OK, whatta say ´bout me?

It seems to be not that easy, because in the last 39 years (oh my god, I´m 39 now), I experienced a lot and my life was fullfilled with lotz of good and less good storys. So...let´s make a very quick turn-around through my life, otherwise we have to sit here for a few hours, probably days ;)

I was born in ´69 (the good one;) in the middlewest of germany and have been grown up in the north, near Bremen.
In ´81, I met my wife the first time and after 11 years we got married...(normally I´m a determined guy, but this process took its while;)...anyway...now, we´re still married and we have three strong guys in the age of 12, 13, 14.

In 1981, I got in touch with that thing, called "computer" for the first time. It was a Commodore C16 and I spent days and nights by tapping basic-listings, only for getting some pixels moved from "a" to "b" :)
I coded some smaller games by myself ("if...goto...else..."the basic-stuff:) and sent them to some magazines.
One time I won a small gamepack and my listings were published in one of those magazines...juhuuu:)
I couldn´t understand, when my father then took away the C16 and threw it in the trash (why the hell, Dad:) ?

I think, later on, my wife bears the blame, that I´m still and every day sitting in front of that infective machine, because, when I bought it for her education (it was an Amiga 500 in ´89/90) I got back in touch with it...and-that-was-not-good (or was it???)

I began to make my own videomoviez...I wrote down the titles on toilet-paper and scrolled them with a broom-handle in front of the lens. Then I got a genlock and Deluxe Paint..a new era was born :)

I learned and worked from now on with Quicksilver, Turbosilver, Imagine, Lightwave, Cinema4D, Real 3D and upgraded my system to an Amiga 4000/60 with 192 MB Ram, double-monitor-EGS system (Enhanced Graphics System) with a VLAB-Motion (MJPEG-Card) and a Peggy Plus (Hardware MPEG-Card)...
( I will never forget this monster-machine:)

Until this time, I did a lot nice pictures and tried to get them published in the scene-magazines.
And then...one day, when I bought the AmigaPlus, I saw me as the winner of an animation contest. This was a great moment and I was proud like a peacock :)
From now on, I thought, that it probably could be a good idea, to focus on that, what I'm doing there, instead of my father, who thought, that it would be better to learn something "normal" (ohoh...this was a challenge for me, and later on he would regret;).

A few days later, I got a call: A guy from "Creative Illusions And Art" (never heard) - his name was Pit Vetterick - asked me, if I´d like to work for him in his agency. He saw my work and was obviously impressed. Boah.....can you imagine, that my heart pounded like a pneumatic drill???

It was 1997, when I bought my first PC. It was a Pentium 90 and I got so bored with that crappy Windows-based machine, that - after a month - I threw it out of the window (really:) to get back to my beloved Amiga.

Maybe one year later, I tried the second time this Windows-Crap and decided to stay strong and not get smashed down by a thing, that only understands "0" and "1".

Of course...I won the fight *g*

Because I worked a lot with Lightwave at "CIA", I had to get it for my PC and was really lucky, when it was released.

In the meanwhile, I worked with Softimage, PowerAnimator, Houdini and of course 3DS Max -> ("...some people love me, and some people hate me...but for you it´s loo late....you already paid me" - Paganini)

Years later...I had to move to the south of germany (Stuttgart) to study film- and communicational design.
Before, I stood in the army for 8 years as aircraft mechanic (yeahh....I was one of those Top-Gun guys, who´s beckoning the machines into the shelters:) and in the meantime I studied graphics design and passed a course on an AVID Media Composer 8000 at AVID Technology in Hamburg.

OK, now living in Ostfildern (near Stuttgart) I got a 2nd time a call...again from Pit (ya know->CIA... we were disconnected after a few years). He said, he´s now "Supervisor" (what's that?) at an upcoming company, called I-D Media GmbH (now AG) and needs good people, which are able to use Lightwave (this company has grown to europe’s biggest multimedia agency)

For them I worked as 3D-Artist for roundabout 2 years and in this time, I got my own really powerful, amazing, stunning, fast and incredible workstation, called Intergraph TDZ 2000 GL2 with a RealiZm - and later on Wildcat-graphicscard. WOW. With that machine, I worked on e-Cyas, germanys first virtual popstar (also on my first music-clip with him) and....Maya 1.0 was released.

In short...I bought it...my first really expensive software package...nonono...not shareware...a reeeaaaal software... and it was a hard fight...the decision between my beloved Lightwave and Maya (that cheap rubbish out of PowerAnimator?)
I developed "The Warriors Prayer", a shortfilm about the 4 apocalyptic riders.
The story was like the same-titled song from Manowar, a wellknown Heavy Metal Band in the US. I met the guys from Manowar several times and they decided, to feature that short on their newest DVD "Hells on Earth, Part III" (years later...but...OK:)

While working on e-Cyas, I also met Sonja...now my colleague, very best friend and also owner of e·Sence - digital department, our company, which we´ve founded in 1999 and which is still "powered on".
We worked for a lot of smaller and bigger clients, in the field of commercials, shorts, music-clips, visualizations and of course...movies, and we liked it a lot, to be independent, to do, what have to be done, what we wanted to do... in our desired quality (but it was harder, than thought;). We also developed "Sharin", the virtual character of our company.
In this time, I won some prizes and one award on the "animago", a wellknown international contest here in Germany.

In 2001 we received a great offer, to work on germany’s first digital animated feature film, called "Back To Gaya".
For that, we moved to Hannover and worked at Ambient Entertainment for 2 1/4 years.
This production was definitely one of the most impressive ones (and of course one of the most stressing...:)
We learned a lot and had a big bunch of responsibilitys, and we liked it, to be a part of that great production.

"Back To Gaya" was finished successfully and a new page to the german filmhistory has been added.

After "B2G" we thought, we needed a time-out, so we decided to work again as service-provider and for that, we "re-animated" e·Sence...but imagine...is it really possible, when you sniffed the air of the film-industry?
For us it was unbearable and two years later, I took my (for now) last timeout and went to New Zealand for one month. My family and me visited nearly all the sets and locations of...na?..."Lord Of The Rings", of course ;) and we loved it very much.
My wife also noticed, that I´m something missing...she felt, that I'm unlucky, because I felt like a guy, who's one foot is nailed to the ground and who's turning in a circle day by day.
I don't had this challenges anymore...ok...I worked on a lot of very nice projects...independently...free... nobody was tellin' me, whatta do...I was the "God" of 3D (nonono...I didn´t think so;)

Whatta coincidence...

One day after coming back to germany, I got a call...no...this time not from Pit ;), but from a good ol´ friend of mine, who developed the soundtrack for "Sharin", in 2000.

He asked me, if I´ve the time, to help them on an italian 3D-movie, called "Dear Anne - The Gift Of Hope"

Yepp..I did, what I had to do and went to Milano Due, working at 263 Films on the facial setup, the skinning and rigging of all 38 characters of this film...

In my freetime - if there´s one - I´m working on "Sharin" again (Version3) and other smaller things. While working, I listen to the stronger sounds, like Manowar, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Whitesnake, Iced Earth, but also I´d like to listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King and Albert King, as well as Tchaikowsky and Strawinsky (strange, isn´t it?...but I love the "nutcracker-suite" :) )

When not working or listen to the music, I like to take photographs (I have an education as photographer, too) and I love to drive my sportscar...it´s a Corvette C6 , the most amazing american sportscar.
(...and my wife hates it....no...not the car...but me, while driving it;)

I like leisure-parks, which I visit with my kids and...if I have more than enough time, I spend my time to art.
Salvadore Dali, Van Gogh, Pieter Bruegel, Gustav Klimt and Kandinski are some of my favourite artists.
(But for sure not Joseph Beus, I´m not a friend of that experimental stuff, for that I´m too pragmatic;)

I like, to get challenged every day, because that what I do, is not only a job.
I'm not one of those 9-2-5 guys...I wanna share my experience with others and of course, also learn from them.
"To being good, you have to get better"...the more I can learn, the better I'll get, the better I am :)

Well, that's it for the time being...now you know something ´bout me
(and I have chafed fingertips now;)

Whatta 'bout YOU?

Wish you lotta phun on my small website...and...maybe we'll meet in the future

...................................


"Nihil est in intellectu, quod non antea fuerit in sensu" (Aristoteles)