In 1998 I started to learn 3D Studio on Dos. The animation possibilities were attracting my interest the most in these days. I learned Character Studio and applied to "InterActive Vision Mind Beacon" - game company in Szczecin - as a part time job. I took part in few game projects for RTL as an animator (Search & Rescue: Vietnam MED+EVAC, Firefighter), still working full time in urban field until 2003. The "loop animation" in game productions could be considered boring but from the other hand was also a challenge for my technical background. I did backup myself mostly with rotoscopy techniques, recording at first myself and my kids on VHS.
At 2003 I applied to the animation studio "Cartoon-Film" in Berlin, as a 3d animator and modeler. I became the first 3d artist in the studio. The confidence placed in me by the visionary producer Thilo Graf Rothkirch encouraged me and let me develop in many areas of movie making during next 10 years. I started there from 2D movie "The Little Polar Bear 2: The Mysterious Island" 2005 with modeling and rigging few characters for some cg shots (also posing them for cg layouts). Then there came Kleiner Dodo 2008 where I modeled the whole cave with it's interiors and hundreds of props where "Uncle Darvin" lived his peaceful life. Most of the shots inside and around the cave were done with cg layouts generated by me.
In 2006 producers came to a vision of making toon looking movie with usage of only 3d techniques which was really a big challenge. I was asked to gather all necessary tools, prepare pipeline and drive the production cooperation between our CF and Chinese studio "Animagics" driven by mister ChiGwang whose hospitality and care was beyond limits. I decided to continue with 3ds Max and FinalRender engine which had the best toon shader these days. The challenge was all the more difficult that the four previous hand drawn CF cinema productions were very successful in Germany and the time given for producing movie from the scratch was not more then 8 months. The restrictions and many rules of 2D facial design and animation weren't helping in 3d world. Nevertheless, after this first 3d/2d tryout of "Lauras Weihnachtsstern 2006" TV, the final result of the approach you can see in the next two following cinema productions were I've been sharing CG Supervison: "Lauras Stern und der geheimnisvolle Drache Nian" 2009 and "Lauras Stern und die Traummonster" 2011. For these productions we've given much more time, so results are fabulous. Compositing was done firstly in Combustion and then in Composite.
From 2010 I was taking part in a "more realistic style" movie production "Keinohrhase und Zweiohrkuken" developing and supervising the area of lighting, shading and the fur of all characters (~20) and props (~100 pieces). During these 3 years my knowledge at photo realistic rendering and shading tools expanded a lot. I learned VRay, IToo ForestPackPro, Mudbox, After Effects with plugins and the HairFarm which I was using extensively. From Adobe package I know also Adobe Premiere, Lightroom and of course Photoshop. For vector graphic I used always Corel Draw so never have had a chance to look at Illustrator.
In 2006 producers came to a vision of making toon looking movie with usage of only 3d techniques which was really a big challenge. I was asked to gather all necessary tools, prepare pipeline and drive the production cooperation between our CF and Chinese studio "Animagics" driven by mister ChiGwang whose hospitality and care was beyond limits. I decided to continue with 3ds Max and FinalRender engine which had the best toon shader these days. The challenge was all the more difficult that the four previous hand drawn CF cinema productions were very successful in Germany and the time given for producing movie from the scratch was not more then 8 months. The restrictions and many rules of 2D facial design and animation weren't helping in 3d world. Nevertheless, after this first 3d/2d tryout of "Lauras Weihnachtsstern 2006" TV, the final result of the approach you can see in the next two following cinema productions were I've been sharing CG Supervison: "Lauras Stern und der geheimnisvolle Drache Nian" 2009 and "Lauras Stern und die Traummonster" 2011. For these productions we've given much more time, so results are fabulous. Compositing was done firstly in Combustion and then in Composite.
From 2010 I was taking part in a "more realistic style" movie production "Keinohrhase und Zweiohrkuken" developing and supervising the area of lighting, shading and the fur of all characters (~20) and props (~100 pieces). During these 3 years my knowledge at photo realistic rendering and shading tools expanded a lot. I learned VRay, IToo ForestPackPro, Mudbox, After Effects with plugins and the HairFarm which I was using extensively. From Adobe package I know also Adobe Premiere, Lightroom and of course Photoshop. For vector graphic I used always Corel Draw so never have had a chance to look at Illustrator.