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…

…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.

I am sitting here in my new favorite café/restaurant in Berlin, the Rebellion des Zimtsterns¹ 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 [back]

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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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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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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Recruiting day for me! Yesterday I was too tired and lacked of motivation getting some of my demo reels to the important representatives of Some Great Company. And I even shook hands with one of the people who got me into VFX at all.

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At 4:30am my cell phone tried to wake me, without success, but it succeeded ten minutes later shortly before I stuffed in some clothes, my ten portfolio DVDs and my bag of hygiene products. Then I tried giving Martina, who was one of my two passengers, the ordered wake-up call, unanswered twice. The third time she picked it up and sounded not even as sleepy as me. Donsch, my other passenger, was waiting outside the campus building patiently for me to arrive, 18 minutes late for I forgot to print out the addresses of the convention center and my hotel which really saved my ass.

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