Compositing

  1. No comments May 06, 2009 FMX 09, Day One Posted in Animation, CGI & Rendering, Compositing, Computing, Films, Lectures, People, Reports, Technology

    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.

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  2. 2 comments Apr 26, 2009 After Effects freezes at startup? Posted in Compositing, Tutorial

    I got this problem occasionally on different machines running Vista when firing up After Effects CS3. When it said “Initializing User Interface” it froze. Sometimes it would start after 15 minutes but, seriously, that’s not how I like to work, although I use any delay to excuse a round trip to my espresso machine. I didn’t find anything about it on the beloved internet so I had to figure it out myself. And here’s what you can do:

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  3. 3 comments Apr 22, 2009 Status Update: Still Alive Posted in Compositing, Dear Diary, Reports, Seph Carissa / texx sound

    It’s been quite a while since my last blog entry. In fact it has been so long, that I had to think twice to recall my password for this sweet blog o’ mine.

    You ask “What’s new? What’s cool?” and I tell you: A lot: I’ve been in the trenches with Nuke and fought After Effects so there’s a lot of stuff I want to show and tell what I’ve learned in the past weeks, not only about VFX.

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  4. No comments Dec 19, 2008 Mass Media Whore Posted in CGI & Rendering, Compositing, Computing, Dear Diary, Random Thoughts, Reports

    On Wednesday it was the day I had been waiting for since August. It wasn’t a spectacular day for many other people and by god not one of the best days in Germany’s TV-film era. It was one of those days the people in Germany, Switzerland and Austria were sitting in front of their TVs, eventually watching Die Patin on RTL. What’s so special about this mediocre adaptation on a random day? Ten shots of this movie were composited by yours truly.

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  5. No comments Oct 31, 2008 Hell o’Berleen Posted in Compositing, Dear Diary, Random Thoughts, Rants, Reports

    It was the first day that brought the smell of winter. Along with it two emails from Amazon tumbled into my mailbox, asking me whether my wishlist is ready for Christmas (it’s not). Today also is Halloween here in Berlin. On my way home from work the streets were filled with drunken people, costumed people, drunken people in costumes and punks (who I count to the latter group as well). People were carrying around pumpkins, I saw a guy carrying a ribcage around that looked shockingly real and giggling girls wearing pointed hats. Only one misguided blonde was wearing a Father Christmas Hat. That was my day…

    EDIT: Thanks to some Russian Malscript the rest of this post has gone into nirvana. And there was so much more ranting going on…

  6. No comments Oct 24, 2008 Autodesk swallows Softimage Posted in Compositing, Random Thoughts, Rants

    …and we all are worried and upset. Just look at that and tell me it doesn’t look scary. Maya, any former *discreet products such as flame, smoke, inferno, combustion, further 3dsmax and so on all come from Autodesk who will become the Adobe of post production. So you either buy from Autodesk or you switch to charted accountancy.

    I guess they will become what Electronic Arts is in games: Every year a new update of the same old shit with not more than one new feature but for the same price as the previous version. Not to mention cash-cowing with add-ons. So watch out for Avid 2009, 3dsmax 2010, Combustion: Tournament and the Maya Add-On Maya: Masters of Mayhem.

  7. 3 comments Oct 23, 2008 Wired Posted in Compositing, Reports, Tutorial

    I am sitting here in my new favorite café/restaurant in Berlin, the Rebellion des Zimtsterns 1 and wait for the dish of the day. I really need a break from the inconvenient truth I have learned a few minutes ago. If you read on there’s also a short tutorial on a possible wire removal workflow. Skip it, if you already know it.

    EDIT: Of course I couldn’t finish this lengthy post in one lunch break so I posted it the next morning.
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    1. translates to The Rebellion of the Cinnamon Star

  8. No comments Aug 06, 2008 Rise and Shine Posted in Compositing, Dear Diary, Reports
    see it at flickr

    rise|fx,
    originally uploaded by Phil Strahl.

    Monday was my first day of many other to come at rise visual effects Berlin as an intern. Strangely it’s exactly as I imagined it, maybe even a little boring — but hey: It’s my first week and they won’t hand me critical or very creative stuff right away because the team is a little stressed keeping a deadline for a feature film project due in 2009. I hope that I’ll be involved in stuff for the big screen myself sooner or later…

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  9. No comments Jun 01, 2008 Digital Cinematography Posted in Compositing, Films, Reports, Technology, Video

    Another convention report, my apologies! I haven’t thought that I would be on so many (= two) conventions in the field of digital film in such a short span of time. But attending the Digitale Cinematographie convention this Thursday in Munich was something way out of the ordinary because a little dream never dreamed came true: Seeing my work on the grandeur of a real IMAX theater silver screen.

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  10. No comments May 09, 2008 FMX 08, Day Three Posted in CGI & Rendering, Compositing, Films, Lectures, People, Reports, Technology

    Today I was eager for a new Pixar poster. Who would’ve thought that I spent nearly one and half hour talking with the guys and gals from Pixar?

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