2D animation – Sophie Kaars Sijpesteijn

Working on Breccies

Work has been very busy, which has caused me to move the Rube Goldberg back. I always realise when I’m working on it how intensive it is, and because I have to learn so much along the way, it always makes me second-guess when it will finally be finished!

But, I still very much feel the need to work on projects in my free time, so I’ve chosen to work on a more classic 2d film that I expect will be finished much faster. I also very much need a fresh look at the Rube Goldbery, so taking this break will only be helpful (I hope).

In any case, the 2D film is called Breccies, and is a return to form for me – as it relies on classic animation techniques, together with all the new knowledge and experience I have gained in working in motion graphics. The film is based on a giant leporello (over 8 meters long now!) that is currently being made by Marianne Kaars, my mother who is also a fine artist, and with whom I have wanted to collaborate with for a very long time, on account of our style and themes being very similar. (I included a link to her website in her name, so you can take a look for yourself)

Here is a sample from her work:

A photograph from an exhibition she held in Pulchri, The Hague, in 2013. Featured from left to right: a ‘tulip’ vase made by a ceramic artist based on her work, a collage (1.5 x 3meters), and a woodblock print (1.5 x 3 meters).

And here is a little sneaky peek at what I am currently animating:

Back to work I go!

14/09/2019 by sophiekaars Categories: animation, work in progressTags: 2D animation, WIP 1 Comment

Works in progress

Well, one work in progress to be honest. A project I’ve been giving the working title ‘Rube Goldberg’ over the last two years I’ve been researching and working on it.

It’s a strange feeling for me to realise that I’ve been working on this since 2015. It’s the longest I’ve ever dedicated to a project.

But in all honesty, that’s because I only worked on it in my free time. And I never intended for it to become an actual animation. It started out as an idea for an online interactive display, somewhat like the original idea for my Infomaze (that now only exists as a demo video, the site having crashed long ago). I made these little morphing animations specifically for that purpose, before I realised that I really wanted to make a proper animation.

I’m glad I did, the thought alone of having to figure out the coding again was not something I was looking forward too!

I’ve now finally moved into production, but it will still take a while before it’s finished. I’ve learned a lot during my research and in making the many, many little tests I’ve posted on this blog, but I’ll still be learning a ton more. Here’s hoping I manage to get it done by the end of this year!

02/10/2018 by sophiekaars Categories: work in progressTags: 2D animation, 3D animation, Rube Goldberg, supply and demand, WIP Leave a comment

Spring films

My personal projects have screeched to a standstill over the last few months, and only now have I been picking up the pace. There’s not much to show yet, but hopefully soon I will have some new renders to show off. In the meanwhile, the films I make at work are an incredibly rewarding experience, as I get to experiment and try out new formats.

The two films I want to show off here are a film made for STOWA, (Foundation for Applied Water Research) and a film made for the Province of Overijssel.

STOWA was drawn by hand, using pen and ink on paper. The drawings were scanned, cleaned up, and then coloured digitally. Animation was mostly done in After Effects, with a few exceptions done in a traditional frame-by-frame animation. The film itself is about how certain diagnostic factors are being used to determine the health of bodies of water, so the style is based on old topographical maps and drawings found in geography and geology textbooks.

Omgevingsvisie Overijssel is meant to inform people about procedures used by the Province to determine the placement things like wind turbines, new neighborhoods, and business parks, which is reflected in the film’s style by showing these items being sketched onto the landscape itself, and using a crayon-like style for the lines. The animated parts are a mix of rotoscoping, traditional frame-by-frame animation, and animation in After Effects.

Both films are in Dutch.

28/03/2018 by sophiekaars Categories: Beeldtaal FilmmakersTags: 2D animation, Beeldtaal Filmmakers, frame by frame, motion graphics, rotoscoping, traditional animation Leave a comment

Today I held a presentation at my old academy about what I did after finishing my study. I held it together with a good friend of mine – Abe Borst (http://squabe.nl/) – and it was a lot of fun. I made some animated slides to go with it, and here are a few of them:

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03/10/2017 by sophiekaars Categories: motion graphicsTags: 2D animation, art academy, ArtEZ, motion graphics, presentation Leave a comment

Hanse convention

Two months ago, I took on a job as animator/motion designer at Beeldtaal Filmmakers in Deventer, and I’ve been incredibly busy since then. I haven’t been able to work on the Rube Goldberg machine very much, so that’ll be something I’ll pick up again in the summer, when the pressure goes down and our clients go on holiday. In the meantime, here’s a film I made with Beeldtaal for the 2017 Hanse Convention in Kampen. It was shown today at the opening: