I have much time on my hands in Berlin now so I’ve been to the movies. I watched two classics in a charming little theater in the Kastanienallee, Delicatessen and Taxi Driver and two current Hollywood blockbusters in the UCI Colosseum multiplex theater, WALL·E and Burn After Reading. I will not talk so much about the films themselves because that has already been done by people way more proficient than me. No, I will focus on my experiences around and inspired by the movies. With no spoilers, as usual.

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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…

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]

Sorry to all the people eargerly waiting for another post for six weeks now — I am just too busy at the moment trying to handle two full time jobs in one full time life with part time sleep. As soon as I have some time on my hands I will post a new tutorial on how to render Nuke compliant depth passes with mental ray or how to create that neat CSI flashing effect which is very easy in fact.

And I am pondering an idea for a weird short story all the time now so eventually I’ll drop that one onto you as well…

Greetings from Berlin!

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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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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The Watchtower,
originally uploaded by Phil Strahl.

Berlin again — at last! It’s been nearly a year since my first visit to this amazing city and hence I am working as an intern at rise|fx I am about to stay much longer than last year which is great. I’ve been here only a couple of days now but I really like this city full of textures and shaders, not only for its textural qualities but also for the new way of living and working here.
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Working on bigger projects with people in remote places always is a hassle. Today¹ I received the long anticipated hard disk with the blue screen shots I should be working on. I popped it into the USB port but Windows thought the device was damaged and suggested to replace it. Luckily I remembered that the person who sent me the disk was a Mac user so I tried connecting the device on some Mac and it worked. Then my data-odyssey began…

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1. Well, in fact yesterday now [back]

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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