Arne Kaupang Design --- Character Animation, Motion Graphics, Graphic Design

-phagia: word element [Gr.], eating; swallowing.
Vampire mythology: The Noctuku's unusual hunger for living flesh led to the development of Phagia, a discipline for destroying and devouring the flesh of the living.

An art film project I initiated at Catapult Film after being inspired by the amazing low-brow painter Michael Hussar. I have several of his paintings decorating my office and I have always wanted to do a tribute of sorts. With the assistance of the crew at Catapult, I created this somewhat disturbing piece. Credits: Directed and Edited by Arne Kaupang. Director of Photography: Miles Heckendorn. Grip: John Cato Finnebråten, Jannik Fagerhøi, Alexander Kadim. Make Up, Hair & Styling: Julia Høgevold. Models: Silje Hagrim Dahl, Kim Evensen. Graphics & Grading: Arne Kaupang. Music: Extreme Music. Shot on Red Scarlet.

I was the production Visual Effects & Animation Supervisor on the Norwegian movie "Kon-Tiki", directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. I managed, supervised and was responsible for all the digital VFX and creature/animal animations made by a crew of about 150 people split between the five Scandinavian VFX studios Fido, Gimpville, Important Looking Pirates, Storm Studios and Blink Studios, who worked on a total of 500+ shots. Including crabs, birds, fish, whale sharks, white sharks, deep sea creatures and a lot of complex water simulations. Storyline Studios, ShortCut and California Post did all the online. "Kon-Tiki" is the true story about the legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his crew on their epic crossing of the Pacific on a balsa wood raft in 1947. The movie broke the box office records in Norway when it was released in August 2012, and is soon due for worldwide theatrical release. You can watch the Norwegian trailer (with English subtitles) here.

I worked as a character animator at Double Negative in London on the sci-fi comedy "Paul", directed by Greg Mottola, featuring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Sigourney Weaver. I animated the lead character, the alien Paul in four sequences with a total of 21 shots in the movie. My animation supervisor was Anders Beer with Dave Lowry and Scott Holmes as my leads. The movie was released in theatres February 2011 and is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD. You can watch the US trailer here and a different version here.

I worked as a character animator at Double Negative in London on Guillermo del Toro's Hollywood blockbuster movie "Hellboy II: The Golden Army". A huge effort and there was about 250 very talented artists working on the film. I animated several shots of the pixies flying around in the Troll Market sequence and huge robots fighting in the climax of the film. My animation supervisors were Jay Davis and Eamonn Butler. You can watch trailers here. And buy it here.

Another bumper for Norwegian TV2, this time with a spring theme. My little tribute to the movie "A Bug's Life". TV2's slogan "Se hva som skjer" is "See what happens" in English.

Norwegian TV2 asked me to produce an identity bumper in the Christmas spirit of their existing bumpers, and I created and animated this little mouse character who is celebrating his own Christmas inside the walls of an old house.

Look closer, not everything is as it seems... This is another identity bumper I did for TV2 Norway, and it may look like a regular fall forest scene, but upon closer inspection there are hidden sinister faces in the tree trunks and mysterious eyes gazing in the dark...

For more than 10 years I did the design of all the marketing material for the Nobel Peace Price Concert, held every year in Oslo, Norway on December 11th.

I was hired by Qvisten Animation to participate on a fun commercial for the Stratos chocolate bar, and I animated a couple of the shots in it (the three cows dancing and the jumping on one leg falling off). The commercial is a spoof on MC Hammer's "You Can't Touch This" and features a blue dancing cow (the Stratos mascot character) going crazy. The commercial was produced by Guro Sætereie, directed by Rasmus Sivertsen and Rune Spaans. The other animators were Atle Blakseth, Andre Hay and Ivar Rødningen.

When establishing a chain of fitness studios around Norway, Shapes Fitness approached me and asked me to do their corporate identity design. I designed everything from their logo to advertisements, illustrations, brochures, outdoor signage etc.

"World Record" is a fun little 3D animated short film I made during a 6-month period (animation takes a lot of time). It is about a weightlifter trying to set a new record, but a vengeful fly makes it hard for him.

Through the years I've created lots logo designs for all types of businesses, but primarily for the entertainment industry (record companies, artists, TV shows etc.). Here are a few.

For Jordan toothbrushes (Wisdom in the UK) I produced several 3D animated commercials.

A 3D model of a female I made as an anatomy study a few years ago. It is available for purchase at Turbosquid in a variety of the most popular 3D formats.