|  Where
are you from and where are you living today?
I am living in Menden, Germany.
It's a small town with about 55.000 people, about 1.5 hours away from
Cologne.
How old are you?
I am 34 years old.
What can you see from where you
sit now? [other than your screen!]
My keyboard :-) No, wait, I have a window to my right and can
see lots of trees and other green stuff. I can also see my small pond
in the garden which reminds my of the fishes I still have to feed.
Coffee, tea or something stronger?
Coffee in the mornig, tea at the afternoon, C.O.F.F.E.E. and XPresso inbetween.
What was your first ever interest/experience
in 3D/CG?
I've been interested in graphics since the I saw Tron. My first
computers didn't support real 3D graphics. There was just no software
available. So most of time I did 2D works those days until POV became
available.
Do you use Cinema 4D as a hobby,
for learning, or for pro work?
Well, a bit of everything
I think. I am in the lucky position that I can do the same stuff for my
job and for fun.
When and why did you decide to
make Cinema your weapon of creative choice?
My first serious 3D Software
was Strata Studio Pro. I switched to Electric Image, but was still looking
for a better all in one solution. That's when I gave C4D V5 a try.
What other 3D software have you
used/still use, and why?
Right now I don't feel the
need to look for other software. I own Motionbuilder for character animation
and write my own plugins if I think that some features are missing, but
my whole workflow is still build around C4D and its modules. ZBrush looks
very interesting. Maybe I will add it to my 3D arsenal.
Which Cinema 4D version do you
use currently?
I am a lucky member of the
beta team so I always have the newest stuff here to play with.
Which platform do you use/prefer
- Mac or PC?
I am working on Macs only
since the old Amiga days.
Any particular reason for your
platform choice?
Hard to tell. For me a computer
is a tool in first place. So I am not one of those Mac fanatics. If the
computer does what I want it to do, I am happy. I never felt the need
to switch.
CRT or LCD and why?
Maybe I am still a little
old fashioned using a dual CRT setup. If one of the monitors breaks I
will think about an LCD, but no need to throw away my good old photon
canons earlier.
Default scheme and layout or custom?
I don't like to switch between
different layouts so I have most of the availbale tools tabbed (see
screenshot).
 What's
your favourite model/image you have ever created and why?
I like this girl I have
done early last year. It started as a shader test and ended in a complete
scene. I just wish I could find more time to do such fun projects.
Besides yourself, do you have
a favourite Cinema 4D artist that you admire or are inspired by?
I am not so much inspired
by other 3D artists work, but by traditional artists. I love to thumb
through anime art books for instance. It's always impressive to see how
a character becomes alive by the artist, even though it's just 2D work.
You have written Maxon
Cinema 4D 7: A Workshop for 2D/3D Graphics Pros, a book that received
very good reviews (I personally learned a lot from it!). Do you have any
plans of writing something similar for R9?
After that I did two books for Cinema 4D 8 and a new
book about V9. It's available since October 2004 here in Germany.
Unfortunately for me, no American publisher was interested. They seem
to fear the translation costs. On the other hand there seem to be several
new English books coming. Personally I am looking forward to Kai Pedersen's
Character Animation book for V9 [release date for Kai's book is so far
not set].
With your company VREEL
3D Entertainment you have released several new plugins, including
the amazing Vreel Translucent Pro v1.2, PhotoMatch and Edge Extrude Pro.
Do you plan to update these plugins for R9 and are you planning any new
developments for specific R9 features?
I just released an updated
version of Translucent Pro that supports all new SPD features like Sub
Polygon Displacements. I already have a feature list here for the next
big update, but it's too early to talk about it yet. PhotoMatch has also
been a great success so far and I am just working on a new version of
it. All other plugins already work fine with V9. It depends on the user
input if new feature will be added to them in their next relese.
Our latest product is Vreel Skin, a multi layer shader that builds on
techniques used by our LightShader and Translucent Pro.
Tell us about the “Who
is Who” project on your site, what is it and why did you start
a project like that?
I thought it always makes
sense to know to whom you are talking on the net, even if it's just a
real name and a photo.
Since I started this, many of the frequent visitors of discussion boards
registered at my site. So it's also fun to have a look at some of the
former legendary users who don't hang around on the net any more.
List your 10 favourite C4D tools
you couldn't do without and give a brief explanation why on each please.
- I couldn't live without XPresso
(wondering how I could before it became available. It just makes so
many things easier)
- HyperNURBS of course.
The new isoline editing makes them even sexier
- The new Knife tool
lets you add subdivisions where you need them
- The new Bevel tool
is not from this world
- SubPolygonDisplacement
adds the missing details to your objects and opens the path to ZBrush
- WeightLifter
for the creation and manipulation of vertex maps and ClaudeBonet maps
- Bodypaint 3D, you need
it for UV creation and UV editing
- LightShader,
Translucent Pro
and Vreel Skin
for that extra surface quality
- StormTracer,
because I was always looking for such a fast sprite system
- MOCCA, because now
I don't need so much XPresso any more :-)
What features would you like to
see added to future versions of Cinema 4D?
I know that this will not
happen, but real NURBS would be nice for those objects where you need
the perfection.
It would be great to see a node based material system that lets you build
your own shaders
Given the time, what aspect of
Cinema (and related modules) do you feel you'd like to learn/perfect next?
I am far from being perfect,
but I had to learn and understand all available functions already. But
there is plenty of other stuff I want to learn, for instance Motionbuilder
6, ZBrush and Final Cut Pro.
What Cinema 4D related forums/communities
do you frequent/recommend?
For German users there is
only one, the C4D-Treff.
I also visit CG Talk,
Creative Cow
and the Postforum
at least once or twice a day.
What advice would you give to
someone thinking of learning/buying high end 3D software and the choices
they could make?
This has to do with personal
preference for a workflow. Maya and XSI are great, but do you need all
the features? And do you have the time to learn them? Lightwave can produce
brilliant images, but what about support, stability and updates?
The best advice I can give is to download demo versions and to get as
much information as you can. If there would be just one "best"
software that fits all needs, everyone would use it.
Tell us something cool/interesting
that you have done with Cinema!?
Sorry, there is not much
"cool" in my daily work :-) Speaking of the 3D jobs we do (our
small company is a team of 3D graphic pros), it's always something special
to do animations that air in TV spots for instance. We've done some of
them for Universal Music. Beside this, we do architectural visualisations
and product visualisation most of the time.
Tell us something funny!?
The first serious 3D software
I used was Sculpt 3D on an Amiga. It came with a little paper card that
could be placed on the keyboard, stating: "Do not switch off. Computer
is rendering."
The available render horsepower has multiplied since then, but there is
still use for that paper card :-)
Any closing thoughts, comments
or tips!?
Thanks for inviting me to
this place and thanks for reading. See you on the net...
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