Bufdir: Sara

About one year ago, while working for Storm Studios, Endre Skandfer and myself started production on two shorts for Bufdir (a.k.a. Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs) to be screened in schools. The theme of the first film, Sara, was drug abuse in the family while the other one, Alex, dealt with psychiatric problems.
Endre directed both shorts while I storyboarded them and did the character designs. I animated a big part of the Sara film as well as drawing up many of the backgrounds for it. The budget was extremely tight so Sara was all done in a handful of weeks - if not less. For some of the backgrounds we even used storyboard frames which Endre improved with colors and textures.
I didn't get to animate on the Alex short though. It was impressively all done by Endre in one (!) week - animation, backgrounds, comp and all.
Despite the short time we had it was great fun to work with. It was pretty much exactly 10 years since Endre and me last worked together with animation. And seven years since I had animated anything myself. It was also my first attempt to work with the great animation program TVPaint - which I also had to learn during this production.
Sara can be seen here.
Below are line tests from two of the scenes I animated.