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.