Short-movies - Nicolas Maurice

Alfons Åberg

I had the chance to work with Tomas Alfredson on an adaptation of Gunilla Bergström’s Alfons Åberg which resulted in the release of 10 episodes in 2022.

My work started in 2017 with the creation of a pilot, our main goal being to stay as true to Gunilla Bergström’s original illustrations as possible, while enhancing the book experience with movement and the narration of Jonas Karlsson.

Our first concept revolving around the idea of the pop-up book and paper mechanism, later evolved into a deeper, miniature theater setting, using forced perspective, 3-dimensional elements and open background.

Each set design was discussed to retain the feel of the original illustration while adding depth, perspective and camera movement. A wide range of material and techniques was used, laser cutting for the characters, paper engineering, 3D modeling and printing, wooden model making, styrene scratch-building, sourcing miniature material, objects and textures, …

I conceived and built the sets for 5 of the 10 episodes (“Aja baja Alfons Åberg”, “Gonatt Alfons Åberg”, “Vad sa pappa Åberg?”, “Vem spökar, Alfons Åberg” and “Kalas, Alfons Åberg!”) which premiered at Folketsbio in the beginning of 2022 and are available on Viaplay and Cmore.

Karma och Jonar

Through 2022, I worked with Viaplay Studios Animation as a 3D animator on the adpatation of Zelda Falköga’s books “Karma och Jonar”.

We worked on a base of motion capture shot in-house, in Maya, cleaning data, improving or correcting movement, adding props interactions and hand/finger movements. Then facial animation and lipsync from scratch, under the direction of lead animator Stina Wahlberg, later Daniel Sapa and director Alexander Gustafsson.

By working on-site through the production, I had the opportunity to help supervise junior animators, assist with lead animation when needed and participate in production meetings as well as departments coordination.

I acted as animation supervisor on motion-capture shoots, for which I built an array of proportinally accurate props following the environment department’s designs.

This project allowed me to hone my mocap animation skills and to enjoy a great team.

Anima

Co-direction and production (mostly rigging, skinning and animation)

ANIMA is the shortmovie I directed and produced with Rémi Devouasssoud,
Elliott Kajdan and Julien Lasbleiz while studying at SUPINFOCOM. We worked 9 months on the scenario, based on Rémi’s original idea, while learning the technical side of 3D. Then produced it during 9 months.

Winner of the “Best 3D short film” and “Best visual effects” awards at View Festival , Torino, Italy, 2008.
Official selection at SIGGRAPH 2009, New Orleans, Clermont-Ferrand
Shortfilm Festival 2008, 25th Interfilm shortfilm Festival, Berlin,
London international Animation Festival, Celluloid Social club, Vancouver…

Slaves

Character animation as an intern.

Slaves is about Abouk, nine, and Machiek, fifteen. Like thousands of other
children they were taken by government sponsored militia in Sudan and used as slaves. They were later liberated by an organisation headed by James Aguer.
Slaves is based on an interview made in 2003 and is the second film in a series of animated documentaries with and about children in difficult situations by David Aronowitsch and Hanna Heilborn, with design by Mats Johansson, production design by Magnus Östergren and production by Degauss.

Awards:
The Annecy Cristal 2009, The Unicef Award, The Silver Cub at IDFA
in Amsterdam 2008, Best Short Animation Film Award at Cinequest California, special mention at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival and Winner of 2009 STHLM.DOC Award.

See www.Story.se for full awards list.

Sharaf

Sharaf is an animated documentary by David Aronowitsch and Hanna Heilborn.

Sharaf,17, is one of thousands of boat-refugees who have arrived to Gran Canaria the last years. They cross the ocean in small boat. Sharaf was lucky, he survived. Thousands have died in the Atlantic Ocean and the mediterranean trying to get into the EU. It is the third and final part in a series of animated documentaries about children and young people in difficult situations by David Aronowitsch and Hanna Heilborn.

More informations on www.story.se

I was involved in this project since its very beginnings and had the chance to research new animation solutions that would meet the directors demand, as well as finding technical ways to achieve them. I did a lot of visual research using stopmotion, for certain parts of the movie, which you can find those experiments in. I finally took care of the rigging, animation design and lead-animation.

Here is an excerpt of the movie, which total duration is 13 minutes.