October 23, 2008
Compositing, Reports, Tutorial
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I am sitting here in my new favorite café/restaurant in Berlin, the Rebellion des Zimtsterns 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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I am sitting here in my new favorite café/restaurant in Berlin, the Rebellion des Zimtsterns [1. translates to The Rebellion of the Cinnamon Star] 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.
As some of you already know I am working as an intern at rise visual effects here in Berlin and spend my days working with Nuke, Combustion as well as Avid, the latter two being a major pain in my brains. Rise is currently doing the VFX for quite a number of international projects, putting me in the position to participate on some of them with minor shots. I keyed and comped [1. I will keep this kind of short form of “composited” from now on, so better get used to it] for the German TV movie Die Patin some dull green scre
August 29, 2008
Dear Diary, Reports, films, ranting, review
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I just came home from watching “The Dark Knight” in the UCI Colosseum in Berlin and I have to say: What a bunchload of crap! Really? No, of course not! This movie actually seems to me as one of the best super hero movies there can be — with a sophisticated story off the beaten tracks while staying true with the fans. Read on.
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I just came home from watching "The Dark Knight" in the UCI Colosseum in Berlin and I have to say: What a bunchload of crap! Really? No, of course not! This movie actually seems to me as one of the best super hero movies there can be -- with a sophisticated story off the beaten tracks while staying true with the fans. Read on.
Marlboro, Magic and many 'Mercials
It was my first night out watching a flick here in Berlin. I ordered the ticket online and once there I got myself all buzzing on salty popcorn, sugar and caffeine - thanks to the liter of coke which troubled me a little in the final act of the movie: I was ready for a nice evening with a good film.
Before getting into the movie itself I have to rant a little about today's movie theaters and their way with advertisements. When paying for something today, you're not really paying so much for the movie but for keeping the ads out of it. Interestingly this is not so much the case with films: If you download them for free (illegally, fair enoug
May 7, 2008
CGI & Rendering, Reports
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Currently the fmx, the Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media, resides for the 13th time in Stuttgart. Big woo because this year I’m among the participants. But my trip actually started on Sunday when I was getting ready, also mentally, for my upcoming days of celebrated geekdom.
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Currently the fmx, the Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media, resides for the 13th time in Stuttgart. Big woo because this year I'm among the participants. But my trip actually started on Sunday when I was getting ready, also mentally, for my upcoming days of celebrated geekdom.
My Demo Reel Mass Production, originally uploaded by Phil Strahl.
It all began a couple of weeks ago when I was hastily asked on the threshold of a door if I wanted to join this year's conference.
"Am I spontaneous? Well... yes I am. Alright – I'll be there.“
I said and it was settled.
This weekend most of my colleagues sharing my major at college drove on Sunday the 350 kilometers up to Stuttgart where they probably enjoyed a nice evening and had a whole night of sleep to prepare themselves for today's tour de force of lectures and presentations. The same night I was busy mass-producing ten portfolio DVDs complete with menu and all the necessary PDFs in the DVD-ROM section. When
September 17, 2007
Funny?, Quotes, Reports, people
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This summer Lisa and really like harvesting strange autographs (like this one). To add another one we went to Munich on Wednesday to see Chuck Palahniuk, the novelist who wrote books such as Survivor, Choke or Fight Club, who held a reading there in the Café Muffathalle.
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This summer Lisa and really like harvesting strange autographs (like this one). To add another one we went to Munich on Wednesday to see Chuck Palahniuk, the novelist who wrote books such as Survivor, Choke or Fight Club, who held a reading there in the Café Muffathalle.
Although we had to queue up to get our tickets I bought over the internets we were lucky with the seat. Somewhat. You probably noticed that there's no plural. But I didn't mind standing because I had a better view and taking photos felt more natural. Additionally I was able to use one of the columns as cheap tripod. It turned 8pm and no Chuck there yet. So we kept on waiting among the people who took turns to order "two beers" at the bar. Book-groupies and The Cult members everywhere were eager to meet their idol.
But how do you pronounce Chuck Palahniuk? [Pah-lae-nik] the evening's moderator said and a bald Chuck in a grey suit with flip-flops sat down between the moderator Bernhard Robben and the German (also voice) actor Jo
March 17, 2007
Essay, Reports
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Today was one of the days you won’t forget. But what was the essence of this day, the overall theme of its uniqueness? Experience I say, in many ways.
If you want to read about Stefan Sagmeister, a sudden incident and a cat, sacrifice ten minutes of your precious time and read on.
Read the rest…
Today was one of the days you won’t forget. But what was the essence of this day, the overall theme of its uniqueness? Experience I say, in many ways.
If you want to read about Stefan Sagmeister, a sudden incident and a cat, sacrifice ten minutes of your precious time and read on.
Prologue: The Dream
I am cruising with my car somewhere around Graz and its surroundings. I feel at ease, it is a warm day and I have nothing to worry about, I just feel the flow when I suddenly hear glass breaking, the terrible scratching sound of metal shoving against metal and wrinkling like tin foil. I am shaken, badly, my head hits the steering wheel. I taste the metallic flavor of blood. I just had an accident. The windmills in my mind catch a fresh breeze: “It had to happen sooner or later!”, “I didn’t pay enough attention!”, “I am gonna die!”, “Who’s gonna pay for the total?”, “What am I gonna do without a car?”, “What are my parents going to say?”. I felt a stinging pain near my
Call me flip-floppy but today I like Steam better than the day before. Because it works again and likes to display my custom models. Like the one out of three airplanes I modeled for S&P Simulations some months ago.
Last Wednesday afternoon I got a call from the Salzburg student home administration to move out by Friday 11am which meant more or less a catastrophe for me: My room was sooo cluttered and stuffed with electronics that it would be next to the impossible to get everything out by Friday. And to make things worse: Our rendering project Codename: Windshield that had started in December 2006 also needed to be finished by Friday.