Creative-Tonie DIY - self made Mini-Me

My "quasi niece" turned 3 years old and I knew that she was getting a Toni box as a present. I had been wondering for some time whether it was possible to give these figures and stories a more personal touch.

I knew that the manufacturer made it possible to "record" your own audio files on so-called Creative-Tonies. However, this did not yet satisfy my desire for creative expression.

Because I had also been interested in photogrammetry for some time, I came up with the idea of making a figure of myself ("Mini-Me") and then linking it to a specially recorded radio play.

I saw the experiment as a kind of hackathon. I had about a week until the birthday. So there was a fixed deadline by which the result had to be ready. The following steps were necessary:

Tilki in Boots and Terraforming Mars
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Photography

Due to smartphones and Instagram, the creation of photos has become inflationary. Creating the impression of something unique has therefore become more difficult to achieve. Architecture fascinates me just as much as people, landscapes and nature. I find the tension between artificially constructed and documentation particularly exciting. By using natural light sources and little post-processing in combination with interesting perspectives, I try to create something new that makes the ordinary seem unusual.

In my experiments with body painting, the appeal lay in creating a work of art that is ultimately washed off the skin with water and is therefore ephemeral. What remains is the photo and the memory of the work process.

You can view some of my works on my photo website.

Selection of my photos from the area of people and bodypainting

Film production

A lot of the knowledge and skills I acquired during my studies in film and television management now form a solid foundation that allows me to quickly familiarize myself with new disciplines as a software developer, recognize overarching connections and use them in innovative ways. An important part of my studies was to reconcile the creative processes necessary for the production of films with the strict requirements of limited budgets. Today, the experience I gained helps me to recognize the requirements of all trades involved and to implement sensible solutions.
Technologies and skills

Acting, dramaturgy, camera, lighting, sound, business administration in film production, accounting, contract law

Steadicam, camera cranes and dollies, film lights, analog and digital film cameras,

Avid, Final Cut, Photoshop, After Effects, Maya 3D, Blender,

 

Producer & director of photography

In various image film productions I took the role as producer and director of photography. During that time for example we staged the training facilities of  the company Busch-Jaeger Elektro GmbH and also accompanied container ships of a shipping company during maintenance, as well as the loading and unloading of goods.
Film production demo reel
 

Further short film projects (selection)

Short film „Jackpot“Production manager
Short film „Ohnmacht“Production manager
Short film „Eldorado“3D artist
Short film „Einsam“Steadicam operator
Short film “Bloody Mary”Steadicam operator
Short film “Die Leeze”Steadicam operator
Short film “Flamenco Surealisto”Steadicam operator
Short film “Die Rückkehr der Sinne“Steadicam operator

Short film “Combatant“3D modeler
Steadicam operator on set
3D model of an arena used within the film Combatant
 

Experiments

I often use my free time to implement new ideas that are close to my heart. I would like to introduce a few of these projects here. 
Used technologies
Unreal Engine, Blender, Iota API, Websockets, WebVR, WebRTC 
 

Unreal Engine – Matrix shader

I was still a teenager when the first movie of the Matrix series was released. Fascinated by the visually impressive effect of the falling green numbers I was wondering for a long time how I could reproduce it myself in Maya 3D. Many tutorials, then and now, that you could find, did not satisfy my need of quality. So I had to develop my own viable solution to get good results. When I had the need for an interesting shader for my latest VR project, I remembered my implementation from 2001. Based on that, I was able to program a modern shader within the Unreal Engine.
Unreal Engine Matrix shader
 

Visualization of a network in WebXR

My vision was to be able to efficiently analyze network structures in a team within a three-dimensional virtual multi-user environment. For this purpose, the network structure of a cryptocurrency was to be visualized. The server calculated the position of all nodes in the three-dimensional space using a force-directed graph and then sent the coordinates to all clients to achieve synchronous playback.
Visualization of a cryptocurrency in VR
 

Virtual reality game "BottoBlast" (working title)

The VR multiplayer game it about removing virtual force fields that serve as obstacles and using various items and skills in order to set the other players "checkmate".
I experiment with different locomotion concepts within virtual reality and investigate the use of specific 3D shaders to directly interact with the users' movements.
For me the project serves as a practice to get a deeper insight into the possibilities of using Unreal Engine for VR projects. 
Virtual reality game "Bottoblast"

Music

From time to time, I also like to retreat to my small recording studio and work on sound editing and music production. Professional audio production is a fascinating field that also forms many intersections with my joint projects with the voice agency Brilliant Voice.
Technologies used
Ableton Live, Bitwig, Audition

Music production studio