ANNECY 2011

Two projects we’ve been involved in will be part of this year’s competition in Annecy: “The Amazing World of Gumball“, helmed by our friend Ben Bocquelet, will premiere an episode at the festival. Studio Soi was in charge of technical direction, modeling, rigging, parts of the rendering, layout as well as the title sequence. Our latest short film “Princess’ Painting” by directors Klaus Morschheuser and Johannes Weiland will be competing in the TV-special competition. Also this year in Annecy: Studio Aka’s latest short “A Morning Stroll“, directed by the always amazing Grant Orchard and “Daniel, une vie en Bouteille“, directed by our friend and collaborator Louis Tardivier.

STUDIO SOI IN DE STAD VAN TINTIN EN SPIROU

If you are in Brussels for Anima 2011 this week you have several opportunities to take a look at our work: Our shortfilm “The Little Boy and the Beast” will be screened on Wednesday, March, 9th at 5:30 pm in Studio 5 and a second time on Thursday, March, 10th at 9:30 pm in Studio 4. Also there is a special screening that shows only films by studio soi. The screening will include “The Gruffalo“, “Oli’s chance” and “Angel afoot” amongst others. The screening is scheduled on March 11th at 8:00 pm in Studio 4. Soi’s co-founder Torben Meier will be present and happy to answer any questions.

ACHTUNG

„Der Grüffelo“ is finally available on DVD in Germany. The DVD is bilingual, so you have the opportunity to listen to Christian Ulmen, Heike Makatsch, Edgar Selge, Otto Sanders and all the other German voices or you pick the original English cast.

Gruffalo crumble or rather some Grüffellogrütze? It’s up to you now.

Get the DVD at Amazon or other DVD shops.

PRINCESS’ PAINTING

After 10 months of production the very last frame of our new short “Princess Painting” was rendered yesterday. The film produced for German broadcaster ZDF was directed by Klaus Morschheuser and Johannes Weiland, written by Marcus Sauermann and designed by Uwe Heidschoetter. “Princess Painting” already has been chosen to be screened at Germany’s children’s film festival Goldener Spatz as well as the Trickfilmfest Stuttgart. So, come to Germany to be be one of the first to watch the fairytale about a spoiled, little princess and her ambitions as a painter.

THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL

Today we completed work on the Cartoon Network series „The Amazing World of Gumball“. The series was developed by our friend Ben Bocquelet and produced by Dandelion Studios Ltd together with Boulder Media Ltd and Studio Soi.

Soi was involved since the show’s early days, starting from initial tests, working on the show’s  Layout/Blocking, modelling, rigging, shading and rendering of the Characters and sets and also contributed the show’s opening titles.

The creative spirit of the whole series and the many good friends we were able to work with made it a wonderful joyride to work on „Gumball“ and we’re looking forward to the wrap party this week in London!

Cheers and à bientôt to the whole Mannschaft!

STUDIO SOI MOVED…

… to a new buildung at the Film- und Medienzentrum Ludwigsburg. The good thing is that our new server room has finally a direct telephone connection to local Energy Provider EnBW whenever rendering gets tricky.

THE FINAL GRÜFFELOADVENTSKALENDERCOUNTDOWN: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Today, Dec 24th, at 10.40 am on ZDF: “The Gruffalo / Der Grüffelo” with Heike Makatsch, Christian Ulmen, Otto Sander, Edgar Selge and Gerd Voss! Happy Holidays / Frohe Weihnachten to you, from all of us here at studio soi !

Above, another interesting comparison between storyboards and final film, this time from the dramatic first encounter between the Mouse and his imaginary friend (spoiler alert). Below, because it’s christmas, an extra helping of Neil Ross‘ fantastic colourwork for the Lake (top and middle) and the Snake Sequence (bottom).

IN THE PRESS…

There was some lovely press lately to accompany our christmas countdown: The Frankfurter Allgemeine ran a long and insightful article on the life and mindset of Axel Scheffler, illustrator (amongst many other great books) of the Gruffalo. Süddeutsche Zeitung ran a very funny review of  our adaptation of “The Gruffalo” today, reminding their readers to watch on Christmas Eve what the Stuttgarter Zeitung, in today’s issue, called “possibly the most beautiful thirty minutes of television this year”. Thank you!        (image:  F.A.Z. / Axel Scheffler)