Brian Leif Hansen​
Animation
Feature Films
Working as the Animation Supervisor on Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio was an amazing experience.
Guillermo was such a fan of the Stop Motion process and it was a delight to work with him - Still in Oregon working with Animators that I have known and worked with for 20, 10 or 5years and completely new talent matching up to the old gang. Over the course of the film we employed 60 animators with 40 animators working at height of production - Thanks to Mark Gustafson for giving me this fantastic job that I enjoyed immensely
Missing Link was animated by what I think was the best assembly of animators ever to have worked on the same film - the incredible talent that has grown over the last 20 years really is on show in this film, and I had the pleasure of following the elephant puppet from the very first mock-up built, to the final Animation on stage
Kubo and the Two Strings is another masterful animated film from Laika. I am very proud to have be a part of this stop motion adventure.
At Laika we do some of the most spectacular stop motion the world has ever seen - everything moves! After you get used to that, any other stop motion looks a bit static.
Very happy to have worked on this film, I think it turned out great - sweet, funny and charming. I spent most of my time on the film in the attic bringing Sparky back to life.
20th Century Fox ©
This is probably the best film I've ever worked on. I'm especially fond of the dialogue, it fills the animated world in a very delightful way.
Max & Co was filmed in Romont, Switzerland with a large European crew - check out my cloak room to see some of the LAVs.
Warner Bros.©
Corpse Bride was the first big feature film I worked on. It was incredible to get the chance to work on a film with so many famous names attached. Many of the animators I already knew from my days on The Koala Brothers and it was amazing to see everybody lift their game to create a film that set the new bench mark for stop motion animation.
TV and Short Films
In 2023 I spent most of the year being the Animation Director on Mike Judge , Zach Woods and Brandon Gardener's comedy show - six episodes of highbrow satire, far removed from your usual adult television shows - Zach and Brandon broad some unique take on characters and has made a wonderful portray of a not chosen family working in an NPR studio - I had the pleasure of being on the ground in Portland Oregon working with animators who just came off GDT's Pinocchio and Wendell and Wild and which I think is most exciting a bunch of ( to me ) complete new talent - very exciting
The Koala Brothers have a big place in my heart. I love the sweet and innocent characters, and I had a really good experience working on the show. I met lots of the talented people that I still work with today.
This little short film is written and directed by a good friend of mine Pete Dodd. He shared the animation work with myself and Brian Demoskoff.
Ads
This Lego ad was is shot on four's to give it a "stop motion" look. No rig's were used, the ball joints on the characters were strong enough to hold them selves.
These are real Tic Tac's ! We actually moved tiny Tik Tac's around on a green background.
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This Tæppeland ad is directed by Sabine Ravn, a good friend. We had 4 days to do three of these little pixelation, it was hard work but really fun.
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I fitted this Uniqlo jacket with chicken wire on the inside to make it animatable. It was a fun little two day job - one day to figure out how to do it and one day to shoot.
CGI - Animation
Den Kæmpestore Bjørn (The Great Bear) This 2011 future film, was an amazing undertaking. It was animated by only 8 animators in 10 months. Anybody who know anything about animation knows that is nearly impossible, but we did it. The animation is economical but I don't think it looks too shabby.
I like these little characters - they're fun to work with and I think the film turned out great! If you want to see all of it, it's available here
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