Andreas Hykade (born 1968 in Bavaria) is an animation director from Germany. From 1988 to 1990 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. 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 (to which they are a loving homage). Often his characters feature single strokes as arms and legs, in this Hykade is similar to German comic artist OL.

At present, Hykade is working at his first feature-length film. During a live talk at the Bradford Animation Festival on November 17, 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 Life of Brian, The Last Temptation of Christ and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Since 2008 Hykade teaches animation at Harvard University.

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 that’s 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’s set in a bright and shining bazar 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. 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.

Films

• “The King is Dead” (1990)
• “We Lived in Grass” (1995)
• “10 kleine Jägermeister” (1996, music video for German band Die Toten Hosen)
• “The Riddle” (2000, music video for Italian singer Gigi D’Agostino)
• “Bla, bla, bla” (2000, music video for Italian singer Gigi D’Agostino)
• “Ring of Fire” (2000)
• “Just a Gigolo” (2001, music video for Lou Bega)
• “Time” (2002, TV mini series)
• “Tom” (2003, TV series in Flash)
• “Walkampf” (2004, music video for German band Die Toten Hosen)
• “The Runt” (2006)

Trivia

Whilst creating “We Lived in Grass” (1995) 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.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Hykade)