced coffee drink in Japan.
It was great to work on, as it combined lots of different techniques: 2D animation, CG camera moves, live action and a photosonics product shoot. All in 15 seconds.
If you want to see it, click here

back to lightbox

2007-06-06T06:09:00.000-07:00

I'm back at my little lightbox working on a Tandem shortfilm.
It's a relief to get a scene, which someone else has planned out for you, and you know those 150 frames on a dope sheet are your only worry in the world. That doesn't make it a relaxing experience however; 2D is so rare now, that every new job feels like a mini hurdle, where you're not sure yet if you still can animate the old school way, because your mind has been conditioned to think in flash terms. But beside a slight cramp in my right hand (haven't flipped paper for quite a while) those handy LAS tricks are all coming back to me.
The picture has got nothing to do with this post, by the way. He's the character I animated on Dan Greaves' previous shortfilm 'Little Things'

Coco Pops

2007-03-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

The new Coco Pops stop frame commercial is finally on TV, so time to post some stills from the 'blink and you'll miss it' scene, I animated.

Back to Genk

2007-03-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

Jeroen the travel agent

I've been in Belgium for a blitz week-end, invited by my old Animation College (Media & Design Academy, Genk) to give a talk about my work and the animation industry in London.
I had 4 hrs to fill. Quite a bit, but then, I occasionally hear I tend to talk a bit too much, so what's 4 hrs. really? I used the time to show my work chronologically, from graduation films and LAS reel, to first animation jobs, inevitable flash jobs, and recent directing work. I actually enjoyed putting a reel together for this, something I haven't done in ages. It's good to see, where you come from and how crap things tend to look (even if you were proud of them at the moment) with the hindsight of a few years.
The school hadn't changed a bit: Same teachers, same nice cafeteria ladies (I got a free apple pie and an egg-mayonnaise sandwich, even if they didn't recognize me any more, unforgiveable, but then, I used to sport a hideous long pony tail), same smell in the corridors, and drawing exercises on the walls. The only difference was the obvious invasion of computers (Macs!!!!), edit suites etc..., and the feeling the teaching staff were working close together in friendly way.
I sounded a bit like Steve Roberts from LAS I guess, promoting life drawing, rough animation tests instead of wasting your learning time with clean-up, a short showreel is better than a long epic no-one wants to sit through, and the necessity of respecting deadlines. I did promote the LAS course a fair bit actually, so I'm waiting for my comission from Steve now :)
I finished of the day with a good old Gueuze in my old student pub (had to go there, its the only one in Genk, haha)
This is something I definitely would love to do again, so animation schools out there, my presentation reel is ready, I'm just waiting for the invitation, if you can afford an apple pie and an egg-mayonnaise sandwich of course :)

Jeroen the Hobbit

Kinder Bueno: commercial + making of

2007-03-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

To see the Kinder Bueno commercial I directed, click here.
The image might appear a bit stretched, though.

Or if you'd rather see me in action in this German TV 'making of', click here.
Just to avoid confusion, I am NOT the pretty brunette with the smurf hat.
Instead, I'm the pretty brunette with the hooded top, haha.

Kinder Bueno Finished!!!!!!!!

2007-03-06T04:37:00.000-08:00

Let the social life commence again! I finally finished the Kinder Bueno commercial.
It's been quite a tough job, but really enjoyable as well, as I had a great team to work with (who remained surprisingly upbeat after the endless requests to work late nights and week-ends)
I'm very pleased with the result. And I'm the first to say that I definitely couldn't have done that without the great designs, animation and comping help. And what a relief that the live action head on top of an animated body doesn't look like a hideous freak accident after all.
Sadly, this job is only for German television. But maybe I get of my lazy ass soon, and try to do that youtube thing. Alternatively I could just pass on the Tandem link when it's on their website. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the picture stills.
Drinks, anyone?

S&M duck

2007-02-27T13:55:00.000-08:00

Another relic of a long forgotten pitch.

Just to keep Mark happy

2007-01-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

Naughty Jeroen, seriously ignoring his blogging duties. I don't want to lose the two and a half people strong fanbase I build up over the last months, but 2007 just doesnt seem to have enough hours in the day. (sorry Chris for slightly nicking your catch phsase here)
In the meantime, here are some characters I designed and animated for National Bingo last year. And no, I haven't been lazy, the brief DID require ball shaped characters.

Santa's Elves

2006-12-20T03:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some cheeky elves, just to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Christmas Fairy

2006-12-15T11:02:00.000-08:00

Mmmmm, December is getting on.... time to get into the festive spirit. What better way than releasing my sugarly sweet christmassy Fairy job (or some stills at least) onto the blogging community.

Forget Me Not

2006-12-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Channel 4 aired a shortfilm, I animated on. Kim Noce's 'Forget Me Not' is a film inspired by stories from her great aunt. It was funded by the AIR scheme, and produced by Sherbet.
I animated the pieces of string in the girls hand which connect to her invisible dog, cat and bird. It was quite a fiddly job, because I had to work on top of existing animation which had all ready camera moves built in. But I can't complain, I feel sorry for the woman who had to (frame by frame) trace off my drawings, doing REAL EMBROIDERY!
Well done Kim! looking forward to see your next project.

to dee to dee doooooooo

2006-12-02T06:52:00.000-08:00

Here are some designs I did a while ago for TalkinToons, when Brad first started to gather ideas for the 'Institute of Physics'.
(For more info about that, read my previous post: What happens to your brain when you're scared)

No inhibitions

2006-11-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is a little design I did when I first started to experiment with my wacom tablet in Flash. Originally the guy was supposed to walk his dog, but I probably got bored before that. Now it looks like he is cheekily unraffling the girl's dress (she pretends not to notice, but she does), which I think is a fine alternative.

Weightwatchers designs

2006-11-16T05:38:00.000-08:00

Tandem is about to produce an animation dance fest for Weightwatchers. These are the designs I did a while ago when we pitched for the job.

Secret Policeman Ball on Channel 4

2006-10-31T06:07:00.000-08:00

For all tbose who won't be trick-or-treating, The SECRET POLICEMAN'S BALL is on Channel 4, tonight at 10!
Now, I have to admit that it is going to be a shortened version of the actual event, so I'm not sure if our 'Monkeys' shortfilm has survived the chop. If that's the case, (and it shouldn't be, because nobody is waiting for 10 minutes of Russel Brand...no, I'm not bitter, no) here are a few stills to enjoy.
At least I know my 'Mr Beaky' animations will appear. He'll be promoting Amnesty International's phone and text number during the commercial breaks.

Jeroen ? 3D ??????

2006-10-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

excerpts from 'The Usual Suspect'. To see the film, click here.

This one is for my friends and family back in Belgium, who haven't seen my little 3D computer film yet. Oh yes, I briefly turned to the dark side!
During a quiet period at Tandem, I got offered the chance to not only learn Maya , but also create a shortfilm with it, decent enough for the Tandem showreel. I quickly learned that the 10 week schedule was very scary for a 2D animator, but thanks to Mike Cook's (very patient!!) guidance, I pulled through, and created 'The Usual Suspect'.
The film is only 23 seconds long, so it basicly tells a little joke. For me it was more important to create a distinctive look, different from so many plastic like 3D animation you see on TV. Therefore I worked with painted textures, and crayon like outlines on the characters, buildings etc. Funny that the final look feels 2D again. You can take me out of the charity shop, but you can't take the charity shop out of me :)
Of course, it isn't Pixar stuff. But knowing where I came from, I'm very pleased with the result.

What happens to your brain when you're scared?

2006-10-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

Animation for the 'Institute of Physics' website. To see the full set of animations, click here (once on the site, click on MRI SCAN)

This website was deviced by TalkinToons guru, Bradley Carroll. It's purpose is to show children that science can be fun. I created 5 animations that explain in a funny way what happens to your brain when you kiss, smell, feel joy etc.
My Tandem colleague Mike Bonnington did a great job designing the whole site. Have a look at it, and let me know how deep you managed to enter the ass (once on the site, click on COLONOSCOPY). Very educational that one, haha.

The 'Vine Line'

2006-10-13T08:01:00.000-07:00

This week I've been animating a 'vine line' for a Radox commercial at Tandem.
It's starting to feel like second nature. to be honest. Since I directed a series of stings for 'BBC Summer' a few years ago (see picture), 'growing vine' jobs land quite easily in my inbox.
And to say that as a teenager, I hated painting still lives with flowers, at art school.

CBBC 'The Slammer'

2006-10-09T04:23:00.000-07:00

I pitched on the opening titles of CBBC's new entertainment program 'The Slammer'. The idea was to animate a stage musical in which (with the aid of set & costume changes, light effects and camp dance routines) we tell the story of a clumsy juggler who ends up in prison.
I really wanted to get this job. Since I've animated a French Can Can (or should I say French Cow Cow) years ago, I've been wanting to do an amusing dance routine again.
Sadly enough I didn't win the pitch. The producer opted for a live action version instead.
To see the full moodboard, storyboard and key visual, click here.

Persil Radiant

2006-10-07T05:27:00.000-07:00

Here's an animation job I did in august. It's a concept ad agency JWT wanted to try out to promote Persil Radiant.
We got a very tight deadline, so there wasn't much time to spend on designs and storyboards, leave alone an animatic! To save time, we decided to draw directly into flash. Funnily enough, those restrictions made the concept stronger: the animation doesn't look too planned, keeping in touch with the childlike feel.
To see more stills, click here

Teddy's sculptures

2006-10-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hey, why not involve Teddy's work in my blog!
The poor guy is not that computer orientated (even less than me, now THAT's scary) so there's no chance he'll start his own.
Teddy is not only a brilliant animator, but also a fantastic sculptor.
He's done jobs for Who framed Roger Rabbit, Bjork's 'Army Of Me', Spitting Image, etc.
His latest work is a maquette for Benny and Boil; a TV series concept from Tandem Films, following two trolls in their eternal quest for food.
Keep up the good work Ted! (even if you're sometimes TOO irritatingly talented)
To see more of his work, click here.