Kristoffer W. Mikkelsen

2can

2012-02-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

He's a rap-tucan and his dog is pissed.

Rejects

2012-01-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

A while back I was hired to design a mascot for a cultural festival for children. Initially I had creative freedom but on the day of delivery an Art Director suddely showed up and rejected the designs.

I got paid tho.

poster/postcard, badges & sketches.

¼ year later

2011-10-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

Three months without posts. That’s bad and I’m sorry, but the stuff I was working on at Framestore is strictly confidential pretty much until forever. Yesterday I flew to Toronto eager to start a new adventure which I will tell you more about soon. Here’s a drawing.

Color

Ink and pen

…even though I have stage fright like crazy, I was persuaded to do a little tutorial about my process. You can find it here.

Load & London

2011-07-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago we finished our graduation films. Working on this production has been a long, hard and bumpy ride, and I have to say I am happy to be moving on. The film is a about the self-discovery of a man bogged down by his job, which looking back on it seems a bit ironic!

Hopefully the film will be online in January, but until then the poster is all you get.

At the moment I am living in London working as a Concept Artist Intern at Framestore. So far it has been crazy and awesome but also pretty intimidating and I'm sure I'll learn a lot during the next couple of months.

2011-04-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

I just got word from the guys at Nørlum that the online animated series I helped develop last summer got funding for further development. I am super excited about the news and can't wait to find out where all this is going. Stop by the Dream blog if you want to know more.

Animation Showreel

2011-04-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

I gathered an online portfolio and animation showreel recently, because I'm applying for internships. Pretty nerve wrecking stuff. There's a link to the portfolio underneath my profile on the left. This is my showreel.

Colors & Junk Sculptures

2011-03-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

I got the chance to do the color script for our graduation film, LOAD. It was a dream come true for me, but it's a shame that I had to finish it in such a rush. Working on a "real" production is rough!

\Below.
Finally got the time to make a new header for the blog. The drawing is made of elements from a set in LOAD. It is suppose to look like sculptures with illogical balance, made from undefinable junk. I had a blast drawing these. If you want a closer look, click here.

Meian

2011-03-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

A while ago I had the pleasure of working on an animated short written and directed by the talented Maremi Watanabe from The National Film School of Denmark. We were four animators doing seven minutes of clean japanese inspired animation, in seven weeks. It was a ton of hard work but also one of the best experiences I have had working on a production so far. Unfortunately I can't show the whole film, but these are the scenes I did.

This is the poster, I did not make this, but the amazing Martín S. Vallespir did. He also directed a beautiful (newly released) bachelor film called Salma

Missing Summer

2011-01-29T09:07:00.000-08:00

Even though winter can be very beautiful and cozy, I am really looking forward to warmer weather now. Found these plein air pastels I did last summer.

Same kid, different diagnosis

2011-01-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

My sister is studying to become an occupational therapist and she just finished writing her final thesis. Her main goal is to help children with brain disorder or disabilities, achieve a happy and fulfilling life despite their adversities. I am really proud of her and there is no doubt that she will change a lot of lives for the better.

Here's my translation of the project title: Same kid, different diagnosis - a study of the conventions/diagnostics and the treatment for children with coordination disorder.

LOAD

2010-12-28T05:02:00.000-08:00

For the last few weeks we have been doing preproduction on our garduation films. I am part of a project called LOAD and this is some of the stuff I've been working on so far.

/Above.
The main character goes through three stages of "metamorphosis" through out the film. This is his final stage and YES, we are looking forward to animating his private parts!

\Below.
Hopefully I'll get to do more character design when school starts. This is just a quick collage of another character that we need to figure out. I don't normally do collage but I actually had a very good time combining different birds into some freaky breeds.

Down for Maintenance

2010-12-22T05:07:00.000-08:00

Hello! Just wanted to let you all know that the blog server is currently down for maintenance and because of the holidays I am not sure when it will be back up and running again. But I do have a post ready and I hope it wont be too long. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus for the rest of us!

Hermit Cycle

2010-11-26T09:54:00.000-08:00

The last few months have been extremely intense with work and I am sorry that I haven't had time to post anything. Just to get the ball rolling again I'll show you a few concepts from another bachelor pitch that didn't make the cut. It was called Hermit Cycle.

/Above.
One idea was to have a loss in detail according to an objects distance to the camera. I like the thought of taking a "disadvantage" from 2D and applying it to 3D.

Sneaky Screenshot

2010-09-28T09:59:00.000-07:00

The short I am working on is called Meian, directed by Maremi Watanabe.
It's gorey, it's crazy, it's beautiful... and it is japanese! And I am excited.

Season Race (R.I.P)

2010-09-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here are a few rushed beatboards I did for a bachelor film pitch I worked on with my friend Mark. Unfortunately, it did not get chosen. The story was about a world ruled by constant winter and the only way to get to spring, was by completing a deadly, highspeed, season rewinding race! I am truely sad that it didn't qualify, since it could have been a true extravaganza of dynamic animation, kickass color schemes from every season and natural phenomenons in rewind!

Sketch

Also, I am currently living in Copenhagen, working on The Danish Film School's midway productions. I hope to be able to post some (rough) animation soon.

Character Concepts

2010-08-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to be a part of the concept and story development team on an project they are starting up at http://www.noerlum.com/, and of course I said yes. It was a great experience and here is some of the stuff I did.

/Above.
Villan/gardening enthusiast. The long nails are great for shaping bonsai trees, but bad for taking care of the big mutant eye situated on top of his head.

\Below.
Renegade experimental scientist/sailor. His paperhat is made of clippings from articles about shipwrecks, thereby lowering the odds of his own ship sinking. Also, the tattoos animate on the surface of his body.

Sketch

Coralboy. Has crazy corals growing out of his skin. His personal weapon, (besides sharp objects sticking out everywhere) is a set of oyster knives.

Sketch

Angry clown. Can do questionable mindcontrol, but impressing inpressions. Colored version of a drawing by Mark, be sure to check his blog: http://markkjaergaard.blogspot.com/

Silhouette dude. Serious and respected guy always in silhouette by day, silly childrens drawing by night. Struggles to keep this secret.. secret.

Stereoscopic man. Advantage: Splits into a red and a green version of himself for confusing surprise attacks. Disadvantage: He gets pretty confused by it too! Color experiments based on a drawing by Kenneth: http://kennethladekjer.blogspot.com/

Nettle Moat Nostalgia

2010-07-10T16:49:00.000-07:00

Back when I was a kid, my friends and I used to hang out in the woods all day skipping school. We build fortresses and made moats. The only problem was that as fast as we could get water, the ground could suck it up. So we came up with a genius solution... super deadly nettles! It was a task for the brave collecting nettles, but we stayed cool and did what was necessary to keep the girls out!

Birthday Bullfinches

2010-07-01T05:09:00.000-07:00

It was my sisters birthday a little while ago and she likes bullfinches, so I made her this.

Imachination

2010-06-05T05:59:00.001-07:00

The last five weeks I've been living in Copenhagen working on a small browser game for children. The team consisted of students from different educations related to game production and I got to make the character designs and animation. It was a really fun experience being part of a team of cool and talented people.

Here is the result: http://imachination.dk/

..and a game trailer.

Happy birthday Dad

2010-04-17T11:10:00.000-07:00

Indian

2010-04-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

While visiting my parents in the easter break I found an old favorite book of mine, about Indians and how they dressed in diffrent parts of North America. It really fascinated me and I had to draw some myself. More stuff is on the way, hopefully soon.

Ballpoint pen drawing.

Color

Surfboard Shaper

2010-03-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

With this guy I actually did a clean drawing in ink! Im not used to doing that but for some reason it went okay today. I also did different shadows by hand on seperate papers just as an experiment but whey ended up being almost invisible by the time I was done.
Ink.

Color

Testing testing

2010-03-09T14:57:00.000-08:00

I am making some changes to the blog. Its a work in progress but one thing is certain, everything will be BIGGER now.

Refill

2010-02-19T20:24:00.000-08:00

Last week I went to England with a couple of friends and we met a bunch of interesting people and experienced a lot of crazy stuff. Now we're back and I think my "inspirometer" might be refilled for the time being!

Illustration

2010-01-17T14:56:00.001-08:00

Void Of Light

2010-01-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

Just before christmas we got to team up in groups of six and do a 30 secound animated short in a week. Sadly, we didn't quiiiite finish so untill we do, I'll only reveal a few stills from one of the more subtle scenes I did.
I have to mention my good friend Mark Kjærgaard, who did some super stunning action-animation towards the climax of the short - make sure to check out his blog... now! http://markkjaergaard.blogspot.com/

Fire!

2009-12-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

Parkour from Kristoffer Mikkelsen on Vimeo.

We had a week and a half to make some parkour(-ish) moves. It was tough but fun.

Happy Autumn

2009-11-30T16:28:00.000-08:00

I've been sick a lot lately and it sucks. But I got to watch a ridiculous amount of Ren & Stimpy and that resulted in this drawing.

# 01

2009-11-27T15:48:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to coloring this guy. Went kinda nuts on the texture, but it felt right at the time.

Owls are cool

2009-10-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

Sketch

Color

Maya basics

2009-10-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a hard 7 weeks trying to convert from paper to pixels and these are some of the basic exercises I have done so far.

7weeks from Kristoffer Mikkelsen on Vimeo.

New Background

2009-10-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

Im working on a new background for an animation I did last year with a kid and his wind-up dog. I really wanna make this into a finished, cleaned up and colored shot some day.

(There's the animation, http://kristofferwmikkelsen.blogspot.com/2009/06/rough-animation-i-did-some-time-ago.html)

Angel

2009-09-25T01:46:00.000-07:00

I've been looking at the blog of the man, the myth, the legend, Bill Presing. His drawings are super cool and most of them have been elegantly colored by hand. On the blog he shares his technique (http://billpresing.blogspot.com/2009/02/technique.html). I just had to try it out on a weekly drawing for school - turns out it's not easy, but very fun.

F y i. the "sunburst" around her is actually from the paper creasing up after having been wet which I found kinda neat!

Layout in Progress

2009-09-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

This forrest layout is an on-going project. I haven't done a lot of mat painting so I've been a bit apprehensive about getting started with the color scheme. But today I did.

Summer Photos

2009-09-06T11:01:00.001-07:00

Every summer I take a gazillion photos. The subject matter is almost always very borring - dogs, plants, insects and so on. Snapping them is like meditation to me and since this is my blog, I get to dictate what's interesting and what isn't.

12 Faces

2009-09-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Bouncing ball

2009-08-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today we had our first introduction to 3D animation. Loooong way to go, but I am very excited!

Work in progress

2009-08-22T13:45:00.001-07:00

This summerholiday I decided to study how to animate water. Of course, being me, I couldn't just go ahead and do some animation tests. Noo no no, I had to do a way to elaborate multilayered layout and a character first, so I could have him jumping in the water, swimming, diving, doing whatever.
Well, Im starting school again on monday ...and as you might have guessed it never got further than ideas and unfinished drawings - and no animation! Shame on me.

More pastels

2009-08-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

These are some of the plein air pastels I have done during the summer.

Color Class

2009-07-09T08:04:00.001-07:00

This is suppose to be a scene from H.C. Andersens story about The Little Mermaid. Lets just say I kept it somewhat abstract.

Layout

Color suggestions

Pastel

2009-07-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

I've been looking at Noah Klacek's blog lately. He is a gun with pastel and I figured I'd give it a try since it looks fun. These are from my parents garden. Keep in mind, Im new at this!

Here is Noah's blog and its very cool. http://imageblock.blogspot.com/

First year exam

2009-06-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Whoop de doo, I passed the first year exam at The Animation Workshop! Have a great summer everybody!

Kickass Kid

2009-06-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

Rough animation I did some time ago.

It should be noted that the musical-box-dog is VERY inspired by the awesome little character from Happy Machine by Studio 4° which is one of my favorite animated shorts ever. If you dont know it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2TA8Pw2WPE immediately!

Camomile

2009-06-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

Created by me and my good friends Alexander and Mikkel (http://mikkelsommer.blogspot.com/).

We had a week of preproduction and 4 days of production.

Hoverboard

2009-05-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

A vague first attempt at animating in TVPaint. It's very easy to get lazy and badly misuse the otherwise genious Cutbrush tool - and it shows...

Midway test

2009-03-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

This was the first year midway test. As usual, time ran out before I got to the tail. Shame on me.

Hi Bernard!

2009-03-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

We have been animating Bernard from The Rescuers for a while and my fellow classmates hate him by now.

I love him more and more.

(The tail is missing, I know)

Paralax fun

2009-03-08T17:55:00.000-07:00

Heres a preview of my little weekendproject.
Its not done yet but if I know myself right, Ill be on to new and better things by next weekend.

Layout Class

2009-02-16T16:35:00.000-08:00

Character design class with Julia Bracegirdle

2009-01-24T11:56:00.000-08:00

The Maid

Richard Pratt

Louise Schofield

Good Bulb, Bad Bulb

Value class with Lawrence Marvit

2009-01-24T11:52:00.000-08:00

Cloud Nine

2009-01-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

These are some of the skatedeck designs I did years back. The brand is as good as dead now but it still has sentimental value to me.

The Drawing Academy

2009-01-23T11:57:00.000-08:00