Products

The cool thing about product CGI is the control you have as an art director. Quickly change the color, try out different lighting setups or simply let the product float in virtual worlds. No problem! Dynamic simulations have also become very realistic these days. Liquids, smoke, fabric, etc. can be imitated and tested in various variants with relatively little effort.

CLIENT

–

TASKS

Scene building, Design, Illustration, Simulation, Animation,
Lighting, Rendering, Postproduktion, Sounddesign

Credits

Ginger Fizz Song: Slow Energy by YRP, Pond5

Perfume bottle

Recently I started a self-initiated project to delve deeper into the art of product CGI in a more creative way. I’ve picked out some lifestyle products. To the product renderings I then create a few playful and abstract style frames.
A car, a watch, shoes and toothbrushes are planned later.

Automotive

Part two of my self-initiated project. Cars are a classic when it comes to product CGI. I really like the purist and at the same time mystical style of various Mercedes visualizations and I wanted to emulate that feeling of elegance and inner strength.

Sneakers

And this is part three of my product-deep-dive project. I wanted to be a little more colorful here and work with different color variations and combinations (BG). Only one color version was rendered and the others were created in post.

Video abspielen

Just a quick Render

Sometimes I just do a quick render to try out some new assets, materials, styles or techniques. That’s all it is.

Ginger Fizz

Ginger Fizz is a sparkling lemonade made with ginger, lemon and a hint of mint. The shot is intended as a product launch in which the beverage can is gradually revealed.
My focus here was on the water simulation. I wanted to capture the freshness of the drink and present it as realistically as possible.

Video abspielen

Video abspielen

Bamboo Headphones

The popular original version of these headphones comes in all styles and colors but not real bamboo. It’s really a pity, because natural materials definitely belong back in the product designs of this world. Sustainability and appreciation instead of plastic flood. That is the statement behind this visualization.

Strawberries

I love strawberries. Best ripe and fresh from the field. But cravings aside. I always admire the extremely realistic product shots that you see in advertising. Sometimes you’re not so sure what’s real and what’s not. I wanted to emulate that and have created a light and fluffy dessert with strawberry, chocolate and almond milk. A yogurt maybe?

Video abspielen

Fruity Dynamics

Physics meets design. After returning to 3D, I wanted to refresh my knowledge of dynamic simulations. That’s why I dressed some fruits colorfully and exposed them to gravity – among other things.

Nature

I am an absolute nature lover and can spend hours observing animals, plants and mushrooms. Hence my enthusiasm for the macro world, where you discover more and more details the longer you look.
Imitating nature scenes in 3D is my homage to the wonder of life. But I always allow myself to expand or even stylize a realistic representation. After all, that’s one of the many great benefits of CGI.

CLIENT

–

TASKS

Concept, Scene building, Lighting, Animation,
Rendering, Postproduktion, Sound Design

Credits

Model of centipede by Motion Design School
Model and textures of noodle shop by School of Motion

Grow

I just love things that grow!

With CGI, natural conditions such as growth can be easily manipulated or accelerated. The fungi were created using a particle simulation. For the tree I used a special tool for plants and trees.

Video abspielen

Windmill

As a 3D artist, fantasy fan and lover of simulation games, CGI landscaping is one of my favorite tasks. I love immersing myself into these ideal worlds.

Video abspielen

Centipede

I recently took a course and learned how to create professional and complex character rigs. This centipede was one of the tasks. I built the rig from scratch and then animated it with CMotion.
The environment is my own creation and was not part of the assignment.

Here’s a quick look at the rig that’s driving the skin.

Jellyfish

The jellyfish was also part of the rigging class and again I created the rig from scratch, animated it and designed the environment.
The rig is relatively complex – more complex than it looks like. It also includes a cloth simulation as well as a hair simulation.

Video abspielen

Here’s a short breakdown of the post-production.

Video abspielen

Stormy Tree

Having already created many peaceful landscapes, I wanted to create a stormy scene with a little more action. The animation is a relatively simple dynamic simulation. I enhanced the shot by integrating some VFX footage. A few color corrections and effects gave the scene a dramatic look.

A comparison before and after post production.

Dreamy Landscape

This type of dreamscape has become quite popular in recent years. And I really wanted to make one too. Simple geometric shapes combined with an abstract landscape. An interesting place of simplicity and timelessness.

Video abspielen

Nature meets Cyberpunk

This was an assignment in a course I took a while ago to learn Octane Rendering. I really enjoyed the combination of a romantic nature scene with a futuristic cyberpunk noodleshop.
I’m a fan of end time movies anyway so I’d love to make more of this kind of work in future.

Frame Ant Intro

For my new demoreel I wanted to create a special intro that represents Frame Ants identity. Creating photorealistic nature scenes is one of my core skills. But I also had the idea of adding some kind of magic twist.

Since I was a child I was very impressed by the ancient teachings of the elements and how they influenced mankind throughout history. In the classic four elements doctrine there are earth, water, air and fire but there are others such as that in China, which has 5 elements (fire, water, wood, metal, earth). Everything that exists is made up of these elements and each element is equally important to the balance of nature.

I tried to give my nature scenes a touch of this elemental spirit. But I didn’t want to only literally show elements, that seemed too simplistic to me. I also wanted to create a matching mood. I didn’t follow any particular theory, I just let it flow and this is what came out.

CLIENT

Frame Ant

TASKS

Concept, Scene building, Lighting, Animation, Rendering, Postproduktion

Credits

–

Water

Water is something cool and fresh but also calming. Therefore I chose a scene by the pond, just as the first rays of the sun appear. As a contrast to the liquid water, I made the logo out of solid stone with a touch of warm light on it.

Earth

Although all elements are equal in elements theory, earth is probably what we can feel the most. We stand on it with our feet and almost all of our food grows on it. This scene supposed to be rich and saturated. A warm place with trees that provide shelter.

Metal

Metal is hard and cold and hidden in rock. Even though it's so rough, metal is a true treasure of nature, once we bring it out of the darkness into the sunlight. The crystals are meant to show this, they are not metallic of course. 🙂

Fire

Here I went a more abstract way. Red poppies open up to the warm sky, letting butterflies and particles dance like a flickering fire. The Logo is bright and golden like the sun (figuratively).

Air

This is the only scene where I decided to add a human-made item. A piece of cloth is an easy way to show how soft and smooth air can be in a light summer breeze.

Behind the Scenes

The Process

After the process of finding ideas I usually do some very rough sketches to get the thoughts on paper.

Then I create a moodboard for some more inspirations before I jump into 3D.

Scorpion

The scorpion is just a little detail I wanted to use to reinforce the roughness and stability of metal. He also has a shiny and hard shell, that reminded me to metal. I found this model which was partly rigged. I adjusted the rig and animated it quickly with CMotion. As the scorpion isn’t visible in detail, this was a very useful method.

Flowers

The rig for the flower animation was actually a little more complicated then it looks like. The petals are animated with morph deformers. It was the easier way to have them roll out the way I wanted. Except the morphs, the whole rig is procedural and the animation is controlled by a simple field.

Post-Production

Here’s a comparison before and after post-production. I did some color corrections, added effects and created an overlay of particles.

Infinite Journey

This project means a lot to me. „Infinite Journey“ was a community challenge by Clinton Jones (aka pwnisher). Each participant was given the same task with a few conditions that had to be met. But the whole environment, the characters, the story, the design could be freely chosen. Over 2400 people submitted. The best 100 entries were selected by a jury and the top 5 were rewarded with cool prizes. I’m super happy that I’ve made it into the top 100 and I wanna thank Clint and his team for this challenge. It was a great experience and I’m sure I will do it again.

CLIENT

–

TASKS

Scene building, Lighting, Animation, Rendering, Postproduktion

Credits

–

Here’s the starting scene and the rules everyone had to start with.

Initial idea sketch. A wanderer returning to his hometown after a long time.

Updated quick sketch when I was thinking about adding a little boy.

Rough character design for the goat boy. In 3D I had to make his face much more realistic to match his fathers appearance.

Screenshot of the fantasy town with untextured waterfalls. No vegetation.

Overview of the whole scene.

The cabin from outside.

The idea

I’m a huge fantasy fan. So I had the idea of a wanderer returning to his hometown high in the mountains above the clouds after a long time. I found a cute goat character that fit my scene perfectly. But I quickly felt that something was missing from my story, and I also had concerns that the jury might not be happy with a character that wasn’t self-made. So I decided to add another little goat boy who is visiting his father’s hometown for the very first time.

Top 100

This is the top 100 montage Clint put together. I’m absolutely blown away by all the amazing talents and so many inspiring ideas!
There’s also a montage with the renders of all participants. It’s almost 3 hours long.

Film & Fantasy

Well, here I want to show you some short sequences that could be part of a movie or short film. I’d love to do some short films as passion projects in the future. There are many stories in my head that I’d like to tell and show. Until then, here are a few snippets.

CLIENT

–

TASKS

Concept, Scene building, Animation, Simulation,
Lighting, Rendering, Postproduktion, Sounddesign

Credits

Invasion: Models and textures of characters & spaceship: School of Motion
Songs: „Epic Trailer Choir“ by Walperion_Music, from Pond5,
„Scary Fluttering And Gasps“ by aquaeyes, from Pond5

The Lane: models of Jet and Jeep by School of Motion

Invasion

This work was part of my study for „Lights, Camera, Render!“ – a course taught by Octane expert David Ariew at School of Motion.

The main goal of this task was to design slow and controlled camera movements around the characters. Below that, the characters themselves should be posed and ultimately the whole scene should be illuminated in an interesting way. The result serves as a kind of title opener for a fictional tv series.

The Lane

This scene was created while I was studying cinematography in a class at the School of Motion. The main goals were to create contrasts and to find a suitable composition and lighting.
When Maxon recently released the new pyro simulation, I immediately tried out the new tool and set the jet on fire.

Video abspielen

Early versions of this scene

This is the viewport render. The final scene was quite intense to render due to the pyro simulation and the many high-resolution textures. Render optimization was therefore really important.

By the way, there is a special texture on the left building. As you can see, the surfaces of the model in the viewport are actually totally flat. The greeble texture then creates this complex structure.

Video abspielen

Satellite

Just a space scene. Please fix this satellite!
The globe is made in After Effects with ORB. A cool free plugin from Video Copilot.

The Skeleton - Le Transi de Rene de Chalon

This statue exists in a church in France. It was scanned and now remains immortalized in the digital world. It represents René de Chalon, who himself wished to be represented after his death as a skeleton with scraps of skin and his heart in his hand. At least that’s what rumors say.

Anyway, the statue inspired me. It seems somehow alive despite his appearance. A boundary between alive and dead. The skin dissolves and the skeleton is holding on to something that keeps it alive. I wanted to take up this topic and expand it. In my version, the skeleton is enlightened, redeemed, and hopefully it finds peace in eternity, if you can say so.

Video abspielen

The original rendering was actually a lot darker. In post-production I then started experimenting with different styles and finally settled on a quite light version. I liked the contrast between the dark topic (death and evanescence) and the bright, divine light. Here’s the dark original and some different versions.

Caught

Well. It started with a simple cloth simulation and I can’t remember exactly how that led to this scene. I suddenly had an image in my head of a porcelain woman, wrapped in fabric. She is empowered and levitating, but at the same time she is trapped and awaiting release. It is therefore not possible to say exactly whether she was enslaved or whether she is rightfully chained.

Video abspielen

Fun

Usually I’m more into photorealism, as you can easily see. But I also love the illustrative cartoony style. Not only in its appearance but also in its funny narrative.
These works were created just for fun (there’s more to come). I got some help from Motion Design School as guidance for this style. Of course, I also learned a lot of new technical tricks.

CLIENT

–

TASKS

Scene building, Modeling, Design, Sketching, Simulation, Animation,
Lighting, Rendering, Postproduktion, Sounddesign

Credits

Guidance by Motion Design School

Video abspielen

Video abspielen

Archive: Portfolios

Products

CLIENT

TASKS

Credits

Perfume bottle

Automotive

Sneakers

Just a quick Render

Ginger Fizz

Bamboo Headphones

Strawberries

Fruity Dynamics

Nature

CLIENT

TASKS

Credits

Grow

Windmill

Centipede

Jellyfish

Stormy Tree

Dreamy Landscape

Nature meets Cyberpunk

Frame Ant Intro

CLIENT

TASKS

Credits

Water

Earth

Metal

Fire

Air

Behind the Scenes

The Process

Scorpion

Flowers

Post-Production

Infinite Journey

CLIENT

TASKS

Credits

The idea

Top 100

Film & Fantasy

CLIENT

TASKS

Credits

Invasion

The Lane

Satellite

The Skeleton - Le Transi de Rene de Chalon

Caught

Fun

CLIENT

TASKS

Credits