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Mike Werckle |
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Posts
BATTLE ARENA. Previs by Mike Werckle. This scene is for an unfinished space fantasy/action film. I conceptualized the set and animated the action and cameras based on the script. There were no storyboards, so I started by laying out the broad action, with hopes of refining and fleshing out coverage later. The project was cancelled before I could finish, but I’m proud of the work.
EARLY EARTH. Previs by Mike Werckle. I designed this previs sequence in collaboration with the director and visual effects supervisor. We worked intuitively, without a script or storyboards, creating several vignettes to choose from. As is often the case with previs, this doesn’t match the final film exactly, but rather facilitated the creative process and aided in selection of location and the shooting of background plates. The final vignette in this sample is the closest to the one used in the final film.
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Posts
SBS CAVEPEOPLE (2012). Character Design by Mike Werckle. Animation by Mike Werckle and David Lundberg-Kenrick. Created for the Australian SBS program Insight.
DIDEO - DO SOMETHING GOOD (2012). :60 Spot Directed and Animated by Mike Werckle for Dideo.com
TURKEY SPA (2008). Directed and Animated by Mike Werckle. A fun little Thanksgiving greeting card I created for Doozy Cards.
A CAT AND A MOUSE (2006). Short Film written, directed, and animated by Mike Werckle. In the classic “cat and mouse” cartoons the cat fails miserably, outwitted by the mouse. In reality, the cat would pounce on the mouse and quickly kill it. Inspired by Camus’ “The Stranger,” I created a cat and mouse cartoon exploring the existential crisis that occurs when a cartoon cat succeeds in killing a cartoon mouse.
X KONG (2007). :30 Spot directed by Mike Werckle and Tray Duncan for the 101X “Expose Your X” contest. The video was shot, animated and composited over the course of three days and ultimately won first place in the contest.
ATTIC SQUIRRELS. :30 Spot directed by Mike Werckle for Christiansen Air Conditioning. The client was excited about using the Vanilla Ice song “Ice Ice Baby,” so I chose to emulate the low=-key hand held feel of the original music video, quoting some shots directly.
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Posts
HATRED (2002). Short film written and Directed by Mike Werckle. I drew upon my experience working in a retirement him to tell the story of an elderly woman dealing with the intense loathing she feels at being reduced to a caretaker. I was interested in exploring the feelings that many are likely to have, but which go unacknowledged; wishing another person dead to alleviate our own suffering.
VERGE (2005). Dance|Film directed and choreographed by Mike Werckle. I was interested in how the camera creates space, like a instantaneously movable stage. I used it to create a multi-leveled stage that moves from under water to surface to rock and air. Using the progression to hint at an evolution of spirit, the dancer reaches the top only to realize there is still a part of her that exists in the depths. Verge screened at The New Works Festival, University of Texas at Austin, 2005.
THE WATCHER (2002). Short film directed by Mike Werckle. Suffering from intense creative block and sleep paralysis, I drew inspiration from Fellini and decided to grapple with the problem self-reflexively. An “intruder” is a well-documented phenomenon related to sleep paralysis and can be quite frightening to those who have experienced it. Embracing this “watcher” as a part of myself, I transformed the demon into an avatar of power, ultimately leading to the cessation of both my sleep paralysis and creative block.
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Bio
- Mike Werckle received a BFA in Character Animation from California Institute of the Arts in 1992. Upon graduation, he worked as Assistant to the Producer of Starlight Theatre in Rockford, Illinois, and went on to found The Wrong Hands Theater Company there, serving as it's Producing Director until he entered the game industry in 1994. Mike worked for Viacom New Media in Chicago where he wrote and storyboarded the animated sequences for Beavis and Butt-head: Virtual Stupidity. He produced and directed the opening 3D animated film for the landmark Dungeons & Dragons: Core Rules game for TSR in Madison, Wisconsin. At Raven Software, and later at Human Head Studios, Mike helped pioneer the use of 3D animation techniques in the highly acclaimed games Hexen II, Heretic II and Rune. After several years in the game industry, Mike decided his passion was film making and so he moved to Austin and earned his MFA in Film Production from The University of Texas in 2006. Using his mastery of both animation and film, Michael became a sought after Previsualization Animator and VFX Artist, working along side top directors to design thrilling sequences on films such as Superman Returns, Live Free or Die Hard, I Am Legend, Tropic Thunder, Machete, Predators. Mike recently helped design the dinosaur sequences for The Tree of Life (Palme d'Or, Cannes Film Festival, 2011).
