May 17, 2010
Animation, CGI & Rendering, Compositing, Lectures, Quotes, Reports, Technology, films, people
No Comments
I awoke after a terrible night of too little sleep (thank you, insane entertainment-industry sleep-cycle!) and was greeted suspiciously by Mrs. Zheng, the hotel manager, on my way to the hotel’s breakfast premises where the ongoing conversations ebbed as I entered. Too much eyeliner, I thought. But I had other things on my mind. In fact, I was so excited that I ran a red light on my way to the conference.
Read the rest…
I awoke after a terrible night of too little sleep (thank you, insane entertainment-industry sleep-cycle!) and was greeted suspiciously by Mrs. Zheng, the hotel manager, on my way to the hotel's breakfast premises where the ongoing conversations ebbed as I entered. Too much eyeliner, I thought. But I had other things on my mind. In fact, I was so excited that I ran a red light on my way to the conference.
Haus der Wirtschaft, originally uploaded by Phil Strahl.
I was eager to first see The Foundry's presentations on Mari, their programming approach and a tech demonstration of the recently acquired Katana, I was so excited about last year in Sony's presentation, but had no exact clue what it really was.
Paint that dinosaur!
Once arrived I got me a seat pretty close up front and was ready for their presentations to begin. Jack Greasley, who worked at Weta Digital on King Kong and Avatar and Zoe Lord, Senior Texture Artist on Avat
August 22, 2009
Dear Diary, Essay, photography
No Comments
Berlin was calling. I had to go. Like the years before. When you’ve been to Berlin once before (and ain’t not sick of it already), you just have to return. Every summer this city calls me by a feeling or just by plain Austrian fatigue. Then I book a flight, make no plans and off I go.
This is a short photo-blog-post of my impressions.
Read the rest…
Berlin was calling. I had to go. Like the years before. When you've been to Berlin once before (and ain't not sick of it already), you just have to return. Every summer this city calls me by a feeling or just by plain Austrian fatigue. Then I book a flight, make no plans and off I go.
This is a short photo-blog-post of my impressions.
Berlin needs to be experienced best through the microscope of everyday experiences. Berlin is detail, it is a patchwork of delicacies woven together by stretching alleys and slowly crumbling houses. Berlin is chipped-off paint on pre-war buildings, covered in stickers and iced with graffiti. They look all the same from afar but become more and more discrete the closer one looks.
But don't get lost in the details. Enjoy the sun, enjoy the wind, enjoy the low prices and the smell of coal and smoke in the winter.
Berlin is flat. At least in Google Earth it is. Once you roam the sidewalks they are an uneven terrain for the unassuming traveler flipp
May 10, 2009
Animation, CGI & Rendering, Lectures, Reports, Technology, games, people
No Comments
Traditionally the last day of every fmx is the games day and this year I was prepared for it: Yes, I was wearing my Half-Life² t-shirt proudly in any Electronic Arts lecture I could get in. “They save the best for last”, as AIAS president Joseph Olin put it in the beginning. Yes, there was a lot to come. As always I just wish I had slept more.
Read the rest…
Traditionally the last day of every fmx is the games day and this year I was prepared for it: Yes, I was wearing my Half-Life² t-shirt proudly in any Electronic Arts lecture I could get in. "They save the best for last", as AIAS president Joseph Olin put it in the beginning. Yes, there was a lot to come. As always I just wish I had slept more.
Pipelines of War
Greg Mitchell , originally uploaded by Phil Strahl.
The day started even louder than the fat guy jumping down the stairs above my room at 6:45am: With Gears of War 2 (GoW2) and how Epic Games thought up streamlined their production pipeline for those. Greg Mitchell a big guy, well presenter and Cinematics Director at Epic worked twelve years in television before he switched gears (pun intended) and went into the game industry. He already worked on the cinematics of the first Gears of War (GoW) but wasn't quite 100% happy with the outcome: Not all was motion captured and so
May 8, 2009
Animation, CGI & Rendering, Compositing, Lectures, Random Thoughts, Reports, Technology, filmmaking, games, people, photography, ranting, retro, video
No Comments
7:30 am and somebody walks downstairs. Good morning to me. My program for today was mostly about tracking and motion capturing and heavy duty compositing. You might have guessed: It was the day of Benjamin Button.
Read the rest…
7:30 am and somebody walks downstairs. Good morning to me. My program for today was mostly about tracking and motion capturing and heavy duty compositing. You might have guessed: It was the day of Benjamin Button.
After enjoying the breakfast a little too long I was rushing down Königsstraße in my car so I would make it to Pixar's RenderMan presentation. I already knew what it was going to be considering last year ("The Über-Sprite", the rocket, the fast-rendering motion blur) but Pixar is rather generous in handing out posters and presents and I wanted me to get another teapot for my collection [1. ...that consists so far of one Ratatouille-themeded teapot.]. I was too late, the room bursting with people. Obviously, word had spread that you get presents. People can be so greedy. I asked if I could make a reservation for the afternoon but it was in vain.
There I was standing, lacking a teapot and a clue of what I wanted to see instead. I headed to the biggest hall and ended up in "PhotoReal Faci
May 6, 2009
Animation, CGI & Rendering, Compositing, Computing, Lectures, Reports, Technology, films, on set, people
No Comments
I woke up early. Too early. My room is located under the stairs to the third floor so it’s needless to say that it’s noisy. The day started off rather cloudy. But it got better along the way. The last two conventions where as sunny as California in any orange-juice commercial so it was okay this year that the weather took leak a break.
Read the rest…
I woke up early. Too early. My room is located under the stairs to the third floor so it's needless to say that it's noisy. The day started off rather cloudy. But it got better along the way. The last two conventions where as sunny as California in any orange-juice commercial so it was okay this year that the weather took leak a break.
Hotel Hottmann, originally uploaded by Phil Strahl.
When roaming the Stuttgart streets again it didn't feel as nice as last year. It was cold, it was foggy and some drunk junk was shouting profanities and bugging people on the Schloßplatz. A sharp turn took me to Starbucks where a friendly caramel macchiato was waiting for me and where I decided today's program amidst men in fancy suits and a flock of girls skipping school.
I was among the first few visitors who showed up at 9:30 to view the introductory selection of short films from the Filmakademie Ludwigsburg featuring Urs, Some
February 15, 2009
Reports, photography
1 Comment
Usually I don’t like the winter. It’s cold outside, I am cold, I can’t wear my favorite clothing (hawaii-shirts and flip-flops), I have to dig out the car whenever I want to drive it, then it’s cold in the car and the snow-clots on my trouser legs melt and run into my socks while driving and then I’m cold again.
Still, when I think I can’t take it anymore, it snows again. Heavy flakes tumble in the air before resting on the ground, little by little covering up all the unpleasant details and the dirt, muffle harsh sounds and immerse the open land in innocence and tranquility — right before my window. In these moments of joy and inner peace I linger at the window, sipping my coffee. And then it strikes me: “I gotta take some photos!”
Read the rest…
Stereotypic Winter Photo, originally uploaded by Phil Strahl.
Usually I don't like the winter. It's cold outside, I am cold, I can't wear my favorite clothing (hawaii-shirts and flip-flops), I have to dig out the car whenever I want to drive it, then it's cold in the car and the snow-clots on my trouser legs melt and run into my socks while driving and then I'm cold again.
Still, when I think I can't take it anymore, it snows again. Heavy flakes tumble in the air before resting on the ground, little by little covering up all the unpleasant details and the dirt, muffle harsh sounds and immerse the open land in innocence and tranquility -- right before my window. In these moments of joy and inner peace I linger at the window, sipping my coffee. And then it strikes me: "I gotta take some photos!"
But this year I refrain from taking the same stereotypic winter photos everybody shoots every year (with some exceptions, of course). I wait for a spark of inspiration. Imagination. Whatever.
November 19, 2008
Animation, CGI & Rendering, Reports, films, ranting, review
No Comments
I have much time on my hands in Berlin now so I’ve been to the movies. I watched two classics in a charming little theater in the Kastanienallee, Delicatessen and Taxi Driver and two current Hollywood blockbusters in the UCI Colosseum multiplex theater, WALL·E and Burn After Reading. I will not talk so much about the films themselves because that has already been done by people way more proficient than me. No, I will focus on my experiences around and inspired by the movies. With no spoilers, as usual.
Read the rest…
I have much time on my hands in Berlin now so I've been to the movies. I watched two classics in a charming little theater in the Kastanienallee, Delicatessen and Taxi Driver and two current Hollywood blockbusters in the UCI Colosseum multiplex theater, WALL·E and Burn After Reading. I will not talk so much about the films themselves because that has already been done by people way more proficient than me. No, I will focus on my experiences around and inspired by the movies. With no spoilers, as usual.
Read the whole story below or jump to a certain flick:
Delicatessen
WALL·E
Burn After Reading
Taxi Driver
Delicatessen
A French indie from 1991 I remember having seen almost ten years ago. I watched it together with Esther and Martina from my class in the cute little Lichtblick Kino in Prenzlauer Berg after an extended chat and update on everything in the Café St. Oberholz.
The theater is so small and lovely that I feel like describing it a little. The first
It’s been more than eight months now since the student project MOSKAU (we also have a 
