Since my last post about the LSD project I haven't really made that much progression. Being more than a tad under the weather, finishing the first of my ramblings-films, bloging and my work at my dayjob has taken most of my time. When I in addition to all this played my first football- (soccer-) game for more than a decade it has obviously not been much time left for animation.

Some rough pencil sketches to guide me through the upcoming sequences

I have done a little work though. I've finished sketching out the opening tune for the titles and opening sequence and I'm fairly pleased with the jolly little accordion-waltz I've composed. In my own humble opinion it has the right "french" sound to it, which fits perfectly as the film starts in Paris. I have also done some rought pencil sketches for the next couple of sequences and got some new ideas for the title-sequence that seems to push their way to the front of my attention.

Finally in case you were concerned, LSD (my film) does not have anything to do with drugs what-so-ever. It's actually an acronym and I promise to reveal the title the next time I mention the project.

Cheers!

As we approach the end of the first month of 2008 I figured it's about time setting some personal goals for the new year. One of MY goals for the year MMVIII is to complete to short-movies, the first one an animation called "L.S.D.".

Now, I'm not a trained animator. I have however always been extremely fond of animation and the magic behind it and I've dabbled a little in these black arts since childhood with my father's super-8 camera. I also have several books on the subject and am not a stranger to running animations frame by frame just to get a clearer picture of the techniques used.

My current project really came about as I was expermenting with my new computer. I was curious to see how well it could cope with HD-video so I made a few rough sketches, a couple of frames of animation and made a composite. It all worked out very nicely and these humble beginings soon developed into a full-fledged idea for a chaotic, but hopefully entertaining, short-animation. I am also using the project as a learning tool to see where I can find short-cuts that doesn't ruin the experience as a whole. I must constantly remind myself not to spend too much time perfecting every piece and rather go for a raw but charming quality that I'm fairly pleased with so far.

If I were to describe the style/theme of the animation I think Tex Avery-meets-Terry Gilliam-meets-Scandinavian children animation is about right. Perhaps in the future this could simply be known as the T. Benjamin Larsen - style…

I'll return with more posts on the projects later, where I'll discuss techniques, tools etc. For now I'll leave you with the first public image from the film. See you later!