'Ode to the North' is a video I created as part of my application for the Fjällräven Polar 2012 expedition, a 330 Km dog sledding adventure in the North of Sweden and Norway.

The contest is closed now (15the of November 2011) and I ended at the 15th position for the Benelux countries. Thanks to all those who voted for me! This was my entry page: www.fjallraven.com/outdoor-life/polar

For now I can only hope to be selected by Fjällräven as one of the 'extra' team members, they are going to pick one person per country to be part of this adventure as well. I can't wait to start making a winter version and eventually a 4 seasons Ode To The North video! So my fingers are crossed! ;)

About the video:
I shot a lot of pictures during my two hiking trips to the Northern parts of Sweden. Being out there on my own was a surreal experience. For this video I selected 5 of those pictures and animated them using camera projection in Cinema 4D. All color grading and typography was done in After Effects.

More info about the process of creating this video can be found on my Behance Portfolio: www.behance.net/gallery/Fjllrven-Polar-2012-Ode-to-the-North/

Credits:
- Concept, photography, 2D/3D design and animation: Michiel Verweij
- Sound design: www.hugoverweij.com

1:
Just a first render of a little test/learning scene I'm building. Inspired by the great piece 'Kinetic Type' by Motion504 I wanted to create a little surreal machine, from wood this time ;) The main challenge for me was how to create the 'sails' using the clothilde tags in Cinema.

2:
A little experiment combining MoGraph 2 dynamics, cloners and attractors and Metaball: