Andreas Hykade


Andreas Hykade is an animation director from Germany. Before studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 1988 to 1990, he attended König-Karlmann-Gymnasium Altötting. He worked as an animator in London in 1991, then studied animation at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg until 1995. Since then he works as animation director, partly at "Studio Filmbilder" in Stuttgart, and as the Professor for Animation at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
Hykade's trademark style is based on very simple characters which move in smooth animation. Sometimes, like in the two music videos for Gigi D'Agostino, there's just a line over a flat color, much like the classical La Linea-character of Osvaldo Cavandoli. Often his characters feature single strokes as arms and legs, in this Hykade is similar to German comic artist.
"We Lived in Grass" is a student film and Hykade's first part of The Country Trilogy. The set of the film is a place just two streets away from the end of the world. The film is told from the point of view of a little boy. "All women is whore and all men is soldier," the father of the boy says. "So go into Grass and kill a tiger for the best tits you can find." As the father gets testicular cancer, a journey into Grass for the young hero begins. We lived in Grass won numerous awards including the German short film Price.
"Ring of Fire" is the second part of The Country Trilogy. It is set in a bright and shining bazaar of sexual desires. The film is describing an archaic Machomyth and the desire of two cowboys to break with this myth. "Ring of Fire" won countless awards including the Grand Price at the Ottawa Animation Festival.
In 1995, Hykade, along with Gil Alkabetz and Film Bilder, were commissioned to do a series of network ID's and commercials for Nickelodeon UK.
"The Runt" is Hykade's third and final part of The Country Trilogy. The once dead father of "We Lived in Grass" returns. "I give you the runt," he says. "But you take care of it and you kill it next year." With "The Runt", Hykade finished what he calls his early work.
At present, Hykade is working at his first feature-length film. During a live talk at the Bradford Animation Festival on 17 November 2006, he revealed that the film would revolve around the life of Jesus. Hykade did not reveal exactly how he would treat the project, but mentioned his admiration for the films Monty Python's Life of Brian, The Last Temptation of Christ and Jesus Christ Superstar.
Since 2008, Hykade has taught animation at Harvard University.

Films

Whilst creating "We Lived in Grass" at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, he met Philip Hunt. Hunt was employed as the animator in residence working on the award-winning short, "Ah Pook is Here". Hunt enlisted the help of the entire Academy staff, all apart from Hykade who continued producing his graduation piece.
However, Hunt asserts that whilst Andreas escaped a role on the film, he was a motivational force in making AH POOK happen - if only for his good humour and support when the project was at its hardest. Hunt recently interviewed 'Hugi' on stage at the Bradford animation festival where a retrospective of Hykade's work was shown.