A Gingerly Prepared Meal -or- Ginger eats a close relative.

A promotion video for the store window. Directed and animated by Poul Riishede

Recently my good friends Poul Riishede and his wife Sansanee, opened a new Pancake House in Chiang Mai Thailand. They have sort of adopted the lead character from my film Escape Of The Gingerbread Man!!! as their mascot.

Years ago Poul left his native Denmark to help me make my film at The Monk Studio Thailand. Like most of my personal film work, I had no budget to pay anyone. But despite that, Poul went above and beyond what was expected... and helped make the film a reality.

A few pages from the menu. Layout and photography by Poul Riishede

During the production of the film, Poul constantly yearned for a well made pancake. Then after a while, he decided to take matters in his own hands... and opened up his own shop! I owe Poul so much for helping me make my own dream a reality... so offered him and his wife the character to help them get their little dream business going. I never expected him to run, run, run with the character the way he has... but I am happy to see little Ginger running again. -tod

Some Ginger goodies for the kids! By Sansanee Riishede!

P.S.- I would like to add that I owe a great debt of gratitude to so, so many who have helped me in my personal film work over the years. Friends with much greater talent than I... who have chosen to share that talent with me for a time. Without you, I wouldn't have much... and I will always be in your debt. THANK YOU!

SEA Concept Design Master Class

The final design without lettering. 

Recently I was asked to design a poster for a concept design class in Viborg, Denmark called "SEA." The master class took place between Feb 15th - March 1st 2014.

"SEA (South America – Europe – Asia) is a 2-week intensive concept development master class based on cooperation between three continents, each represented by the partners: Anima Mundi (Brazil), The Animation Workshop (Europe), and Office H (Japan). Together, the three partners aim to strengthen the network between the international animation industry and young concept development artists, across the three territories." From the SEA website.

Above: I submitted several design concepts, of which the above rough was chosen.

I felt the fish in the design should be based on several folk art styles... and should also be hand-made. To get more variety, I asked several artists to participate in the final artwork. 

Linocut by our visiting intern Sirid Garff

My paper-cut fish

... and watercolor by Bang-On Phothi-In

Sirid and On working on the linoleum block in our studio.

Animation from the movie "Howl" (2010)

Howl is a 2010 American experimental film which explores both the Six Gallery debut and the 1957 obscenity trial of 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg's noted poem Howl. The film is written and directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and stars James Franco as Ginsberg. (from wiki)

My role on Howl was as the animation art director, and animation production supervisor. I would take storyboards from animation director John Hays, and designs from art director Eric Drooker, and use them to direct the crew at "The Monk Studios" in Thailand. 

One of the biggest challenges we faced on Howl was figuring out how to bring John and Eric's vision to life on such a tiny animation budget. Working with CG supervisor Salvador Simo, we broke each scene down into 2D elements, 3D elements, cut-outs, matte paintings, and full 3D sets. The 2D sequences were animated and rendered by my students from "The Animation Workshop" in Viborg, Denmark who joined the crew in Thailand for 3-4 months.

For those that are interested, you can see the original proof of concept for the film  HERE.

From the final film... see some film stills HERE... and a few color scripts and designs HERE.

Animation Workshop Films

This years crop of films from my students at the Animation Workshop were recently featured on Cartoon Brew. 

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/student/the-reward-and-other-films-from-denmarks-animation-workshop-77016.html

As always... it has been a pleasure working with such passionate, creative, young artists. They are a constant reminder of why I got into the business into the first place!  A big thanks to Morten Thorning, Michelle Nardone and the rest of the gang at the Animation Workshop for asking me back. -tod

Ginger Music

At long last, my short film "Escape of the Gingerbread Man!!!" is coming to completion with the addition of sound!

Above: Revisiting some of my old instrument designs for the "Band" of sheep in my short film "Escape of the Gingerbread Man!!!"

The actual music for the film was recorded at Doon Studio, in Waterford Ireland. All arranged and played by squeezebox man Benny McCarthy and a few of his friends. I am a huge fan of Bennys traditional Irish bands Danu, and Rattle the Boards. Fantastic stuff!!! I hope he's pleased with what I've done with his delightful music.

Originally I had asked the brilliant Billy "Keys" Benson to score the film. But scheduling conflicts got in the way. Luckily, the super talented, Mathias Winum, agreed to score the film... and has brought the story to a whole different level with music. Morten Green at Tonemasters is working on the sound mix... and helping put the finishing touches on foley. I have to send out a deep heartfelt thanks to the Animation Workshop, and the West Danish film fund, without who's help I would never have been able to finish the sound... or the rest of the film for that matter. I also have to thank everyone at the Monk Studio, for continuing to support Gingerbread.

The Outsider

Not so long ago my friends at the Animation Workshop invited me to take part in a film Jam experiment. I was one of 6 professional filmmakers taking part. Each director was given the theme "The Outsider", a group of beginning animation students, and 4 days to put 2 short films together. The list of students involved are on the credits of "The Dude" video.

The Outsider -"Letters" from Ida Mårtensson on Vimeo.

"The Outsider" - about a letter who is left out of the group... only to take revenge.

At the beginning of the week I presented 4 or 5 concepts to the students based on the "Outsider" theme. The students chose which ideas they would like to make, and hit the ground running... sort of. None of the students had made a film before... and most of them had no knowledge of the programs we would need to use during the week. So they were learning photoshop, premiere, and flash, while they were learning the film making process! Quite a challenge.

The Outsider -"The Dude" from Ida Mårtensson on Vimeo.

"The Outsider" - about a guy who hates closed in spaces.

Some of the other directors did a lot of the work on the students films themselves... but I tried to remain as "hands off" as possible. Meaning, I laid down the basic concepts and designs, and let the students have fun with them. I gently guided the students through the film making process... only stepping in when I could see that the groups were struggling... and I tried to keep things on track so we could finish on time. The famous Jan Rybka would come in and answer our t.v. paint questions... and On would help out with any flash troubles that would arise.

"The Outsider"- about a guy who gets locked out of his house... and takes things too far.

Mid week, a few of the students wanted to break off, and work in a smaller group. So I broke out a third concept... and wrote it so the students could finish it in just a day or two. I called this piece "the door".

I think considering everything the students did a great job! We all had a lot of fun... they learned a lot... as did I.

2010 Animation Workshop films

I have been fortunate enough to work the last few years with the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark. As an artist, it has honestly been one of the most satisfying things I have ever been involved with. I have taught classes in layout, animation and design. And proudly served for two years as direction supervisor on the students final bachelor projects. Working side by side with Michelle Nardone, the head of the bachelor program, I have helped guide the students through the pre-production process... from concept design to final animatic. While Michelle and I worked closely with the groups, and freely gave our opinions, all the final creative decisions were left to the students.

Here are some links to some of the students work I have been involved with

2010

2008