DIARRHOEA - SUPERRUNE BLOG Older entries A Design Award One of the jobs I did in 2008, the NTNU Heads, was just awarded the Honorary Award of Good Design from Norwegian Design Council. I had never heard of the price before, but after reading it up it seems to be really prestigious. Thanks to Agendum and Commando Group for letting me be a part of the project. As I mentioned in the last blog entry, I was hoping to find time for some of my personal projects. Last weekend I found myself with some time off, and I decided to do something with my Jason project. I wasn't really supposed to finish off this project, but there's not much left to it - so why not. Here's a small preview: If you like it, don't be afraid to tell me. Click the heart! I basically redid everything, from the models to the animation. Thanks to my new super rigging system, I was able to do re-rig the character in a matter of hours. And with my new clip loading and saving system, I was able to quickly apply the same animation to all the shots (very clever of me to choose a walkcycle-based animation!). This was supposed to be a quick short film, but only now (after almost ten years) am I able to do it as quickly as I originally wanted! If I find more time, I'm hoping to have this ready by summer. superrune, 03. Apr 2010 Don't call us, we'll call you Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been on a large feature film project since October - and between work and playing with my baby daughter there hasn't been much time to update the blog. The feature film will be delivered by the end of April, and I'm not taking any other projects until that is finished. If I find time available now, I'm concentrating on my short films. And that is what this update will be about: a quick update on my personal projects. And how are things? So far, not so good. One of the major film funds in Norway had a deadline on the 1st of September last year. I submitted two projects, but both were denied funding. After that, I took my scripts and applications around for comments, and I have received mixed feedback. Some of the people that read the scripts mentioned that they don't have anything meaningful to give to the audience watching them. But I am of the opinion that if you intentionally try to create meaningful films, you can quickly end up creating pretentious and preachy work. I see too many norwegian shorts like that each year. Anyway, I'd rather try and make something interesting, instead of something life-changing. The intention should be in the story and characters, and then the meaning should be a by-effect from that. It's only my first script after all, I have to start somewhere. Also, I'm finding this directing thing to be a little bit of a catch-22, it's hard to get funding unless you have made a film before. My reputation as the "photoreal VFX guy" is really starting to work against me here, but it's too late for me to go back to film school and start a new career that way. And there's no way I can make a short film without funding, I've tried that for ten years with serious implications on my health. If I get a well-paid job, I mighe be able to invest in a 1-2 minute short by myself, but that is too short to explore the kind of narrative and acting I want to see in animation. Still, most of the comments I got were very helpful, and I am eternally grateful for them. The best ones exposed holes and problems in my scripts and in my applications. So I am trying again. There was a new deadline on the 1st of February, and I resubmitted one of my applications. It will be interesting to see how it fares this time. If I get a positive, I might get started on a short film before summer. If I get a negative, I will look around for other people's scripts to direct. Good animation scripts seem to be far between in Norway, but I'm probably saying that because I've been too long in advertising! I am hoping that is the case. As usual, I will keep you updated! (By the way, I am updating more frequently on Twitter, so subscribe to me there if you want to know what I'm up to!) superrune, 09. Feb 2010 New website I spent the summer thinking about what has been my favourite projects, and what I really want to do in the future. So I have decided that I should really concentrate on my goal of becoming a director, since that has always been a dream for me. Now, a director needs a proper website, and this one is just one big mess. So I made a new one! Click your way over to www.runespaans.com to see my new professional website. That site will have a cleaner profile and content, and will not be as confusing to potential clients as I think this website is. But I will continue to update www.superrune.com. This site will be the home of my personal projects, it's the home of my blog and software, but it will probably get a lot messier in the future. To slim it down a little I decided to merge my 3D and Illustration Gallery into one Project Gallery. And just for fun, I am putting back some of my earliest artwork, first out are some of the images I did on the Commodore 64. So, about my plan for getting into directing... The 1st of September was the deadline to apply for funding at one of the largest film and television funds here in Norway. I wrote four scripts for animated shorts this summer, and I submitted two of them for funding. I really hope they like my scipts, and I should get an answer before the beginning of December. Cross your fingers, if things go in my favour I could be working on my first short film early next year! superrune, 18. Sep 2009 I'm a dad! Big news all around! At half past seven, the 13th of August, my girlfriend gave birth to a lovely baby girl! At 4 kilograms and 51 centimeters, she wasn't exactly small, but then she's not that big either. Anyway, she's my most cherished creation so far, and I'm really looking forward getting to know her. Of course, there's some new stuff on the site as well. I have updated the project gallery, so there are three more projects in there to look at. I've got some other exciting projects ahead, looking forward to sharing them with you. Here's a teaser image of one of my personal projects. They are businessmen in love, how sweet :) You'll see more images from this project pretty soon... superrune, 21. Aug 2009 Pixelpark and a monster animation pitch I dug through my backup disks the other day, searching for some old models, and found these two projects that deserved a place in my portfolio. Both of them very done at Toxic. The first one is a commercial for the german company Pixelpark. It is very different from most of the 3D work I traditionally do, being more a stylized and design-type film. Click here to read about it and see a quicktime of the commercial. The second is portfolio piece is a quick pitch I did for a video game teaser trailer. I lost the pitch, but it's still a nice part of my portfolio. Click here to read more about it. superrune, 20. May 2009 Older entries All the images on this website are (c) copyrighted Rune Spaans and their respective owners. Any use of the materials on this site other than for private, non-commercial viewing purposes is strictly prohibited. If you want to use some of these images for promotional or editorial reasons, please contact me.