Lasse Eriksen Bjørseth

30min interview with Walt Disney

2009-02-07T04:25:00.000-08:00

Found this nice 30min interview with Walt Disney over at Cartoonbrew. Check it out, really nice.
Walt Disney interview

Artistic Anatomy Masterclass on 2-3 April 2009 with Scott Eaton

2009-01-22T12:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah, im going to London on Artistic Anatomy Masterclass with the great artist Scott Eaton.
I really looking forward to this. Think it will be very inspiring and I will probably learn a lot :-)
He is fantastic with Zbrush and a master of anatomy!

Please let me now if you also are joining :-)

Class 3 - Week 2

2009-01-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

Class 3 - Blown Away - First Pass v.2 from Lasse Eriksen Bjørseth on Vimeo.

Here is my result after week two in class 3 at Animation Mentor.This is my first pass of blocking on the pantomime assignment.

The idea is:
A guy is sitting at his desk and reading a book, its a bit hot, so he deside to turn on his fan. But it want turn it self on... after some struggling it suddenly gets turned on with a super power that blows him out of his chair...

Progress reel class 2 - Animation Mentor

2009-01-05T01:08:00.001-08:00

Here is my class2 progress reel :-)

A new year... with a new post

2009-01-05T00:58:00.000-08:00

Its 2009!!! Happy new year to everyone!
Since it's a new year, im going to try to be more active with the posting. Im done with class 2 at Animatin Mentor, had a fantastic mentor (Keith Sintay), and a bunch of nice classmates.
Class 3 is starting up later today, really looking forward to start up again after the Christmas break. Wondering witch mentor I get :-)

Its been almost two weeks of from work and Animation Mentor. Used the time with my two kids and my girlfriend, and a lot of Christmas food :-) Also watched a couple of Keith Lango's videos, and read some of his articles:

Class 1 - week 12 - Progress reel

2008-09-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Then class 1 is done.. here is my progress reel. Showing what I have done.. not so happy with the overlapping assignments.. have to improve that. But at least im showing progress :-)
Would like to say thanks to my classmates and my mentor for 3 great months.. class 2... here I come!

Week 11 - Class 1.... soon class 2, crazy

2008-09-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here is my result for the week11 assignment. Polished my marching walk from last week.

With the Vanilla walk, I really struggled with the "after blocking mode", when I entered spline mode. Everything looked really messy, and was floating all over the place.
This week I have read a couple of articles and watched Keith Lango's videos about this stage in the animation process, and learned a lot.
So this week I added much more information in to my blocking stage, than last time. And it looked so much better, and I only had to clean up my curves.
So you have to take your time to add enough information in to your blocking. Do not stress!

Soon it's class 2, this was the last assignment in class1. If I look back, I have learned so much.
I also see a dramatic improvement in my drawings. Since we are sketching out poses every week, I have got stronger poses, and cleaner lines. That's so nice to see.

We are going to have a break between the terms, but i'm planning to do a new walk in the break, so would probably upload it here.
Wonder what type of walk I should do? Starts to get really fun now!!!

Week 10 - Class1 - Walk with personality

2008-09-09T15:28:00.000-07:00

Hey, been quite hectic here. Been sick, and had a long weekend in Iceland, so again, sorry for the lack of updates.
But here is my blocking of my week 10 walk, walk with personality.
Marching marching.. lalala..
This week (week 11) im going to polish this walk.. so hope to upload it here on Sunday :)
Soon summer term is over, the time just flies away.. going super fast!

Soooooon class2 :-)

Class 1 - Week 8 - Walk blocking

2008-08-25T14:10:00.001-07:00

Hey all.. sorry for the lack of updates lately. My daughter had her first birthday, so has been quite hectic here. But super fun! She also started in kindergarten today :-) This year has just gone super fast!

Back to Animation Mentor. Week 8 was about Walks. Finally! I have been looking forward to walks for a long time now :-)
This week we blocked out our walk, next week we are going to polish it :-)

Class1 - Week6 Pendulum

2008-08-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

My assignment for this week... pendulum - overlapping actions :)

Class 1 Week 5 - Obstacle Course...

2008-08-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

Then the assignment for week5 is done. Obstacle course.. starting to more and more fun now :-)
Also a Stu pose.

Pixar's "UP"

2008-07-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

This looks great! Really looking forward to this. It looks like it's another classic from Pixar.

I'm still waiting for Wall-E here in Norway. Why why why does every good movie has to come sooooo late to Norway. Stuff are out on DVD when we can see it on cinema. Can't believe it!

Class 1 Week 4 - Animation Mentor

2008-07-27T12:33:00.001-07:00

More bouncing :-) This time a light and a heavy ball :-)

Class 1 Week 3 - Animation Mentor

2008-07-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here is my bouncing ball & "excitement" pose for week 3. I feel it is a bit slow, so I will probably do some refining on it this week, but will first see what my mentor has to say :-)

Week 4, here I come!

WIP - Showreel 2008

2008-07-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on my showreel, will add more work to it, and change it abit.. But posting it here meenwhile :-)

Week 2 - Animation Mentor

2008-07-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

Here is my pose for week2 at Animation Mentor. Looking forward to get some feedback from my mentor.
I went to a golf course and a shopping mall to sketch my poses.
So fun to finally do stuff. Soon week 3 already! :-)

Class1 - Animation Mentor

2008-06-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah! It has started.. can't believe it!
So much to check out! So much inspiring information. I'm going to stay up all night!
And my birthday is tomorrow, so this was a nice birthday present :-)

My mentor for class 1 is Raquel Coelho. She has worked at studios like Blue Sky Studios, PDI/Dreamworks, Wild Brain and Tippet Studio. Isn't that some cool studios to have worked for? Yeah, it is!

I'm going to post more regular, so will keep you updated on my way to become a animator!

Cya soon!

Animation Tips & Tricks

2008-06-25T03:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted something here. So here is a little update:

I'm working hard to prepare myself for Animation Mentor, I'm starting up 30th of june . I have bought all the basic videos from Jason Ryan Animation. This is some super nice information!

Also discovered that Richard Williams is releasing his MasterClass The Animator's Survival kit "Animated" on 16 dvds! Time to save some money, this is a must have!
You can read more about Richard Williams here.

Shawn Kelly has started up a new blog, more stuff to my RSS feed! Nice inspiration and information.

And finally... I'm going to get a boy! So now we have a girl and a boy. SUPER COOOOL!

Waiting for Animation Mentor to start

2008-05-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

While I'm waiting for the summer term to start, I'm doing some preparations. I bought a copy of DigiCel FlipBook after watching some tutorials from Jason Ryan. This is a great software to do some fast line tests, and animation in general. It also has a good connection between FlipBook and Maya.

What I like about FlipBook is that it is so fast. You really get the feeling that this is made with the animator in mind!

I also got a tip from a current Animation Mentor student, that they use PEK at Animation Mentor, so I will check that one out as well, to see witch one I like the most.

Visuelt 08

2008-04-25T10:08:00.001-07:00

This has been a day packed with inspiration! The yearly seminardays about visual communication "Visuelt" is going on these days (24. - 26. april) in Oslo, Norway.
I joined day number two, with the theme "My professional integrety". The day was about you as a person, and what are motivating and inspiring you.

It was a lot of great speakers:
Fred Deakin & Nat Hunter - Airside (UK)
Erik Kessels - KesselsKramer (NL)
StormStudio
Kjell Ekhorn - Non-Format (NO/UK)
Adam Burke - Pixar Animation Studios (US)

Overall it was very good. But my favorite speakers was, Erik Kessels and Adam Burke.
They really had passion for what they worked with, and showed a lot of really good stuff.
Erik talked a lot about of cool projects they have done for clients, and own products/labels they have created in house. He also pushed that it is very important to have a good idea.

Adam showed us a lot from Ratatouille, and talked about how Pixar work, and that you can't rush art.
I'm going to Frame by Frame tomorrow, he is going to speak there as well.

After a long they with great stuff, I got so inspired that I bought myself some new books.
Timing for Animation
Animation, The Mechanics of Motion
Animation, Writing and Development
Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery

So this weekend is hereby dedicated to reading :)

The Making of Burning Safari Short

2008-04-22T01:39:00.000-07:00

Burning Safari from a group of talented French Students, has a really cool visual style. This is good inspiration!
Found this making of, check it out.

The Making of Burning Safari Short

The Disney Company on Ollie Johnston

2008-04-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Ollie Johnston, one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last living member passed away April 14th 2008.

Here you can read the official Walt Disney Studio press obituary, released to the media.

Some information about Ollie Johnston from Wikipedia:

Oliver Martin Johnston, Jr. (October 31, 1912 – April 14, 2008) was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last living member. His work was recognized with the National Medal of Arts in 2005.

He was a directing animator at Walt Disney Studios from 1935 to 1978. He contributed to many films including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi and Pinocchio. His last full work for Disney came with The Rescuers, in which he was caricatured as one of the film's characters, the cat Rufus.

Johnston co-authored, with Frank Thomas, the reference book The Illusion of Life. This book helped preserve the knowledge of the techniques that were developed at the studio. The partnership of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston is fondly presented in the documentary Frank and Ollie, produced by Thomas' son Theodore.

Boby Beck's Webinar - April 30th 7PM PDT

2008-04-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Meat AnimationMentor.com CEO and formar Pixar animator Bobby Beck & animator on Horton Hears a Who! Aja Bogdanoff April 30th 7PM PDT.

Hear Boby Beck share how he got started as an animator and the work he did on cool projects like Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Bobby talks about how AnimationMentor.com really works, and he will interview one of the graduates of Animation Mentor, Aja Bogdanoff, about her recent experience working on Horton Hears a Who!

Click here to sign up for this super cool webinar

Frame by Frame #5 - Saturday 26.april

2008-04-14T03:51:00.001-07:00

Its time for a new Frame by Frame gathering. This time on Filmens hus in Oslo, Norway.

The schedule of the day:
12.00-13.45
Welcome!
Visuelt screening
Latest news from Qvisten Animation

13.45-14.15
Break

14.15-15.45
Before You Animate - Adam Burke, Pixar

15.45-16.15
Break

16.15-18.00
Filmforbundet
A presentation of Animation Conversation
New, Norwegian animation

18.00-18.30
Break

18.30-19.30
Tomm Moore / Cartoon Saloon

19.30 >
Party & lottery

Price: kr 150,-
Location: Filmens hus, Dronningensgate 16, Oslo

Animation Mentor - Here I Come!!!

2008-04-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

Moving to a new apartment!
Been long time since I posted something here. Been moving to my new apartment, so much packing and unpacking. Didn't knew we had so much stuff!

Animation Mentor
Finally got the answer from Animation Mentor, I'm in! So coooool. Can't wait. So since I don't have so much animation experience yet, I'm going to start practicing so I have some work under my fingers before I start there.

I got a seat in the Summer 2008 class. So this is going to be 18 super exciting months with hard work!

I have for a long time wanted to go there, but since Lånekassa (Norwegian financial support for education) didn't supported Animation Mentor, I had to save for it myself.

So after some hard saving, I'm finally there!

I'm going to keep you updated here on my blog.