Vray 3.5 for Maya
The new Vray for maya was just release and the features are looking awesome. Can’t wait to download it tonight and start playing around with it.
Skybike from “The Leviathan”
As promised, some pictures from my work on the Skybike from “The Leviathan”. Was responsible for the Modeling and Texturing. Its based on concept art from Adam Anderson.
The final model has around 500k polygons (without subdivs), so its actually fairly high, but there are some closeup and it needed this amount of details. Same goes for the the textures, 8 udims with 8k textures. every udim with a map for the base, painting, decals and dirt.
Scratchapixel
“Learn Computer Graphics Programming From Scratch”
just found this awesome Site on cgfeedback.com and thought, that it is worth sharing.Can’t really say that much about it in the moment, ’cause I just started exploring it, but it seems like a really good source of knowledge about Computer Graphics. Propably a lot of “nerdy” knowledge …. but nothings better then getting to know the roots of your job / hobby.
TG4 FORMORIANS
“In Irish mythology, the Fomoire (or Fomorians) are a semi-divine race said to have inhabited Ireland in ancient times. They may have once been believed to be the beings who preceded the gods, similar to the Greek Titans. It has been suggestedthat they represent the gods of chaos and wild nature, as opposed to the Tuatha Dé Danann who represent the gods of human civilisation. Alternatively, they may represent the gods of a proposed pre-Goidelicpopulation of Ireland.”
This is a small TV Bumper for TG4. It was produced by Big Fish.
the whole Project was realized by a small but well-selected team consisting of Grainne Freeman (Compositing), John O’Connell (Shading, Lighting, Rendering, Simulation and Production), Vadim Draempaehl (Animation) and myself (Modeling & Texturing of the Formorians).
“Last Days on Mars” Before & After VFX
the cinema release of "last days on mars" is coming closer and closer. its allready available on demand, but will hit the cinemas in the US at 6 of december. Probably have to wait to see it here in Germany, but i will wait, because is the first time to read my name on the big screen ;) Project was really cool and the Team at Screen Scene was even better. I was responsible for the Modelling, Texturing and Shading of the Rover (also did the lighting on a few shots) Breakdown Animations are taken from Ed Bruce
more after the break 
Wacom – Pioneers of Now
i took part at the "Wacom - Pioneers of Now"-Challenge on behance last week. will probably not win, since there are a lot of good entrys, but at least i had the reason / motivation to work on a personal 3d still. you can find the behance project here and a lot more images (hi res) after the break."Pioneer of now" is a quite intimidating topic.
When I am thinking about the pioneers of my industry, people like Ray Harryhausen, the Nine Old Men, Jim Blinn, Ed Catmull, Paul Debevec or John Lasseter are coming to my mind. People that changed a lot and paved the way for so many great artists, movies and techniques.
And then I see myself, a 25yr old guy, who is doing 3d for around 10yrs (3yrs as professional artist) and have to create a self portrait with this topic in my mind. I had real problems finding the right image. But in the end, I decided to create something honest. Just a guy (compared to "my pioneers", even just a child) sitting in his room the whole night and doing what he loves, trying to improve and contribute something. Having the chance to earn my money with my biggest passion is a great fortunate, but its also a tough challenge to keep the fire alive. So its even more important to have dreams, curiosity and a thick skin.
I am not (yet) a Ray Harryhausen or Ed Catmull, but I know, that i am "myself" and I know that I am trying to cross (my) borders, even after throwbacks and that is even more important for a pioneer then being well known.
Scene Reconstruction from High Spatio-Angular Resolution Light Fields
the first papers for the siggraph 2013 are appearing online.
this one from disney loooks promising, the result in the video is probably then any implemented version later on…but hey, its a demo and they are trying to sell the product..and that works.
cant wait to use this technique
Siggraph 2013 Tech Preview
seams like a lot of good papers at the next Siggraph, especially the Hair-Stuff looks impressiv..
R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen
I am probably too young to talk about the amazing and pioneering work of Ray Harryhausen.. but.. damn it will never forget the moment when i saw the Sceleton-Sequence from "Jason and the Argonauts" as a small boy for the first time. It was just astonishing. It was probably around '93 when a saw Jason for the first time and even back then, most people werent able to explain this technique... so Ray Harryhausen was a true magician, someone who just changed a lot and paved the way for so many things in the movie/vfx industry. Thanks Mr Harryhausen.BASSAWARDS – Bronze – “A Thing Called Love”
Dyrdee just recived the Bronze Bassaward for their Channel Ident of Viva called "Thing Called Love"."These days every teenager should know how propagation works. But for those who are still clueless we tell the story of birds and bees in a totally different way. Large airplanes turn the laws of physics upside down by acting like small insects, making out heavily with a group of big winged windmills. As the sun sets the technical orgy climaxes in a cloud of metal seeds flying into the sunset. The footage was shot on a red epic and stuffed with state of the art CG VFX to achieve the stylized retro realism."
I worked on this project as a freelancer and was responsible for the whole 3d pipline and the on-set vfx supervision. It was a really short and challenging project, around 2 weeks for postproduction, but was a good experience and the work with Jochen Weidner was a pleasure (as usual). He did all the 2d work.