Adrian Dexter

Director, Artist

Mail: afdexter@gmail.com

Born in 1992. Copenhagen, Denmark.

As a child, I made a lot of drawings, but it was when I discovered graffiti that I felt like devoting my life to something creative. Looking carefully at other peoples graffiti while I would ride the train to school became a natural instinct. I would spend all my freetime drawing and painting graffiti wherever I could and after a while people started paying me to do so. As I became older I felt that graffiti was not enough. I wanted to be an artist and not just a creative street boy. I was recommended The Animation Workshop as a great place for studying to become an artist of drawing and animation. After visiting the school and spending a large amount of hours looking at their website, I decided this is what I’ll do.
Getting into The Animation Workshop changed me completely. I had expected to become a great illustrator or perhaps a concept artist and still be a graffiti writer, but the school was all about software… Every day we were taught how to make computer graphics and I was quite dissapointed in what my dream school turned out to be. However, after half a year of almost quitting and almost being kicked out of school, I found love for the software. I realized that I could create amazing images in a few hours that in drawing would take months to finalize.

As school went on, I did a few animated film projects and learned a lot about how film production whilest my skillset grew. In 3rd year I got the chance to work on a video game as my bachelor project. The thrill of making video games and the awesome teamwork experience would beat all other creative categories I had been doing my whole life. Our bachelor game, Lost Tracks (Link?) had succes and I felt like I wanted to continue down that path. I did an internship in a tiny game studio and right after I graduated from The Animation Workshop, I had an idea for my first very own game, The Forest Quartet (link?). I reached for the stars and felt I was ready to make something totally amazing with the bits of experience I had. It proved itself to be a thousand times harder than I thought and especially with no money. I struggled for 2+ years between working as a freelancer and working on the game when I had no work. I tried appying for funds now and then, but nothing came through. It was very tough, but sometimes fun because I had a lot of great work experience both as a teacher of animation and as a freelance 3D artist working for various studios and people around the world. The game finally took its real shape when I was admitted for a 2 month recidency in Sweden called Stugan, (Link?). Being able to work fully focused on the project with amazing programmers and gamedesigners around me did the job. I had something good and so I found the funds to develop the game further with a great team. The rest is history!

ASSOCIATED PROJECTS 

DOCUMENTATION 
DOCAVIV – Best Short Documentary , VIS- Vienna Shorts – ASIFA Austria Award For The Best Film In The International Competition Animation Avantgarde ,VIS- Vienna Shorts -Audience Award, Athens International Film And Video Festival – Ohio – Animated Short Award, FILMFEST DRESDEN– Golden Horseman International Competition For Best Animated Film , DOK LEIPZIG– Golden Dove Award For Best Animated Film , ANNECY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – Jean-Luc Xiberras Award For A First Film, AFI FEST – Grand Jury Award For Best Short Animated Film, ANIMAKOM – BILBAO – Grand Prix, MONSTRA Lisbon Animation Festival – Grand Prix, FOKUS Video Art Festival – Audience Award, GLAS Animation Festival – High Risk Award , MINIMALEN Short Film Festival – Best Nordic Film , ODENSE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL- Animation Talent Award , EUROPEAN ANIMATION AWARD – Nominee For Best Director, DAVID Di DONATELLO – Shortlisted , PFA – Piccolo Festival Animazione – Jury Award , Afrodite Shorts – Award For Best Animated Film , London International Animation Festival – Best Of Animation , ANILOGUE – Grand Prix – The Best Of Anilogue , POFF Shorts – Grand Prix, Seattle International Film Festival – Special Mention, Civitanova Film Festival – “Fango E Assami Award”, Rising Of Lusitania – AnimaDoc Film Festival – Special Mention , Cinanima – Special Mention , Manchester Film Festival – Special Mention, Bit Bang Festival – Special Mention , Riga International Film Festival – Special Mention, ANIMOCJE – Special Mention, Bucheon International Animation Festival – Special Distinction Price For Short Film, Primanima World Festival Of First Animation – Best First Film