R is for Ravens J is for Jaguar

At Sticklestad, Fitting to a battle field there are ravens. Huggin and Muggin, Odin's Ravens. Their names mean Thought and Memory. They are made of steel and mounted on a wall outside of the main building.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn

J is for Jaguar

Here is another coloring book page for anyone. Just print this out and fit to page in your printer settings. There are sixteen more letters to create. I have ideas for a few of the 16 remaining letters. I feel working on this project is productive for Mayari's learning how to write. She is writing her name on her own now, and is able to spell a few other words. I have a plan for these when the Alphabet coloring pages are done, I will animate the letters to the alphabet song somehow. I would like to take coloring Mayari has made on them and use that as the color for the animation. Also another end goal for this project is to have a coloring book on 8x11 paper printed on both sides.

Sticklestad Norway Part_5

King Olaf was not so kind a saint. I found historical allegations of forced conversions to Christianity and torture. Along with intolerance of non-Christians, local Pagan kings, farming society. King Olaf aimed to spread Christianity through Norway. Olaf wanted to be King and was martyred, one year after his death he became the Patron Saint of Norway. Sticklestad is where the battle took place. Probably politics as usual back in 1030.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_II_of_Norway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stiklestad

There was a re-creation of a viking long house on the site. It was built directly into a hill. With one entrance below the building supported by stone masonry.

Below is a detail pic of the door on the side of the Long house. This door is seen in the middle of the long house in the above picture.

There is a theater on site. Huge events are held here. Very kid friendly, it would take all day to go through every thing at Sticklestad during the busy season. This viking re-enactment area led into a replica modern Norwegian town. Some of the modern houses had peat roofs. Which are a very effective natural insulator.

Back at the Sticklestad main building there is a museum. In the lower level there is a slice of stone with an abstract neo-litic ship carving.

My next post will be of another coloring book page. I want to get back to posting more personal art. I only had time to work on personal projects on the flight back to Boston. I finished the ink on another letter's animal.

Helge Gravfelt_Bola_Reindeer_Part_4

The stone circle at Helge Gravfelt was a highlight, but the site over all was enigmatic. With the possibility of missing stones and little documentation. I am left only with my own ideas about the purpose of the site. With 10 stones in a circle, 9 going around a center stone. I feel the stones may represent the 9 months of gestation. That would unite with any burial mounds, to symbolize the cycle of life and death. Life,Death and the cycle of the seasons perhaps.

Here is a link to another site related to Helge Gravfelt. There are photos of the site in the summer from a megalith website.

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=24095


Bola Reindeer

This is "the" Reindeer carving. It is circa 6,000 years old. I was totally excited to view it. When we arrived at the site we walked down a path covered in snow which made walking difficult. Half way to the site I spotted tracks in the snow. They were reindeer tracks moving perpendicular to our direction of travel. Keeping alert for rouge reindeer we headed to the place where the carvings are. Unfortunately we didn't account that the amount of snow on the ground was a huge factor. The Reindeer carving was covered with approximately a foot of ice.

Here is a shot of the overall site. Beneath the ice and snow there is also a carving of a bear, a human on skis, and a goose.

http://www.bolarein.no/Engelsk.htm



Here is the link to the line drawings.

Despite the ice, back at the car we spotted live reindeer. They were roaming in a herd through a field across from the parking lot. We were searching for an image, something frozen. While there we saw the actual animal,as it has persisted for 6,000 years.

After Bola we headed south to Sticklestad. This is where the final battle of King Olaf was. It is an ancient battle field with a mock viking village, including a long house, Churches, facilities, gift shop, and a hotel.

Steinkjer Norway Presentation_Part 3

Eggevarmmen deserves more of a mention. Due to the rich history there and significant archeological finds. The finds include remains of a burial ship,all that was left were iron nails, 9th-10th century items, tools like swords, shield bosses, axes, scissors, equestrian items and jewelry.

The view overlooks water on two sides. Below is a modern day cemetery. Directly to the right in this photo is a viking barrow.

Helge Gravfelt and a viking stone circle.

This spot was one of the most amazing ones in the visit. There were 2 standing stones which were tall and thin. I imagine there were more and some of them were removed or fallen. The standing stones are relatively light in comparison to Stonehenge. Various mounds, scattered throughout community, and a stone circle with a center stone.

In the foreground is the stone circle, at the top of the mound is Steve Ford to give scale to the standing stones.

We continued onward to Bola after this site. Bola has one of the most famous carvings of the Neolithic ages of a life-size reindeer.

Steinkjer Norway Presentation_Part 2

The HiNT presentation is complete. I gave an hour long presentation Thrusday, on animation in video games. It was an overview on animation's connection with AI in games "Animation is the body language of video game AI" and the video game production pipeline. Then I covered daily work routine for game animators. It was quite a large room packed with people, mostly students from the local High school and Students at HiNT. I followed a presentation from Storm studios in Oslo. They are the largest VFX shop in Norway.
http://www.stormstudios.no/trollhunter/
Troll hunter looks so bad ass.

Friday I taught a class that focused on game development. The students here are using Unity game engine to develop their own games. These students learn Maya in High School. They are well educated and they love video games. We worked on creating Idle animations, turning locomotion animations, I gave suggestions for creating efficient workflows for their animation. It was a chalenge for me since I had a short period of time with alot of work to look at.

There is also a budding visual effects/film producion program in progress at HiNT. The student work is of high quality. I saw some of this work at the presentation for Media day. The lectures here were in Norwegian so I just followed along.

Thank you Hint and Steinkjer for your hospitality.

Saturday Steve Ford and I went looking for Viking sites throughout the region.

Tingvold, is called a stone viking ship.
The shot above is of Tingvold, a Viking burial ground that is modeled after a ship situated just outside of Steinkjer.

This is Frostating which is where the old municipalities would meet to discuss policy, set laws. It's location dates back to 900AD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frostating

Here are some shots of Egge farm. This is where the Anual viking festival is held. There are some burial mounds, (barrows) and this shot is of an ancient standing stone in the church graveyard.




Further back from the farm are the barrow mounds and they overlook the bay below.

Modern day Vikings from Scandinavia come to particpate in mock viking battles here during the Viking festival in July.

http://www.steinkjer-turist.com/?tema_id=255&tema_art_id=&lng=en

We were able to visit three other sites which I will also post pics.

Thanks Steve.

R is for Rhino C is for Car N is for Norway

These are Coloring book pages, for you to download and print out. I print these out for Mayari to color them. Use fit to page in your printer settings.

N is for Norway

I am going to Norway this week. I am going to give a presentation about animation in video games. As well as giving a presentation I will be teaching a workshop and reviewing student portfolios. I'm excited! This is my second time in Norway. This time I am going to Nord-Trondelag University College in Steinkjer. As an added bonus there are some Bronze age rock carvings there that I really want to see.