Axel Broetje
March/April 2008
Axel Broetje is the winner of the 2007 Adobe Design Achievement Award in Animation for his work, Fische und Schiffe.
Broetje, born in Oldenburg in northern Germany, earned his high-school diploma there in 1997. From 1997 through 1998, he interned in several print agencies. From 1998 to 2001, he served an apprenticeship as a media designer for digital and print media. In 2002, he began studying Communication Design at the Braunschweig School of Visual Arts and plans to receive his diploma in 2008.
"Fische und Schiffe is an animated silhouette film for children,†says Broetje. “I wrote the story myself. It is about a ship accident in which four main characters interact in different roles. The characters are a small boy, a cook, a fisherman, and a greedy predator fish. The film is without speech, but the story is accompanied by piano music.
Broetje created all the characters, objects, and backgrounds in Adobe Illustrator working from basic black geometric elements. After that, he imported paths from the characters and objects into Adobe After Effects and Maya. Everything was animated scene after scene in After Effects and Maya. Finally, he used After Effects for cutting and audio synchronization.
To view the winners in each category of the 2007 Adobe Design Achievement Awards, visit http://www.adaagallery.com/winners/winners.php.
To take part in this year’s event, visit http://www.adobe.com/education/adaa/.