Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/30784
Education ■ ■ ■ ■ Coming Together In 2007, Stöhr was working as a freelance animator when Studio Soi hired him to lend a hand with the pitch for “Th e Gruff alo.” “I helped out on one of the shots and did some fi xes,” he says. “But, they remembered me.” Stöhr, who is from a tiny village in Bavaria near Mu- nich, Germany, was born to be creative, inheriting, as he puts it, a painting gene. His great-grandfather, Max Pitzner, made a living by painting. His great-great-aunt studied with Matisse. “We had a house full of paintings,” Stöhr says. But he wasn’t interested in creating fi ne art. Instead, he thought he might try graphic design or fi lm- making, and with this in mind, he attended an open house at the German Film School. “I liked it right from the beginning,” he says. “It was the right decision. And that’s where I discovered animation.” He also met von Burkersroda, and, while there, the two worked together on short fi lms. After graduation, Stöhr began working as a free lancer but discovered that he didn’t want to be a general- ist, which is what he had learned at the German Film School. “I wanted to do animation only,” he says. “Tobi [von Burkersroda] had started Animation Mentor a half- year before. It seemed the logical step.” Von Burkersroda had fallen in love with cartoons as a kid, but like Stöhr, hadn’t considered becoming an ani- mator. “I was into games,” he says. He happened to see a short CG fi lm from the German Film School and was inspired. After high school, he went directly to the Ger- man Film School. “In the beginning, when we were studying 2D, I didn’t want to animate because my drawing skills were not that good,” von Burkersroda says. 3D animation was more interesting to him, so in addition to classes at the school, he subscribed to Keith Lango’s tutorials. Fol- lowing graduation, he did mandatory civilian service. “I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m losing nine months,’ ” he says. To diminish the impact of those nine months, he enrolled in Animation Mentor in 2006. When “Th e Gruff alo” was green-lit, Stöhr and von Burkersroda were One of the fi rst animators hired to work on “The Gruffalo,” former Animation Mentor student Max Stöhr was responsible for one of the main characters, the mouse. the fi rst animators Studio Soi hired, and they received credit as lead animators for the project. “We started doing some of the blocking in January,” von Burkersroda says. “Th en, in about three weeks, we started with the animation. Max got the mouse. I got the fox and did walk cycles to fi nd the animation style for the characters.” For those unfamiliar with the 30-minute animated short, it is based on the children’s book of the same name, written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffl er—both of whom share dual writing credits on the fi lm. Th e story of “Th e Gruff alo” centers around a mouse, which, when pursued by a fox, contrives a story about a creature called a Gruff alo. Th e mouse frightens the fox by informing him that a fox is the Gruff alo’s favorite meal. Upon meeting an owl and then later, a snake, the mouse tells the same story, only substituting that animal spe- cies as the favorite food of the Gruff alo—and achieving the same favor- able results. A chance meeting among the animals uncovers the mouse’s fi b, and before the animals can confront the mouse, it meets an actual Gruff alo. To avoid being eaten, the mouse tells the creature that all the forest animals are afraid of him, tiny as he is. Th e Gruff alo becomes a believer when, during a stroll through the woods, all the animals in fact recoil in fear, thus seeming to give credence to the mouse’s statement. Th e Gruff alo is impressed but decides to eat the mouse anyway—until the mouse reverts back to his previous trick, telling the creature that his favorite meal is Gruff alo crumble. Frightened, the Gruff alo runs away. “I think Animation Mentor helped us a lot,” von Burkersroda adds. “‘Gruff alo’ director Jakob Schuh had come from a 2D background, so he liked the Animation Mentor workfl ow, whereby you concentrate on the poses and plan your shots.” In March, animation began with Stöhr, von Burkersroda, and the directors in the little Berlin studio. When the directors asked if the two animators could recommend others for the project, von Burkersroda suggested Gliwa and Sadegiani. And their friendships grew. “Every day we went for lunch together,” von Burkersroda says. “After work, we [went out for] beer. And, on the weekends, we went out together. We all became close friends.” Von Burkersroda and Gliwa had met at FMX, an animation/visual eff ects conference held yearly in Germany. “Our friendship started,” Gliwa says, “because Tobi had his laptop on his knees and he had the Animation Mentor Web site on the screen. It was amazing to meet someone in per- son from Animation Mentor.” (Animation Mentor is an online school, where students meet with other students and instructors virtually.) Gliwa, who comes from a family of lawyers, had narrowly escaped law as a career. “I wanted to do animation,” he says. “But, I couldn’t fi nd April 2011 41