FAZ ON SOI
There was a nice article by Peter-Philipp Schmitt about Jakob & the Gruffalo in Saturday’s issue of Germany’s paper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Deutschland und die Welt, page 8).
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 GRUFFALO” IS NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR
RANDOM FACT
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).
DER GRÜFFELOADVENTSKALENDERCOUNTDOWN #23
Reminder: Tomorrow, Dec 24th at 10.40 on ZDF: “Der Grüffelo” with Heike Makatsch, Christian Ulmen, Otto Sander, Edgar Selge and Gerd Voss! Here’s some more of the beautiful colourwork Neil Ross has done for the project, this time from the opening sequence, which at some point during development was set at first snowfall. More from that sequence here.
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)
DER GRÜFFELOADVENTSKALENDERCOUNTDOWN #22
Facial expressions for the Gruffalo, dgtl. paint over by Max Lang. Watch the film on ZDF, Dec 24th 10.40 am.
DER GRÜFFELOADVENTSKALENDERCOUNTDOWN #21
Throughout the production of “The Gruffalo” we felt very lucky to be able to approach both Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, the book’s author and its illustrator, for their advice. Early on, Axel graciously supplied us with a series of beautiful drawings of the film’s then potential sidecharacters, many of which -to our fault- didn’t make it into the film. One though, the toad, became a much beloved cast member to us (see him in action here). Top: Initial design for the toad by Axel Scheffler. Below: Modelsheet by Max Lang. Bottom: Final model by Wolfram Kampffmeyer and Felix Schaller.
Watch “The Gruffalo” on Dec. 24th, 10.40 am on ZDF and on Dec 25th, 04.30 pm on the BBC.
DER GRÜFFELOADVENTSKALENDERCOUNTDOWN #20
Top: Owl’s windbeaten “treetop house”, in a colourkey by Neil Ross. Below: An earlier layout for that same shot, with Owl’s house still seated in a conifer and some later designs for the tree as a broadleaf, both by Manu Arenas. Bottom: Manu’s eerie designs for the spiral staircase Mouse escapes on in that sequence.
See “The Gruffalo” this friday, Dec. 24th, 10.40 am on ZDF,