Theory and Positions

• 09.05.09 fmx/09 and the Clone Wars

  The fmx/09 in Suttgart positioned itself as Europe’s leading conference for Animation, 3D and VFX next to the nice Mundo Digitales in A Coruna, especially since 3D Festival in Copenhagen closed its doors a few years ago. For people primarily interested in the european side to CG, or for people with not enough time or ambition to travel to different continents to visit Siggraph, this is the place to look. And one should not think

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• 01.03.09 Programming for Designers

  Over the recent years, the field of programming has interestingly opened up from being an exclusive specialist profession (’the programmer’) into becoming more an more a normal toolset for non-programming specialists. Be it biologists, aeronautic or insurance specialists, or as well – designers and artists.

  There are three major reasons for this development: a) the amount of raw data (databases, spreadsheets, texts, files, …) available to any profession is growing rapidly, especially with the web, so the number of ‘please, i don’t want to do this by hand all weekend!’-cases increased exponentially, b) completely new design possibilities brought by tools and different thinking, and c), so called High Level Languages have been developed in a growing manner. But what is that?

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• 28.11.08 A Pattern Language

  One thing which always fascinated me since a long time, is the incredibely unintended way design patterns took. Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language was literally the first thing i heard when i started studying architecture. Back then it was already more or less out of fashion, but still heavily pushed by teachers who had their zenith in the 70ies.

  A short background for non architects: Alexander’s Pattern Language was a very influentual architectural theory

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• 22.10.08 Is lighting a medium?

  You most likely stumbled upon this article by choosing the according category on the menu. In fact i spend quite some time thinking if the name for the category really makes sense as is. Would ‘Architecture and Lighting’ have been better, or maybe rather the couple ‘Lighting and Media’? Hard to say. Let me explain why.

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• 29.08.07 Social Globalisation

  The term ‘Economic Globalisation’ is very popular in use the recent years, and these days especially. The term, as we know, describes the following economic phenomenon: with the help of internet communications, free trade, sophisticated logistics and (at least when it started) affordable fuel for transportation, it can be economically rewarding to shop, sell and produce things not where your headquarter may be, but rather around the globe- wherever the overall framework (markets, wages, resources etc.) fits best. Nothing new here. This developments brings both good and bad, more of which shall not be subject of this article. But at least it is save to say the topic is a polarizing one. Globally that is, of course.

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• 12.11.06 ‘tune the light’ Promo Clip

  article published in digital production magazine 01/07 (german language only)

  

  RGB und HDR – Lichtszenen im Compositing animieren

  Seine neue Software zur Architektur-Lichtsteuerung wollte der Beleuchtungsspezialist Erco angemessen präsentieren – mit einer komplexen Lichtanimation. Die war auf herkömmlichen Weg und mit Global Illumination aber nicht zu realisieren, weil sich die Beleuchtungssituation in jedem der 6.000 Frames änderten. Die Lösung: die gesamte Lichtanimation in das Compositing zu verlagern. Lichtsimulationsexperte Aksel Karcher erklärt, wie.

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• 23.09.06 Debeveconstruction

  A short note beforehand: this article might bore hardcore CG folks (or maybe not, see for yourself). But as many of my visitors are from other fields, i hope for your understanding.

  There is probably not much discussion, that Paul Debevec is one of the most influental researchers in computer graphics of the recent decade. Immediately to mind come important developments like publications on Image Based Modeling and Rendering in 1996, creation of High Dynamic Range Images from photographs leading to the well known HDR image specification in 1997, relighting techniques for real objects by HDR images and LED domes, investigation in Light Fields, and many more.

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• 30.06.06 Maxwell Technology Review

  article published in digital production magazine 04/06 (german language only)

  

  Maxwell – Lichtsimulator mit Schattenseiten

  Die gerade veröffentliche Rendering Engine Maxwell 1.0 schmückt sich mit dem Claim „The Light Simulator“: Sie rendert nicht mit RGB-Werten, sondern mit Spektralfarben. Ob die vom Hersteller versprochene physikalisch korrekte Simulation tatsächlich ein neues Kapitel in der CG-Geschichte aufschlägt oder eher Marketing-Hype ist, klärt unser Bericht.

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• 05.04.06 Tutorials on 3D Lighting

  Here are two tutorials i once created for clients. Both are not brand new, but i’d happily say everything still applies.

  

  Erco Guide on Simulation

  This document is aimed at architects and designers without knowlegde on 3d computer graphics. The PDF is a beginners introduction, and not focused on a certain software package or tricky tech information.

  Autodesk White Paper

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• 16.05.05 Ed Catmull talking

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