Barcelona

In this moment I am in Barcelona to spend some days. The city is beautiful and you can see a lot. This pic I took yesterday in the night. I will put more pictures when I am back in Oslo...

Oslo-Sunday

Today I walked through Oslo-city and took some pictures. After a long time without using my camera it was a great feeling and I will try to take more pictures soon...Click here or the pic to see more.

Trip to the mountains

What a trip! Last weekend I went with some friends to Beggessen/ Jotunheimen, a famous place of excursions here in Norway. There you can camping, hiking and climping. It was strenuous but very amazing and the landscape was fascinating! We had a great time there. I took some pictures to have a little impression ->link

New pictures on Picassa

I've put some new pictures to my picassa gallery... -> LINK

Ingrid Bjørnov show

Last night we visited the Ingrid Bjørnov show "Til Elise?". It was very funny and amusing. She is a famous Norwegian singer and artist. Her show was a mix of classic/modern music and comedian. I was very inspired how she played piano and she could entertain the viewers very well. We laughed a lot ...great show! You can view a short part of the show by clicking this LINK.

Springtime!

Yes! Springtime is coming! This weekend it was very warm, the sun was shining, people sitting in cafes and parks. So my friends and I went to Aker Brygge (habour of Oslo), enjoying the sun, eating ice, drinking beer and drawing people. Now I have a little sunburn... ;o)

New national opera

Yesterday we were invited (skur49.no) to celebrate the opening of the new national opera in Oslo. It was a highlight with opera melody, fashion-show, rock-music concert and fireworks...fantastisk :o)

Museums

In the last time I went with a friend to some museums and art-galleries like the Munch-museum, National-museum and the gallery of Helene Knoop. The paintings there were fantastic and very inspired. So you can view paintings of Monet, van Gogh, Manet, Cézanne and famous Norwegian painters like E. Munch, Thomas Fearnley, H.F. Gude, A. Tidemand, J. Frich and P. Blake. I didn't knew that Norway had great painters. Here some paintings:

Edvard Munch: The Scream

Adolph Tidemand and Hans Gude: Brudeferd i Hardanger

Peder Balke: Stetind in Fog

Thomas Fearnley: Labrofossen

Wall-E meets a vacuum cleaner

Eyego.no

It's amazing! I got a fulltime job at the design-company "Eyego". So my last workday as freelancer is today. Now my new area of responsibilty is: Visual development, internet, multimedia (3D) and design (print). The employees and the chiefs are very friendly. I think that I will have a very good time there and I hope that I could help them with my know-how.

Snow

Today in the morning I wanted begin again to run but when I saw from my window it was impossible because all the night it had snowed. Now we have 15 cm snow and it is very cold and icy!

So I went to the Alfred Nobel museum near my house. It was very interesting. He was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator and the inventor of dynamite. But many people knows him only by reason of the Nobel prizes...

Holmenkollen

Finally it's snowing. So I took the opportunity to go to Holmenkollen. It is a hilly area in the outskirts of Oslo, only a half hour with the T-bane. Here you can do ski jumping and skiing far into the night respectively in summer you can hike through the landscape. It was very funny and I will try to come from time to time to this snow covered place.

Godt nytt år

Happy new year! Hope you have celebrated the New Year's Day great. On Christmas I was in Braunschweig for visitíng my parents and my friends. For some days I came back to Oslo with my sister and her boyfriend.The fireworks and the parties here were fantastic on New Year. Now I'm back in my everyday life. If you want see some new pictures from Oslo visit my picassa-gallery.

Merry Christmas & a happy New Year!

Julemarked

In some days we will celebrate Christmas and tomorrow is the last work day. For this reason our company arranged a christmas party today. After this I was with some friends at the Chistmas Market near the havour. It was very interesting and nice... typical Norwegian air. We have drunken lots of Norwegian glogg (...hiks...:o) because it was so cold. In the last days the temperature is sinking more and more. Now we have 16 degress below zero. The sea and rivers already freezed up...brrrrrrrr.

Move

It is done! Today I moved in my new room. That's so cool and I am happy that I settled here in Oslo better and better. In the apartment we are an international flat-sharing community: an Australian girl, a Norwegian, two Sweden girls and an Argentine. All very friendly. Tonight we will celebrate my move...yeah! :o)

Beowulf

Today I went with Gard to cinema for seeing Beowulf, an 3D-animation movie. Very cool seeing the movie with 3D-glasses. For me it was interesting to see how the development has improved since Polar Express. The movie was made with the motion- and perfomance capuring techniques. That means that real actors have given to the 3D-characters the movements and the facial expressions. This theme was one of my degree thesis and so I was very anxious to view this movie. Regrettably the 3D-characters still looks dead. And the blame have the eyes! They are staring blankly into space or boss eyed. But I believe that in some years you can't disgingish the 3D-characters with real persons...wow. But is it diserable?

There you go!

What a week: Finally I recieved my recidence permit and I found a room yeah. So in some days I will live near center and castle in a flat share. The flatmates are very friendly and the apartment is very cool. I am happy that now I can restart to live here in Oslo.

First snow

Brrrr...in the last days we had very cold weather, under 0° degree, and today it began to snow. Now we notice that the pre-Christmas period is coming. I made this picture (town hall) tonight before I went home.

Good morning squirrel!

Every morning a little squirrel search his food in front of my front door. He is so cute and so fast. Fortunately I shot some photos from him today.

Degree celebration

I found this picture with a little article of our degree (diploma) celebration on the german film school website. It was a little ceremony but nice . Since that time it has been past 2 month, wow.

First pictures

Finally I uploaded some pictures from Oslo on Picassa. Click the Link or the picture to see the gallery:

Restart

Today in the morning I restarted with the running training. For my birthday my sister bestowed me the nike + ipod sportkit and so I tested it finally. That was so cool. You put a chip on the shoe and your ipod nano shows the distance, kilometers, calories and the effective velocity during your course. And on the nike+ website you can see the map with your course. It was very amused and you are now more motivated :o)

What a week!

Now I lived here 2 weeks and it began to dawn on me that how the life and job works here in Norway. Every day I met new people and customers and the work by Ignitas is very varied. So I am responsible for web-, print-design and animation. (Ignitas wrote some words about my works on their website. You can read the article by clicking on the picture). Every day you learn more and if I have a question I can ask the Ignitas-team. Until now I didn't regret that I came to Oslo. The people, the landscape and the culture are very fascinating. Now I have to learn only Norwegian and searching a flat :o)

Aker Brygge

My first working week is nearly over. It was very exciting and a lot to do. Tomorrow I will inspect some flats and visit the city finally. In my today's lunchtime I made this picture. In the red house (left) you can find our office. It's beside the harbor and "Aker Brygge" a famous place here in Oslo.

Ignitas

In some minutes my first work-day here at Ignitas is over. I have my own workplace and work here as a freelancer. My first client came today and we spoke about his application. It was very cool. Now I will go home with bus. Runars house where I'm stayed in this moment is 20 km from Oslo away. Runar and his family are very friendly and amiable and I am happy to stay at first there.

Oslo

Today I came to Oslo. That is my third time that I visit this beautiful city. But the first time that I will stay for a longer time. The flight was nice and the family of my friend Gard is very sympatic. In some minutes we will visit Runar where I will stay for the first time and then we want to go to a party...yeah. That begins very good.

Back in Germany

Yesterday night I came back from Santiago. The 16h-flight was agreaable and in Frankfurt I met my friend Maren who flew later to New Zealand for a half year. It was a nice surprice. Now I have to prepare me for my stay in Oslo. Just only 3 days...

Flight away

Lo and hold!!! In this moment my airplane flies to Germany without me. Why? Because I had many unforeseeable occurrences. So I was caught up in a traffic jam and then I had problems on the fly counter with my bags . Now I will still stay here 4 days longer. Incredible!

3ra corrida por la vida

Today I participated with my cousins on the family running contest "Corrida por la vida" here in Santiago. The event was for the women with Cancer. The course was 10 km long and it was very warm but many people run all the same. During the running you could see the cordillera covered with snow. A nice view. In general it was a beautiful family day.

In some days my stay here will be end. The time was running very fast. But I had wonderful vacacions. Now I can rise to new challenges and I am thrilled to work in Oslo even the leave will be hard from here.

32

I'm living exactly 32 years now on this planet yeah!

The day was great and unforgettable. My family and some relatives from Santiago came to celebrate my birthday. What a surprice :o) Thanks to my friends who congratulated me today.

Santiago de Chile

Last week I came back to Santiago to spend the next two weeks here. We had beautiful weather and I made many things with my cousins and friends. Yesterday we went to a little village (Isla de Maipó) to celebrate the virgin of Maipó. It was very interesting and traditional. What a bammer that the days pass of very fast.

Quintay - Chile

Since Monday I'm in Chile to visit my relatives. All people here have free this week by reason of national holiday. So we are now in Quintay a little village near Santiago. It's very beautiful and we have wonderful sundowns :o) -> more pictures

Half marathon

I’m back !!! Last week I could relax a little, I hope this week too ;o)
Yesterday I was running my first half marathon (20 km) here in Braunschweig. More than 700 people have participated on the „Schapener Volkslauf“. The weather was ideal to run and the halfmarathon round was very nice. After just under two hours it was a great feeling to pass the finishing line :o)

Holiday

My last day

Today was my last day here on the German Film School. On Monday I had my colloquium and today my public presentation about my thesis and degree film. And in some days I will recieve my diploma, yeah! But before I am away of leave.

Me, Marc, Gila, Cordy and Addy

Me and Sebastian

Relocation

So, my time in Elstal is over. Yesterday I moved all my things to Braunschweig. Well next week I will come back for some days to finish the filmschool and to say goodbye from my friends. Here the last pictures of my apartment.

I managed it!!!

Yeah, yesterday I finished my degree short. I'm very glad that I've kept up and now I'm very tired :o) The last 6 month were incredible. I learned a lot but it was also a very stress time with ups and downs. Now I can prepare me calmly for my colloquium and public presentation of my degree short and thesis in two weeks. Then I will upload my short on my webpage, so stay tuned!.

The countdown is running

Only 2 days to finish my degree short...

Hot Tuesday

It's really hot in Elstal right now...and we had 30° degrees...incredible. Yesterday my friend Jessica visited me in Elstal. We spent some hours together. It was a varied and funny day! And now I have to continue working on my degree short :o)

Pelé the panda - Music

For my degree short I decided that my friend Guillermo Gómez from USA will compose the music. He is a very talented compositor and I like his compositions. So until now he has composed my shorts "Wilson the snowman" and "Merkaba". I know that he will forge ahead in the future. So stay tuned to hear his new music for my film "Pelé the panda".

The German Film School

During the last 3 years I've studied on the German Film School and in 3 weeks I will finish it. Here a picture of the university for digital production found on Google Earth :o)

Dinner with Gard Jenssen

Last week I met Gard, my friend from Oslo/Norway, here in Berlin. With other friends of him we had a nice evening. So and now I have to animate and finish my degree short.

Wall-E-Teaser

I'm back. The last two weeks I was in Braunschweig to write my diploma thesis. Now I finished it and I came back to Berlin to animate my diplma animation short.

Today I saw the first teaser of "Wall-E" the next Pixar movie after Ratatouille. It's so cute. Here the teaser

Castle Sanssouci

Yesterday I went with my friend Ines Gruner to Potsdam to visit the castle Sanssouci with the beautiful parks. It was very hot and we spent a wonderful day together!

Soccer game

Last sunday I saw with my father the soccer game Herta BSC vs. Werder Bremen in the Olympia stadium for the first time here in Berlin. The atmosphere was fantastic. A reason could be that the weather was great and the stadium sold out with 75.000 people. Finally Werder Bremen had won 4:1.

Making of...and 9 min. Trailer of Ratatouille

I found a 'making of' for the next pixar movie: "Ratatouille", and a 9 min-trailer. WONDERFUL! So now I will pack up my clothes and fly to
the FMX conference :o)

FMX

Next monday I will visit the FMX conference in Stuttgart. I hope to meet new people, talk with peers, learn new tricks for animation, film and tv and party :o)

300 - the movie

Last week I saw the movie 300 and I was very fascinated about the graphics and the visuals effects. It's a very exciting movie and is very well done. Frank Miller again brings to life a magnificant Graphic Novel. All in all this was a very entertaining film.

RTL 2: "Gut zu WISSEN" - broadcast

Today I found out that our RTL 2 interview about 3d animation will come on next sunday (08.April 2007 - 17:30h). For more informations about the braodcast "Gut zu WISSEN" click on the picture.

Bao Bao

Yesterday I used the opportunity to visit the panda Bao Bao in the zoo too. So I could see how he lived and act in a bawn. Unfortunately the other panda Yan Yan died last week. Here some pictures of Bao Bao:

Cute Knut

Today I went to the zoo of Berlin to see the new attraction "Knut" the baby polar bear. He was born on December and he was abandoned by his mother but he is sooooooo cute!!! So tiny, fluffy and adorable! See the little sweet film ->click here (1 MB, .wmv)

Meet the Robinsons

I just saw the new Disney film "Meet the Robinsons". This film is extremely colorful and will send a powerful message to kids but it isn't for adults. If you think you will see a movie like "Happy feet" or "Finding Nemo" you will be dissapointed. Only the look and the animation have assured me. I hope that the next Disney film will be for adults too with more jokes.

Ratatouille Trailer 2

It's so great this trailer. I can't wait to see the movie!

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger

I just read, that our short: "The sacred stone of Horus" was shown on the website: "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" (=>Click here). Every week this site shows a short of our filmschool. So have fun...

RTL 2: "Gut zu wissen" - Interview

Today the german tv-broadcast RTL 2 (->"Gut zu wissen"- every Sunday at 17:30h) came to the German Film School to interview my "The sacred stone of Horus"- team. So we had to told them for example how you can make an animated 3d movie. The interviewer Dominik Bachmair, a famous german moderator was very sympathic and interested and so it was easier to answer his questions. So we had a very funny and interesting day. Tomorrow they will come once again to continue the interview...

Light Painting Vol. 3

Today I sort out my documents from last year and found this light painting. Some times ago I made this pic with my cousins from Spain.

German Film School DVD now available

Today my studies began after vacacions and everyday life returns.I worked again on our semester-film Merkaba. I hope that we will finish the short in some weeks.

I inform you that you can buy now the DVD „The best of Animated Shortfilms 2000-2006“ of my filmschool. There you will find some of my shorts like "Gambare Saburou" and "The sacred stone of Horus". More informations on www.filmschool.de

Happy feet

Yesterday I went to cinema to watch the 3d animation movie: "Happy Feet". It's a very cool movie with lots of gags. I love it. The dance and sing perfomance are great, the characters ingenious, the look fantastic and the animation without words. I can advice everyone to see the movie. Is one of the best 3d animation films in this year. Here a trailer (Penguins singing "My Way" by Frank Sinatra in spanish):

Open Season

Last weekend I saw "Open Season". I had high anticipations but after the film I was very disappointed about story and animation. It's a pity. Only the look was fantastic.

The Art of Open Season

Today I got this great book...it's wonderful!!!

Adieu Klaus Miedzinski

For two weeks I wrote here in the blog that I've got from Klaus Miedzinki his new book "Die neue Bewegungsbaustelle" with my illustrations. Today I hear that he passed last week. I'm very sad because he was so sweet tempered and friendly. Our collaboration was exemplary. I'm glad to have worked with him and that I could see him last time for two weeks! Adieu Klaus Miedzindki...

Meeting with Gard Jenssen

A few years ago I won the international logo competition of Kelkoo and they invited me to work in Oslo/Norway. Now my ex-chief and friend Gard visited me here in Berlin. It was a wonderful day. We talk about the past, the future and I showed him my last works. He is a great person with lots of ideas. You can visit Gard's blog for more informations.

Certificate

Yesterday I recieved the certificate for our short "The sacred stone of Horus". Yeah it was a great feeling!

3. Place on ITVA-Festival in Cologne

Last fryday the mummy-short " The sacred stone of Horus" won the 3. place on the ITVA-Festival in Cologne in the category Non-Commercial/Video Art. It was a big surprice and my team and I were very happy about it. Unfortunately we couldn't visit the festival because we had lectures.

"Die neue Bewegungsbaustelle"

Yesterday I recieved a calling from Klaus Miedzinski, the autor of "Die neue Bewegungsbaustelle" and he said to me that his new book was coming out last week. I designed the illustrations for this book. He gave mi an exemplar with a devotement and his autograph . It is so cool to see my pictures in a book. The book is very comprehensive and I can't wait to read it. For more informations about the book click-> here

Character design by Harald Siepermann

Today and tomorrow we have lessions by Harald Siepermann. He is a character designer and works for great studios like Disney, Dreamworks and others and he assisted in Disney-films like "Tarzan", "Mulan", "The emperor's new groove", "Treasure Island" and "Brother Bear". During the 2 days he will show us how we could draw characters and give us informations and tips how our 3d characters can get more personality. After lessions he was amiable to autograph my "Art of Tarzan" book and to hear my idea for my finish short. I am anxious what he teach us tomorrow :o)

Stop motion & Motion control photography

Here some pictures about our work on the motion control camera. It was a nice experience in our lessions to see how the camera work. Motion control photography is a special effects technique used in film that creates the illusion of size from small models by moving a small camera by the model at very slow speeds. Also we animate a little stop motion short with a Lego figure. For this reason we combinated the stop motion with the motion control technique. I will try to upload this short in the next time. Here a little making of video ->click here (800 kb).

Pope Benedict XVI visited Munich

The pope Benedict XVI visit this week Bavaria for 6 days. He celebrated yesterday an open-air Mass with 250.000 people in Munich. For this reason my family and I decided to drive there to see the pope and celebrate the Mass with him. First we visited my cousin in Heilbronn on Friday/Saturday and then we set out for Munich on sunday morning. It was a cool weekend and unique highlight with the pope.

Homepage update | New semester

Today the 5th semester has begun. In the next half year our class will produce a "Merkaba"project. More informations about this movie you will get in some days. Yesterday I updated my homepage: I refreshed the drawing category with new digital paintings and put the last projects like Adidas commercial, science fiction projekt and our music clip on the site. In the vacacions I thought about my final short (Diplomfilm) and I will show you in the next time some ideas, concept designs and storyboard about my last short making here on the filmschool. Stayed tuned!

Visiting card

In the last weeks I thought about the time after filmschool and I decided to prepare me a little for my professional life. So I made topical my curriculum vitae, designed my visiting card and I paint a new mascot.

Over the hedge

I went tonight with friends to cinema to see the new Dreamworks animation movie "Over the hedge". It was amazing and so cute. I can recommend to everyone to see it. The movie is an excellent feel-good and laugh movie with lively patters. And the squirrel Hammy is my favorite of the animals, he is so cool. If you always wondered why animals love to go through trash you will find out in a funny and great way.

Germany is out

Yesterday the semifinale was a dramatic game. Germany lost contra Italia 0:2 in the overtime, 2 minutes before the game is over. It is so frustrated. But I think that was a great World Cup for Germany! And now I know why the italien team has won. The national coach of Italy has made a special training for the game against Germany ;o) See the movie:

Semifinal

Yeah! Germany is in the semifinal of the World Cup here in Germany. It was a very thrilling game contra Argentina yesterday. I was with friends on the "Fan-Meile" in Berlin and we saw with 750.000 people the game. And the ambience was fantastic!!! Click here to see a little video (600 kb) to feel the atmosphere after the game. Now we will play contra Italia on Tuesday. I hope that we win the next match then here will be a bigger party. Wow! The World Cup here in our country is incredible!!!

FMX is over

I'm back from Stuttgart. The FMX was very awesome. There were very interesting conferences/presentations. So for example "Open Season", the presentation of Pixar`s shortfilm: "One man band" and the making of "King Kong". I hope that I can visit the next FMX in one year.

FMX | Achtung Berlin Festival

Well in the next week our filmschool will be fly to the FMX Festival in Stuttgart (May 3-6).
I hope I will get many impressions. Last year it was very funny with a lot of lectures.
Yesterday the "AchtungBerlin"- Festival called me and said that they want show my short "Gambare Saburou" on the Festival (May 11-17) :o)

Open Day

Yesterday we had open day on our filmschool and a tv-team from rbb interviewed our team about the film. So we talked about the making of and the filmschool. You can see the broadcast on Friday 06/14 on rbb. It was a nice day.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

Yesterday I saw with friends the new animation film "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown". It was very funny like the original film and packed with clever double entendres. The film adds a host of new characters and addresses complex issues, such as extinction and love, which were nonexistent in Ice Age 1. The CGI animation is gorgeous and I advise everyone to see this great movie.

DVD

Yeah! I'm back! Last week we've got vacacions (1 week) from the Filmschool. That was my first vacacions since I'm lived here in Elstal. It was great, I relaxed and met friends.

Last days a special effects company called me and ask me if I could work for them for one month as Concept Artist after my lessons. That's cool. I will see what they want.

After my lessons my team makes now a dvd about our short movie with, pics, animatic, storyboard, outtakes, making of etc. because the software company Softimage want put our movie on their XSI-demo reel for showing on the next FMX-Festival in Stuttgart.

That's the last news about me :o)

film music

The last days were very stressful. Tomorrow we have to finish our film.
In the last days a friend, Justin R. Durban from USA, has composed a fantastic music for our film. If you know more about him, visit his webpage: www. edgen.com

Anatomy

Today our 4th semester has begun and the first lesson was anatomy. We went through all bones and joints of a human. It was very interesting. So we learned what function have the bones and joints. This lessons shall help us to animate better our 3D-characters in the future. I will see if that's right! ;)

Award ceremony

Yesterday I went with friends to the "Going Underground"- award ceremony in Berlin and it was very amusing and interesting. First we saw the 14 shorts who were nominated for the festival. Than they awarded the shorts and the subway-bystander chose me on the 5th place! I'm very content with this place because all movies were great. Many thanks to the "jury"! A friend of me (Stephan Goll) made the third place - wow ! Here you can see the result list and the 3 awarded shorts -> link

Festival finished

Thanks to all people who voted for me last week!!! I saw some shorts in the subway and they were very funny. The award ceremony is on february 12. I will go there. Even if I did't win I'm very happy that I was under the 14 best of 457 shorts from 39 countries. Next year I will try again to take part in the going underground festival :o)

Underground train

In the morning I went by underground train to see some shorts who participates in the festival. It was very interesting how the people reacted. In the next days I will go again to see more shorts :o)

Voting

Today you can vote for my 3d-short "Gambare Saburou" on the "going underground" website. The festival will go till february 7. It would give me a great pleasure if you vote for me ;o)

Shading & Lighting trials

In the last days we worked on the shading and lighting for our 3d-short. First of all we wanted that the burial chamber looks very warm, but now we've decided that the room affects very cold.
Here are the first shading-pics and a little animation:

TV-Interview

The crew of TV-DW broadcast (Deutsche Welle - euromaxx) came today to the filmschool to interview me and Stephan Goll (another participant of the "Going underground"-festival who studys with me) about our shorts. At the beginning I was very nervous but then the excitement has gone very fast. It was for me the first time that I gave an interview - an interesting experience. You can see the broadcast on february 2nd at 6:30 pm (german) and 9:30 pm (english).

Deutsche Welle

Yesterday I got an email from the tv-broadcast "Deutsche Welle"(-> euromaxx). They want to produce a tv-braodcasting about the "Going underground"-Festival in Berlin. So they asked me if they could do an interview with me about my 3d-short "Gambare Saburou". The crew will come next monday here to the filmschool. I'm very curious how it will be.

Hero's journey

Wow, the last 3 days were great and cool. Harald Sieperman the character designer of Disney came to the filmschool and taught us in "Hero's journey" and "archetypes". It was very interesting. Now you see movies with other eyes. Incredible! He took also time to see our "bane of the mummy"-production and gave us tips. It's a pity that the time with him has gone so fast.

Virtual room

Today my course and I visited the ProSieben- Sat1 Media AG house in Berlin. This TV-station produces for the stations Sat1, Pro7, N24 and Kabel1. We have got a guided tour through the house. We saw very interesting things like the direct-room or where they create realtime animations. Furthermore we saw the virtual room where they produce broadcasts in front of a green box for example for the news of Sat1. It was a very nice day.

Nominated...

I recieved today the happy message, that my short-film "Gambare Saburou!" is nominated for two short film-festivals in Germany:
1. "Going Underground"- the intern. festival in the Berlin subway.
2. "Landshuter short film festival" in Bavaria.

Welcome to my blog

In this blog I will try to write my impressions and memories. Also I show you my sketches, illustrations, animations and things that inspired me.

And if you want to know more about me, you can visit my website at
www.sodeikat.com