The new Cryoshell tune Breakout is available in iTunes

Finally one of the new tunes from Cryoshell is available in itunes

LEGO Friends wins Effectiveness Award

Last night we at Advance won an Effectiveness Award for the launch of LEGO Friends. It has been a great adventure helping LEGO to get closer to the girls around the world.
http://www.advance.dk/

Star Wars/ToysRus promo done by ADVANCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPIj7jK3Geg&feature=plcp

This is a case video telling about a fun promotion we did at ADVANCE to boost a SW event for one of out clients. Just to show that we do other tings than LEGO. Enjoy

Mata Nui 3D rendering and Greyscale bump maps

 Here you have the basic shape and a rendering of the island that were used for all kinds of different 3D material.

Cryoshell Breakout coverart

3D concept renderings of Metru Nui

Back in 2003 I created a 3D test model of the city of Metru Nui and did these overviews of the giant city. The model was done as a very detailed greyscale elevation map and rendered in an old program called Bryce with some additional work in Photoshop. I've included the greyscale bump map.

News from Cryoshell. Coverart for Gravity Hurts

It’s been very quite for a long time but I’m happy to announce that I’ve just finished the visuals for two new single recordings from Cryoshell. A rerecording of “Gravity Hurts” and “Breakout”. Many things has changed but the core of the music is the same so you can look forward to the 2 new powerful tunes that soon will be available online. More info will follow as soon as possible.

The Bionicle legend told in stone and sand

Back in 2000 when not much Bionicle material was produced I was faced with a difficult task. On the CD-rom that would be included in some of the launch canisters we were to explain the Bionicle legend visually. How could I show the foundation of the legend without destroying the epic vision?. I would be impossible to produce the 3D scenes that would do the idea justice with giants rising above the clouds. At the same time explaining the foundation would give away the secret of the great robot beneath the seabed. The answer was “keep it simple”. I decided to tell the story in simple shapes of sand and stone. A circle filled with sand where the Turaga would tell the legend and keep the score of good and evil by moving the symbolic stones around. That became the stone legend and it was staged in an ancient temple in the jungle. This temple also worked as the navigation of the CD-Rom produced by Advance with 3D assets from our own 3D department and Ghost. This CD-Rom also included the small movie clips that introduced the original Toa and their environment.

Ignition trilogy team T-shirt

Through the years we at ADVANCE have done several exclusive crew t-shirts for the production team and here is one of them from 2006 when the Ignition trilogy kicked off.

The Piraka Revolution

Back in 2006 the story of Bionicle took a mayor shift. We needed some fresh adventure so the Toa were sent on the Ignition trilogy to ignite the legend.

We also needed to refresh the campaign and the look and feel. The Piraka were cast as “the gang on the loose” and the style was urban and graffiti inspired. To really make a change we set the scene in a strange surreal stronghold that was quite modern with clear references to human technology but with a twist. This was steam punk meets Bionicle and the Piraka had their own rodeo bull, an industrial robot for getting dressed and a sliding gun rag. A beat up sofa and TV set and small tech creatures running around including a fly and a camera. Here you see some of the first sketches and 3D models of the Piraka location.

I directed the music video style commercial about the gang of Piraka in their hangout and we even did a Piraka rap to take the campaign totally out of the epic story mode and into the street. Some loved it and some hated it but it defenitely was something different.

These are very exciting times

Dear all who are visiting this blog. I want to say that the interest is very inspiring and that this indeed is very exciting times.

I am definitely no running out of Bionicle “behind the scenes” material. It is more a question of getting the time to do the posts. I’m busy doing future projects.

First and foremost it is amazing and great to see how well (and deserved) LEGO is doing all over the world and that I’m extremely proud to be part of the team helping LEGO to reach it’s full potential. We have helped LEGO with the launch of LEGO Friends and this is going to change the girl’s connection with the greatest toy in the world for decades to come. Go girls and get creative!!!

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/lego-ceo-says-growth-in-sales-to-girls-is-global-meWsXbYHRHGBJKHTIUoYzA.html

We are currently working on several fantastic projects with LEGO. Some of them would make fantastic news on this blog… but my lips are sealed. Meanwhile here you can see a little teaser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRSOAcIbo_0&feature=g-all-u

I am also working on my own film/story project and you will all hear much more about this soon. I can only say that it is a project I am doing in close collaboration with my old friends at Ghost VFX. This is going to ROCK.

ADVANCE Facebook profile

Just want to mention that we at ADVANCE have opened a Facebook page. You can follow what is happening here at present time. We will try to post news and teasers about coming projects and in general life at the agency.
https://www.facebook.com/advancecph

2009 Teaser poster

This poster depicts the early concept for the mask of life that had created a body for itself after landing in Bara Magna. Now he is standing looking at this new strange place where giant bonelike structures are sticking out of the sand and where he will have to find friends as soon as possible to stay alive. In the foreground one of his most important allies crawls to welcome him (home).

Earliest Toa location sketches

Hi all, Back to work and back to the blog. This post contains the earliest sketches I could find of the environments on Mata Nui. It is actually the sketches that were the foundation for the Toa key visuals that were used in the original campaign at launch in 2001. The environments can also be seen in the Toa presentation spots that went on the CD-ROM. 

Summer and time for new inspiration

It is less than 5 month ago that I started this blog and what a launch!! it has been fantastic to be able to share some of the thoughts behind my ideas and designs. Thank you for the interest, it is the greatest inspiration and I hope you will enjoy the coming posts. I is going to be a very exciting time as we are developing new themes with LEGO and I will be launching my own project very soon. 

Right now I’m sucking up sun and inspiration in Sardinia. This island has fantastic nature and a breathtaking coastline with hidden beaches and lots of story material. This first picture looks like a god place for a hero to drift ashore. And can anyone spot the smiling skull in the second picture? 
Have a great summer everyone and see you in August for a very exciting fall:)

Tina Dickow FB Poster competition

Just before the summer holiday I sent 3 suggestions for a tour poster for a Danish singer and songwriter Tina Dickow. She is really cool, mellow and Scandinavian in her style. She named the tour “disappear tour” so I made one suggestion where she is almost gone from the poster and one where she is on her way to leave earth. Check out the competition on

https://www.facebook.com/tinadickow?sk=app_365063043559456

Bara Magna Map

When the Bionicle legend continued into 2009 the story moved to an entirely new location. I drew this map to give the full overview of this rough and traitorous world. Danger and mystery lurks everywhere.

Great Dane Productions logo

In 1997 I designed this logo for my good friends from Great Dane Productions in Los Angeles. 

Maersk Air decoration concept

I have always thought that it would be fantastic to design the paintjob of a commercial airline and at one point I got very close to try. At Advance we had Maersk Air as a client for many years and they planned to get a new design on their fleet. With this design I tried to capture the magic moment where the plane breaks through the clouds into the blue sky. It never got further than the paper and the airline was sold in 2005  

Diving deep with the Toa

2007 was a fantastic year in the Bionicle legend. We got to go underwater for an entire year and for the second half of the story I directed the trailer teasing the adventure of the Toa Mahri as they chased the Mask Of Life. "Face Me" was specially composed by (what later would be known as) Cryoshell to support the story of the Toa Mahri.

Mahri transport vehicle design

When the Toa Mahri chased the MOL and had to get to the bottom of the sea in the second half of 2007 we took the opportunity to change the style of the equipment and the tone of voice of the campaign. The Toa Mahri goes into action “special ops style” in a very high-tech underwater transport vehicle and their equipment includes all kind of diving gear and the gatling inspired Cordak blaster. All the equipment the Toa had found in the bottom compartment of the island core. They traveled inside the cord that ran from Voya Nui to the Mahri Nui plateau. Ghost VFX helped rebuild the Toa Terrain Crawler and we designed a full inner cabin for the Intro scenes of the Mahri trailer. The design includes pressure chamber and valve room with exit hatch. It has a Cordak rag that folds away in the roof and automated dive helmet lowering device. The tentacles at the end of the vehicle points at the idea that this was a biomechanical craft. It was a blend of machine and sea creature, maybe a giant squid.

Mahri Nui concept

This concept drawing of Mahri Nui was done to depict the mood and feel of this surreal underwater location. It is a “snapshot” seen from one of the rocky gorges up towards the Matoran villages under their air bubbles. The air is kept in place by a web of special super strong seaweed. In front on the right you can see the plant that the Matoran harvest for air. Some red molten protodermis has made its way all the way from Voya Nui and is flowing over the ledge. The small craft on the left is an early design for a vessel that the Toa would use to descent to Mahri Nui in the hunt for the Mask of Life. Later that craft would be designed and shaped very differently and it would travel inside the hollow cord that held Voya Nui anchored. But more about that in a later post.

The design of Mahri Nui

This was a dream come true to design. I love the underwater setting so getting to create something from scratch was great. The broken off piece that make up Mahri Nui was impaled into the sea bed and the Matoran that were captured down her build a village for themselves. They lived inside bobbles of air which the harvested from the giant seaplants growing down here. Air was their most valuable treasure because it kept them safe and kept them away from the corrosive saltwater and the monsters of the pit.

The Voya Nui icon

The shape of Voya Nui was designed to look evil and mysterious inhospitable. Almost resembling an evil eye. This was the home of the Piraka the infamous smiling villains

The design of Voya Nui

 The Ignition trilogy that kicked off in 2006 was all about getting the Toa on a great quest. This was an adventure that would send the heroes into fantastic unknown location to meet amazing opponents, all in the chase to restart the heart of Mata Nui.

The next 3 years of story would take the heroes from a floating island to the bottom of the sea ending up at the heart of the universe for the final showdown in the air. So all tree environments would come in play ensuring diversity from year to year until 2008.

The floating island of Voya Nui, which actually was the missing piece of the heart, was now in the ocean anchored to the seabed by a chain of molten protodermis. The anchor point was the pit of Mahri Nui that at an early stage broke off and sunk to the bottom capturing a population of Matoran in the deep. The hunt for the mask of life led the heroes to discover the lost Matoran in the deep. So they could be saved and get inside before Mata Nui was revived.