bloggeye

Sunday Night Sketch.

2011-12-19T03:59:00.000-08:00

A sketch I did with Dynamesh last night. I still prefer Mudbox but I thought it's good to get back to the good old ZBrush from time to time.

A new toy.

2011-12-16T15:56:00.001-08:00

A quick sketch I did this evening in mudbox which was rendered in Modo. I really like the renderer. Quite intuitive and you can get quick results...

Scripts

2011-11-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

I am proud to announce that today my first mel script called fillSelection is available. This little tool is supposed to select parts of the mesh based on edgeloops. Enjoy!

I got quite some help from Tom with the coding process, as I am just starting in that area. Thanks for that! I am really starting to like the scripting process and therefore I have plans for a few additional tools. Mostly to make modeling more fluent and efficient in maya. Stay tuned :)

Are you bored?

2011-11-12T03:57:00.000-08:00

I just found and interesting thread over at cgfeedback. There are a lot of hints and suggestions from industry professionals to keep inspired and motivated.

I really enjoyed reading it.

Concept Art #2

2011-10-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

Those were done when the first version of our script had been completed. Again 2-3 hours each in CS5.

Concept Art

2011-10-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

As our Project is in full production right now I thought I can share some of our concept designs. I'll start with the very first ones, done while we were working on the script to get some idea of the setting. Done in CS5 in approx. 2-3 hours.

Sometimes...

2011-08-11T18:12:00.001-07:00

... I just love mudbox. Crashed while saving. So this screenshot is all there is left from this guy. Irony: I guess I looked exactly like that when it happened :/

Two more

2011-08-11T14:34:00.001-07:00

Two more renderings of Rachel. I made some minor tweaks around the eyes and mouth.

A bad joke.

2011-08-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Just recently a friend gave me a Blade Runner DVD and I totally forgot how AWESOME this movie is. In my view one of the best movies ever made.
I did watch it about 3 times now and as a tribute I created my own version of Rachel. Due to our diploma-film I didn't have the time (or patience) to do the hair - therefore I photoshopped it in :). Not perfect, at all but I might just leave it for now.

Basemesh done in Maya. Sculpting/Texturing in Mudbox and rendered with Vray for Maya.

Sketches

2011-08-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

2 hours. Started in Sculptris. Finished, painted and rendered in ZBrush (glow was added in Photoshop). I am seriously on a fantasy-trip right now. Even more than usual :)

Enki Texturing

2011-07-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

We had to do some more work on our PreViz and Pipelining, so I didn't have much time for texturing lately. But it is coming along and I really enjoy texturing in mudbox. I recommend a graphics card with 2 gigs of ram to do that without crashes, but then it works just fine. Here a screenshot out of mudbox with a first draft of the diffuse and bump layer.

Meshup.

2011-06-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

Recently I finished the meshes for one of our main characters. The basemesh and one for our muscle-system setup.
Retopology was done in 3DSMAX and then reprojected in ZBrush. I now got it into Mudbox (an easy process with "Reconstruct Subdiv" now in 2012 included) where I am finishing the high frequency details and texturing will be next.

Diploma Project..

2011-05-30T13:13:00.001-07:00

Why is this blog so neglected? Well, the reason is I am quite busy with my final project at the Institute of Animation in Ludwigsburg.
Since this is what I am working on most of the time I thought to start some sort of diary regarding our (we are a team of 5 people) diploma project which we are working on right now. I'll try to post once a month or even more, depending on how much we get done :)

2 Weeks ago we entered production and started with shooting Mocap-Data for our film. We had great support from other universities which allowed us to use their equipment for our shoot. THANKS! Overall we did have 5 days for our shooting, which was plenty and therefore I think we have some nice material :)

Right now we are in the process of cleaning the Data and deciding which takes we will use within the movie.

Here some pictures from our shoot.

FMX

2011-05-09T09:43:00.001-07:00

Recently FMX took place in Stuttgart. It was a great week with cool people, presentations and a few nice parties :) Therefore the last week was not very productive, but today I had a little time during coffee break and I finally did some ZBrushing again. I tried to do some quick hard surface stuff and the result was this Cyborg. Around 60 mins with ZSpheres2 and some brushing afterwards...

Not .. err .. dead ..

2011-04-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

Long time. Again. The thesis is taking all my available time lately. But I am still working on stuff besides that - at least as much as I can. Recently I started a new speedsculpt at our Sculpting-Round. I bought Tec-Clay and the material is quite nice, not as soft as Sculpey and right now I prefer this one. I hope I find time next week to finish that one...

Besides that I added a new "Illustration" Link-Section to the blog. Make sure to check that out as I will add more links to some inspiring artists in the future.

A quick scene setup.

2011-03-12T13:26:00.000-08:00

Hey. Here is my latest sculpt. It started out as a torso anatomy sketch which evolved a little bit further. It's still not finished and I dont know if I'm going to, since I am quite busy with my Thesis. Maybe some time in the future :)

But I used this one to share my render/shader setup in maya. Enjoy.

saturday kitsch...

2011-01-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a few beers with my good friend Johannes which ended up to be a music painting session. Here are a few stills from the acrylic painting I did... it was a lot of fun and I'm sure we'll be doing this again.

unglossy.

2011-01-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

Sculptis & Mudbox

2011-01-13T07:49:00.000-08:00

FInally a Demon again :). 30 mins today.

Happy New Year

2011-01-08T03:39:00.000-08:00

I wish everyone a happy and successful 2011. I had two weeks of total relaxing and now I am looking forward to fulfill my New Year's resolutions :)

I've been working on the "Zombie" a little bit more and now only the arms are missing (he wont have any legs). I'll post a finished render next week.

Recent Events.

2010-12-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

For the past 2 months I was working at Pixomondo in London. I had to opportunity to work on my first film as a creature modeler. It was a great experience and I learned a lot during my time there. Now I am back at school and I started working on my Thesis Film. We are in a very early process and as we are working on storyboards I am finishing a model for another project.

This will be a digital double for a transformation shot, where this guy will transform from this painted "zombie" to a normal guy. My first attempt at shading a person with Vray. It's working okay since Vray is a nice renderer, but the SSS2 is a joke. Where is my BRDF, my additional color or additional bump slot? Well, I am probably too spoiled by MR Skin.

The hair is only a dummy object btw...

Update!

2010-10-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been busy times, but finally I will take care of this blog again :). First of all my latest animal. The production model of the Gorilla. Hope you like it.

Sculptris, for fun!

2010-08-30T04:44:00.000-07:00

During my break today. Base was done in Sculptris, details & rendering in ZBrush. Took me way too long tho...

Animals...

2010-08-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been working on a lot of animals for various projects. The first one which I finished was a tiger.

Sculptris #2

2010-07-27T03:23:00.000-07:00

Today I was doing another Sculptris Test. This time not so successful with several crashes and I had to use ZBrush to finish the sculpt, when Sculptris became too slow to work with. Lets hope for the Beta :)

Sculptris

2010-07-24T12:12:00.001-07:00

I just downloaded Sculptris today. The new Sculpting Tool from Pixologic. With retopology beeing a standard when it comes to sculpting it seems an interesting idea to totally put this aspect aside when you start a sculpture. You can focus on forms and design with total freedom and worry about technical aspects later. Sculptris has some sort of Voxel, ZSpheres2 approach which will add only the necessary geometry you need at any certain point. So the concept.

Sculptris feels like home in matter of minutes. Intuitive Navigation, clean User Interface and you can start right away. I think Sculptris delivers on most aspects, with it's biggest issue at this point beeing speed. 400.000 triangles when my machine (a monster of a computer) started to get uncomfortably slow. I still was able to work, but it wasn't as fun as in the beginning. The Brush interface feels very intuitive, but the brushes itself feel a little unprecise (probably due to the dynamically added geometry)
If Pixologic can improve on the issues above and add a good asset management tool (which is still missing in ZBrush to date) I'd say I wouldn't hesitate to add Sculptris to my Pipeline.

Sculptris is available as a Free Alpha Version at the ZBrushCentral Forums. So make sure to check that out.

20 mins in Sculptris out of a Sphere.

A few test shapes...

2010-07-08T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am currently trying some stuff regarding "realistic" facial animation. I made a few shapes, when we realized that this might not be the right approach. Anyways - it was a lot of fun...

Mental Ray...

2010-06-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

I have been updating one of my latest characters with textures. For the rendering i combined the Architectural with the fastSkin Shader in Maya. I think it gives quite nice results. Hope you like it.

Speed Sculpt on Thursday...

2010-06-11T08:15:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had the first Digital Speedsculpt Evening at school. Maybe we will do this more often from now on. The theme yesterday was "Transformation". I started from a Sphere in Mudbox and I worked on it about an hour.

Output, Output, Output...

2010-06-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

Besides my monsters I am working on a commercial right now, where my first duty was to model a deer. Rather Low Poly because the real footage is beeing projected back on the 3D geometry. I rarely get to model animals, but I think I'll pursue this more often now - it was actually fun.

Speedy...

2010-05-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

I started from the Mudbox base mesh. 30 minutes for the bust and a quick render with Mental Ray.

Anatomy Studies

2010-05-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

During the last weeks I was working on some 3D anatomy studies. I hope you like them.

3D Printing...

2010-04-27T03:33:00.000-07:00

I modeled this character for a friends school project and right now we are in the process of 3D printing it. The Character was modeled in Maya, sculpted in Mudbox and posed in ZBrush. As this model might be hell for every 3D printer, I'll keep my fingers crossed :) Done in 3 days (Concept by Felix Mertikat).

Sculpture...

2010-04-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

I realized that I never posted a picture of my final Forest Elf sculpture. I took a picture of it today and it was a lot of fun to do a light setup with my desk lights here at school :) Hope you like it.

Vacation...

2010-04-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

During the last months so much has happened that I can not post everything in here. So much - the ITFS Trailer is finished and will be shown from May 1th - May 5th on the ITFS in Stuttgart. It's been a lot of fun and a lot of stress at the same time... but I like our little movie :)

Now I slowly find time for sketches again. This one I did today is called "Vacation" - maybe because I am looking forward to get a break soon ^_^. I only worked on it for 20 mins and didn't spend a lot of time on the hair.

Gorilla

2010-03-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

Done today as a Looktest for a CG integraion shot. Sculpted in Mudbox, Textured and rendered in ZBrush. Thorsten Löffler kindly did a quick Fur Setup in XSI which was overlayed in Photoshop. The eyelight is painted aswell. Done in 3 hours.

Life Drawing

2010-02-01T15:43:00.001-08:00

Finally some Life Drawing at school. It's been great to get some practice again, since most of the time I spend working in Maya. The ones you see ranged from 1 minute to 20 minutes. Hopefully there will be some more sessions in the future...

Sketch of the week...

2010-01-24T10:35:00.000-08:00

2 hours for this sketch of the week. A did a mudbox screencap and a maya/mental ray rendering...

Mudbox break...

2010-01-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

I took a quick break from my current project today and made a mudbox sketch. In the end I couldn't resist to paint this litte alien guy. From start to finish it took me about 4 hours...

First of all...

2010-01-09T14:38:00.001-08:00

I wish everybody a Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to the 2010 with some cool projects coming up. The ITFS-Trailer started production and slowly everything is taking shape. I'm currently modeling the main character, but it's a little bit too early to show anything yet. Last thursday we had our first sculpting round this year and for a change we worked digitally this time. Took me about an hour in Mudbox to sculpt this guy and another 20 minutes to paint him. It was a lot of fun :)

New clothes

2009-12-19T04:33:00.000-08:00

Due to the project at school I only find little time to work on Enki, but at least I was able to add the new clothing.

Enki Final Sculpt

2009-12-05T10:44:00.000-08:00

A quick update. Enki is finished - at least his body. I made him a little bigger and right I am unwrappng and working on his new clothes. So far everything was done in Maya and Mudbox.

An amazing adventure...

2009-12-01T15:28:00.000-08:00

The last few days we had a workshop led by Marko Djurdjevic, who gave us some amazing insights in his work. We got a nice overview about drawing basics, how he applied them in his work and finally some drawing demos which were quite awesome I have to say. I took along a lot from these past 3 days and I hope for more of this kind of lessons at school.
During the Workshop I tried to apply the new learned techniques and did my own comic-book cover ;) 3 hours until Blitz Woman saw the day of light.

Besides that I added Martin Bohms Online Portfolio under my Friends section. A very talented artist, so make sure to check out his webpage.

Things changed a little...

2009-11-14T06:54:00.000-08:00

Well, things changed a little bit regarding the itfs trailer I am going to make. A few other students had a great idea for a trailer and so I decided to join their team. The other project is still something I want to do, but not right now. We are still in an early development stage, but I hope to post some wip-pictures as soon as they come available.

In my free time I am still sculpting some creatures. Yesterday I found time to do the legs for Enki. Still unsure what do do with the armor. I might change it to a more tribal like one. I think one more draft on the body and texturing can begin.

Back to normal

2009-10-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been busy with a lot of stuff lately but things have settled and so again I have some time to update my poor blog.
Yesterday was the first Sculpting-Round at the Institute of Animation and I think it went very well. After a few problems in the beginning everything went smooth. Most people have their basic structure ready and can start sculpting next week. It's a lot of fun and I will try to keep this up as long as possible.
Besides that I did some digital work aswell. Since we still do not have any ZBrush at School (which is really bad) I am mostly working with Mudbox these days. For my next project which I started to work on a first character sketch.

I am alive

2009-10-19T01:49:00.000-07:00

Well. A lot has happened since my last post. I successfully moved back to Germany and since a few weeks I am back at the Institute of Animation. It is nice to be back and I am looking forward to the remaining time here. Things started quite relaxing - for a change I am doing a matte painting for a film right now while I am working on concepts for the upcoming itfs trailer. Another cool thing is that the first official Sculpting Round will start this thursday... more creatures will follow :)

Dooodles

2009-09-10T15:21:00.001-07:00

Having the pleasure of doing the tax right now, besides looking for a room and working doesn't leave me with a lot of spare time these days. A few sketches is all I found time for, but that was very relaxing.
Within the next weeks I hope to get my hands on first storyboards, moods and designs for the ITFS Trailer I am going to make. It is going to be awesome (I think :)

A quick look back

2009-09-05T05:23:00.001-07:00

My plane left 6:20 pm from Vancouver Airport - back to Germany and eventually the Institute of Animation. It has been almost one year in Vancouver now.

It was an amazing time and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to live and study in this great city. The exchange program with VFS was a great experience, because not only did I have the opportunity to learn many things in 3D and Animation, but also did I meet many interesting people along my way here.
I have seen and done so many great things in Canada that I am certain that I will come back some day. Thank you for the great time!

And here comes a picture of my class at VFS. Funny people!

Texturing

2009-08-23T15:10:00.001-07:00

I started texturing mr.alien today. I decided to use Zapplink for the first draft. This way it was easier for me to decide on the direction I want to go for. I did a quick render in Zbrush which I touched up in Photoshop.
That's what I came up with so far.

Enki

2009-08-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

Based on a project which I intended to do with Felix some time ago I started to model my interpretation of one of the main characters. Due to time restrictions and the size of the project we never got beyond the design stage. I still like the designs and therfore I started to work on Enki. Tools of choice are Maya and Mudbox - as usual :)

Mudbox again...

2009-08-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

I still dont know which program I prefer. Sculpting feels better to me in Mudbox, but ZBrush seems more flexible and versatile... ayayayay. I finished the sculpt on this guy today. Texturing is next - this time with mudbox.

old paint

2009-07-30T20:55:00.001-07:00

Update

2009-07-30T08:14:00.001-07:00

A new female sculpt. I am still working on it. The hands and the stomach area are the parts I need to fix most I guess.

Sculpting

2009-07-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

Well, here is HEAVY work in progress shot of my latest sculpt. Within the next days I'll hopefully finish this one. I want to try out some clay head studies as a next thing. And by the way, make sure to check out Giovanni Nakpil's Portflio, which I added to my List of Modeling Grand Masters.

Photoshop

2009-07-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

For fun!

Dropzone - Illustration

2009-07-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

Today I made a still frame out of my existing assets from the vfs modeling reel. Thats fun! :) This one I called "dropzone".

Dominance War IV

2009-07-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well, the Dominance War is over and the finalists artworks are outstanding. I think the chosen models and artworks raised the bar once more. What has to come next year to win the finals - we dont know yet, but I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT.
For the fifth installment of the competition I will be participating for sure. Although it might be virtually impossible to win I am sure it will be a great learning experience. Congratulations from my side not only to this years winners, but everyone who took part and finished his model... you might not have won, but I am sure you learned a lot :)

I was following Vadim for some time and I think his entry was inredible and therefore a well deserved winner of the competition. He now has been added to my list of modeling grand masters - make sure to check out their portfolios.

I will see you on the battlefield 2010!!!

Mudbox

2009-06-29T17:59:00.000-07:00

Took a break from human face studies and did an Alien. There was no concept in the first place, so it developed while sculpting.
This was also a break from concept development. I am making up my mind for my next project at the Institute of Animation. I got a couple of loose ideas, but nothing is decided yet. It is still time as school will continue on October 1th...

Reference Mesh Modeling

2009-06-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

For a project I am working on I did a Character Base Mesh today. All done in ZBrush with no intention to retopo it, since this will be only used for proportion reference in Maya. Still WIP - mostly on the hands and feet. Took me .... emmmhhhh... about 6 hours so far.

On the Road.

2009-06-16T23:20:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time since my last update. Well, I took the opportunity to see California these last weeks. The trip was amazing and while I am still recovering, I am slowly getting back on track. Soooooon there will be some new updates.

ZBrush Sculpt

2009-05-19T14:23:00.001-07:00

ZBruuush! I dont know exactly what I want to do with this, but well...

Trying something new

2009-05-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

I got tired of my old design, so I quickly chose some new fonts and colors - i'll work on it some more in a few days. did a 30 minute sketch today while having coffee.

ZBrush for fun

2009-05-12T10:20:00.000-07:00

Did this for fun yesterday...

My Demo Reel

2009-05-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Please take a look at my Demo Reel which I created at VFS. I would especially like to thank Felipe Sanchez for his Music/Sounddesign and Fabian Rühle for his effort to get me all the Motion Capture Data.

Vancouver Sketch Group

2009-05-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

The theme this week was "Industrial Zombie"

2D again...

2009-05-07T00:09:00.000-07:00

I am rendering on my Laptop - 6 hours for one frame, which takes 5 minutes on the workstations at vfs - its just ridiculous. Anyways, that leaves me with alot of time for drawing. Did some more Life Drawing lately.

Sketchround Vancouver

2009-05-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

This saturday i have been to the Vancouver Sketch Group for the first time. It was a lot of fun and I really plan to go there more often now. Everyone over there is SO good and I already learned alot by watching those guys draw. If you are interested in drawing and live in the vancouver area, i suggest you take a look over here.

Before...

2009-05-01T14:55:00.001-07:00

... I go out and chill a little bit at the beach :), I thought I'd share the latest piece I am working on. Basically I was trying out ZApplink for ZBrush to do the texturing. Its a nice tool, so the next step will be doing some hair for this guy.

Its over now...

2009-04-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Last week we had our last day at VFS. It has been a great time and I made alot of friends at school. The time was intense, but I feel I have learned alot. I am a little bit sad that everything is over now, but at the same time I am happy to finally have some free time. I will stay in Vancouver for a few more weeks to see a little bit more of the town and its people. Time to get some rest and enjoy the sun. The small Movie I did at School is done aswell and I am o.k. how it turned out. I still need to learn alot more, but I am looking forward to yet another 2 years at the Institute of Animation. Here are some screens from my Demoreel.

During my littel break from 3D I enjoy drawing on my new Sketchbook. I signed up for the weekly Vancouver Sketch Group and I will go there for the first time next Saturday. Besides that I still have an unfinished second Sculpture at home which I really want to finish too... so if you see somebody sculpting in Stanley Park, it could be me :)

Almost over...

2009-04-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

The last days at VFS and I am close to finish my Reel. Still some minor tweaks and fixes in comp are needed, but the 3d work is done! Here is the latest picture from the main character model. Soon ill update the blog with more pictures from the movie.

Its close

2009-04-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Only 2 weeks left until our deadline - actually it is only 1 week. On Thursday I have my Edit Session with our Mentor Rob Wood. We will make the final tweaks for my Reel and prepare it for Graduation. I am close to be finished, but there is still so much work to do. I plan to have the first version of the reel done today and move on to compositing tweaks from now on. Here the latest picture from my reel...

What a beautiful city...

2009-03-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

I just realized again today how beautiful Vancouver is!

Underworld done...

2009-03-22T10:27:00.001-07:00

Well, I spent another hour on the model yesterday. I consider this one done for now...

A quick update

2009-03-20T23:21:00.001-07:00

Today we had our final Project Presentation. It was ok and I got quite positive feedback on my reel. It still alot of work for me to do and I hope to get alot done within the next 2 remaining weeks. I thought of applying for the scholarship, but I am not sure what to do. Well, I have to make my decision within the next week, so ill have to think fast.

Anyways. Beside the stressful time I found some time today to do a sketch in ZBrush. We have a one hour speed-sculpt session each week now and I really enjoy to do some scuplts with those incredible artists at vfs!! Here is the sketch I did... the theme we had today was "underworld". Obviously not finished, but maybe I have some more time to work in it in the future. Started out with Zspheres - took me around 2 hours.

Another set of renders...

2009-03-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

I was working some more on my Project and came up with some renders. The face is definately taking the right direction, although it is still a bit waxy. But that should only be a matter of tweaking some weights. Then I put together one picture in Photoshop which should come close to the final look I am going for. Ignore the the Cockpit window tho - it doesnt have the appropriate shader on it at this point.

A set of render sketches...

2009-02-17T22:30:00.000-08:00

I am texturing my plane right now, so I had a few minutes some time while rendering a better quality picture. Well, two days before that I bought a Frank Franzetta book - this should explain the content a little bit :) The sketches took me about 1-2 minutes each.

Shaders/Texture WIP

2009-02-04T21:02:00.000-08:00

Some progress shots of the Character I am currently working on. Still alot to do, but feel free to post any comments and critique. Thanks.

Super Sculpy...

2009-02-01T14:48:00.001-08:00

... is fun to work with. Once a week we have Sculpting Classes lead by Gideon Hay. Its a lot of fun and I almost finished my first Sculpt. I need to do some fixing around the elbow and Hand-Area. But here are some progress-shots. I will try to paint it after baking and I hope i dont screw it as I never did that before... wish me luck :) For my Project I am still Texturing my Main Character... I finally have a shader set up that I really like, so I will post some screens within the next days. Cheers...

Life Drawing

2008-12-03T23:00:00.001-08:00

The latest pictures I did in Life Drawing class. The class is really great, as we learn alot from the teacher. Its 3 hours, 2 times a week. I hope I can keep up going there till the end of the program... this is one of the Lessons I really enjoy!

Vancouver and all

2008-11-30T14:10:00.000-08:00

Hi folks. A new day in Vancouver and it is great. Things go very well at school as I joined the Life Drawing sessions. Two times a week, 3 hours Life Drawing is an amazing experience. Our teacher is really impressive in terms of his anatomical knowledge and his drawing skills. Every day I can see myself improving, although I have a long way to go. The project is coming along nice aswell. The hard surface modeling is close to be completed and I was going a bit ahead to do some tests with the final head sculpt of the character. There is still some more work to do, but I like the direction it is taking. I was going a bit away from the original sketch I did and made him younger.

When I have time I try to explore Vancouver as much as I can. So far I was spending my weekends to check out some bars. Next weekend it will be my first trip to Whistler, where I will go Snowboarding for a day. Thats it for now. Cheers.

It begins...

2008-11-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

...or better, it already has begun. Last week I had my first lesson at VFS. Due to my Exchange Program I jumped directly into Term 4, making a film. I was not sure if this was possible, but it was no problem to change from Animation to the Modeling Term.
Unfortunately my preferred software package, 3D Studio Max is not available at school. Therfore, I have to learn Maya now. I need to figure out a lot of stuff very fast to stay within my schedule. My first task will be Matte Painting, so at least I know how to use Photoshop :). One of the coolest parts is sculpting, tho. We started a class where we do a full-body sculpt of a creature our choice. We start doing the skeleton, on top the muscles and in the end the final sculpt. This is so much fun and you learn SO much! It is even better than ZBrush ;).

Although I am busy with School now, I had some spare time left and did a quick painting a few days ago. But now I have to get back to work! See ya.

I arrived and I need a room

2008-10-14T00:06:00.000-07:00

I finally arrived in Vancouver. The city is truly amazing and I dont think I will have any trouble staying here for a year. Everything is quite busy right now, especially because I didnt find a good place to live so far. Over here they rarely have shared appartments like I am used to in Germany. Most of the places are totally out of by budget or they look like a rat hole (for 300 €). But it seems I am not the only one having some trouble getting a room, since most people I met here used to look for 4 to 6 weeks for a fitting appartment.
Well, this is what keeps me busy most of the time. I didnt really have a chance to work on my Project so far, but if things go well the next days I might have a place very soon - and hopefully in the Downtown-Area.
On 20th this month there will be a first meeting at VFS, where the stupid newbies (like me) are made familiar with everything at school. I dont think I will have much time preparing more parts for the movie as I'd like to see a little bit more of Vancouver, before School gets going.
I took some pictures already, but right now I am too lazy to upload them - but I will do so as soon as I got my own place to stay... somewhere, some time, hopefully. Keep fingers crossed please.

Vancouver I am coming...

2008-10-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

2 more days ... I am having all my stuff together and I am pretty much ready to take the flight. It is funny, because I dont have the chance to take very much with me I had to find out what I really need - and that is not much at all. Notebook, some clothes and maybe a toothbrush :).

Unfortunately the Dollar Course is not as good for myself as it used to be. This means things will be alot more expensive over there than I had expected. Seems I cant go Snowboarding every weekend - but I will try to go as often as possible... really looking forward to this. Although I am working my ass off to save some money, I still had the time to work on my VFS Project. I am still in a Design and R&D stage, but things are coming along pretty good.

I also found some support among my fellow students at the Filmakademie. I really appreciate this to have these talented people on board. It is going to be a real challenge working together with them, with only internet as communication media along with 9 hours time difference.

A huge step forward was settling with a look for the face of the main character. It was some ZBrush doodling I did and I am pretty happy with the result - now I will need to translate this to the final model within the next weeks. C&C are welcome...

So, my next post will happen from Vancouver I guess... See ya!

Scribbler Drawing

2008-08-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i was browsing trough the internet with an amazing tool called "Stumble". You can select personal interests and Stumble will randomly guide you to homepages related to your hobbys/interests. It seems all pages have been reviewed by countless other peeople, so actually almost any page is interesting. And then it happened yesterday that i arrived at the Scribbler Homepage. This is an amazing tool and fun to use. The tool offers you a blank page where you can draw whatever you like - then you send it to scribbler and he will transform it into an illustration. Sounds cool? - It is!

Vancouver Film School

2008-08-06T19:44:00.001-07:00

I finally received my letter of acceptance from Vancouver Film School. To say that I am happy is slightly understated. This is an incredible opportunity and I am looking forward to moving there by the end of October. Well, since everything is set now I can proceed with my visa application.

I have already begun working on the movie I would like to make at VFS. Since I want to concentrate on creating strong imagery I decided to make a Teaser Trailer for a Short Film that might happen some time later. I will post some concept artwork and designs in a few weeks as soon as everything gets a little bit more in shape.

Well, this is it for now.

Spaceport

2008-05-08T04:22:00.001-07:00

Currently i am visiting the fmx most of the day. It is really amazing to see what is the current standard in vfx and animation. If you have the chance to go there, you should. But today i was doodling around and made some small drawings in photoshop :) Enjoy!

For fun

2008-03-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

Just doodling around...

Vysehrad has been completed

2008-03-06T08:07:00.000-08:00

On February 28th Vysehrad was screened at the official Filmschool Presentation. I am happy how everything turned out and the people seemed to like the movie aswell.
The next screening will be on Mai 5th at the ITFS (Festival of Animated Film Stuttgart). Here are some stills from the movie - and if you like to watch it, the festival is the next chance ;)

An update

2008-01-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, a happy and successful new year 2008.

The project is its final preparations for shooting next week. The set is beeing built, the costumes are in the making and two talented actors are in aswell. I made some final tests with the cg-soldiers, to see how the light setting has to be. Thats what i came up with - took me three hours to animate/set light and render it. (google made it dark again). Hope everything will work out...

Vysehrad continues

2007-11-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

While i am still looking for a producer, i am working on the script while designing the world and some of the characters. I did a test-shooting this week and was able to integrate the full-cg characters. Didnt take too much time, so i am optimistic it will be ok for the final shooting. I will post a small part of the vfx-shots very soon. So far i finished the first matte-painting for the film.

3D Test - CGI Characters

2007-11-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

for my upcoming short film "vysehrad" i did some cgi-tests today, integrating the characters into realtime footage. i think it worked out quite well. the models are really low-poly, having only about 3000 polygons. There will be no close up shots, only having strong moving camera and action - so i think that will be ok.

the concept

2007-10-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

some more sketching...

back from vacation...

2007-09-28T06:57:00.000-07:00

after several weeks away, i am back home in stuttgart. well... thats ok i guess :)
during the whole trip, i was continously drawing - what left me with almost 2 sketchbooks full of drawings. here is a small part of the things that i did...

two more

2007-06-25T12:27:00.001-07:00

More sketches

2007-06-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

Some more sketching, basically looking for ideas

Doodling around...

2007-06-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

spinned around some ideas for the next semester. besides that some portrait sketchings from photos and some female anatomy drawings from mind.

The good ol copics...

2007-06-05T05:18:00.000-07:00

...are almost gone :/ Unfortunately im pretty much broke, so i cant have any new ones. Well, anyways today im posting a cuuuute picture, what doesnt happen very often that i do one of those. hope you like it :)

and here some quick doodles produced in our director's class :)

Another making of

2007-05-09T04:54:00.000-07:00

Im putting together some footage for a new demoreel, so a few making ofs are beeing done right now. its kinda fun to do them :)

here one of my favourite shots from a short movie done by myself and my fellow student kai. its been in production for a while, but finally at the end of the month its beeing shown.

Some color practice...

2007-05-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

Today i did some color practicing on skin, and some anatomy testing aswell. No-ref used...

uuuuuuhhhhhhhh.... zombies :)

2007-05-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

Ah that ugly one, to get some 3D stuff up here :)
Also done for a pc-game...