Magnus Igland and Peter Smith Go Hog Wild with their short “Swineherd”

A classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson receives modern new treatment in Magnus Igland and Peter SmithAnnie Nominated, Short, Swingerd. The original tale centers on a prince who disguises himself as a battered man in order to win the heart of a selfish princess who is only willing to give him kisses in exchange for her magical trinkets. (Gene Deitt adapted the tale into another animated short back in 1975!) The project, which debuted in Europe in 2023, is being created by Tumblehead Animation Studio (Tales from the Multiverse, Ron N Ron). Meller and Smith were kind enough to answer a few of our questions via email.

Animag: Gentlemen, congratulations on the Annie nomination, which gives your work new visibility this year. Can you talk a little bit about how yours Pig came to be

Magnus and Peter: Thank you. This nomination really means the world to us. This is what we have been working on for the last 13 years of our studio’s existence. Fleng Entertainment was commissioned by Flenge Entertainment to create this short. It is distributed in the Nordic territories as part of the Nordic TV program, consisting of films from each of the Nordic countries. It was a real treat to work on and see it side by side with other dumb Christmas shorts. Scandinavians have a rather special kind of humor, you know 🙂

What was his inspiration?

The movie is actually based on the novel by tHe’s a Swingerd the famous Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor’s New Clothes). However, we had to adapt it a bit to meet modern standards while still balancing Andersen’s timeless themes of love, vanity and self-worth.

Did you start working on the project and what animation tools did you use to create the custom look of the characters?

The project started in the spring of 2022. The team consisted of 12 people in total. We used Maya for most of the preproduction and animation. The whole thing was given in red shift by Houdini.

Can you describe the visual style of the short?

Well, it’s probably 2.5D. This is the style we’ve been working with since the graduation film at the animation workshop in Denmark. Very much inspired by the work of the Swedish studio Meindbender, we wanted to explore how to make 3D animation more flexible and expressive. It turned out that a peculiar design similar to the UPA lent itself very well to this dogma. We’ve been working on refining this style ever since.

Who are some of your biggest animation influences and idols?

We like a lot of classic stuff like Tex Avery, Fred Quimby and Maurice Noble. We also really like a lot of really dumb Motion animation from Aardman and really crazy stuff like A city called panic.

What are you working on next?

At Tumlheadwe’re always working on a few commercials, and we recently released a really silly Nike ad with a sort of Nightmare before Christmas occurs the is warm Topic. It’s always a lot of fun working on productions like this where you have a really solid reference and you’re challenged to twist it into something that really stands out.

We were also commissioned by SideFX to make a short film as a showcase of a full production made in the new Houdini 20.5. The film is called Turbulence And it’s out in January, so keep an eye out for that. We’ll also be releasing a ton of documentation and tutorials on how to use our pipeline in a full Houdini pipeline.

Additionally, Fleng Entertainment is developing the concept Pig into a TV series in collaboration with 13 European broadcasters, including France Television, BBC, German SWR, RTV, Denarm Radio, etc. There is a working title Pig and Andersen, And we provide our designs and creative input and expect to join the production, so stay tuned for some exciting Pig News in 2025! We can’t wait to see what this year brings. One thing for sure! An Annie Award nomination has given us a fantastic start to 2025!

Watch the trailer below:

For more information visit tummehead.com.