[Short Stories] [Images] [Composer's Museum] [Theremin Gigs & Pieces] [Animations]
(categories incidentally ascending by hours put into them...)
- Short Stories -
[in German, that's my native language after all]
"Was die Welt von Walt will"
PDF: approx. 49 KB
"Wie Jakob Gefallen am Schneeballzüchten fand, und was dabei herauskam"
PDF: approx. 50 KB
| "Doch weiterhin nagt in den Hallen Martinlands jenes pelzige Wesen des Zweifels, ob denn nun die Welt bereit für diese Bürde sei..." |
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Mittlerweile sind die Würfel gefallen, ich habe wieder zu formulieren begonnen. Um die Wartezeit zu überbrücken, habe ich hier einen "ungeschliffenen" Essay ausgegraben: |
"Eine kurze Geschichte der martinlandschen Zeit
Oder: wie ich lernte, ich selbst zu sein"
RTF: approx. 7 KB
- Images -
"HEROES & COWARDS"
JPG: 608x800, 222 KB
| It took us from 2009 til 2015 to complete this game: I created the steelbook design, which you can see above, as well as the in-game pixel graphics for the title screen and for the animated end sequence. It's available here! (and there you can see the title screen) |
"SAM & MAX À LA MARTINLAND"
JPG: 800x800, 211 KB
| My homage to Sam & Max, drawn for issue 41 of Lotek64. Because these two fellas rightfully belong to Steve Purcell I merely hid my initials in there, can you find them? |
"RETRO SKETCHES"
JPEG: 355x576, 71 KB
ANIMATED GIF: 512x512, 6 KB
| These sketches I created for a retro computing magazine, quite enjoyably so I might add... |
"VARIATIONS ON SAMBUCUS NIGRA"
JPEG: 1700x700, 917 KB
| Style B (left, ink effect pen w/ water on rough watercolour paper, coloring in post) and style A (center, Lamy ball-point pen on old paper, coloring in post) were commissioned, but style C (right) has actually been done by our daughter Lara who got quite excited about the whole notion of portraying plants. |
"KRAKÓW: A PORTRAIT"
GIF: 950x680, 130 KB
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I managed to create this drawing of a chapel in Kraków for my cousin and his bride during the two hours of ceremony rehearsals that took place inside, sitting on a picturesque square. There, in Kraków, we also paid a very personal visit to Stanislaw Lem for the very first and last time in our lives, but that's whole another story... |
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In fact this is the operating mode that never ever crashes I sometimes use it in, since I ruined the display whilst attending Ars Electronica festival a couple of years ago. Very stable. ;-)
I still read all my emails on this machine though (with a flat screen attached of course ;-). |
"ERSTES HALBJAHR ZWEITAUSENDUNDZWEI"
JPEG: 1280x960, approx. 266 KB
| An authentic donation right out of Martinland's personal calendar! The subsequent scans below have been re-produced as art prints and postcards: |
[ersteshalbjahrzweitausendunddrei]
[zweiteshalbjahrzweitausendunddrei]
[ersteshalbjahrzweitausendundvier]
[zweiteshalbjahrzweitausendundvier]
[ersteshalbjahrzweitausendundfünf]
[zweiteshalbjahrzweitausendundfünf]
| The culmination of all this happens to be a stop motion animation in High Definition. My evolving personal calendar has been scanned on a daily basis to yield this: |
["HY06" - Stop Motion Animation in High Definition]
(also a FLIP BOOK called "JAHRESPLAN/2")
QUICKTIME: 1632x1080, approx. 86 MB
"ENNIO MORRICONE: A PORTRAIT"
JPEG: 548x768, approx. 105 KB
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I'm proud to announce that this portrait is featured prominently in a documentary produced for the special edition of
by TLEFilms! |
| My original artwork now belongs to a family living in Linz, Austria. Due to their kind support we were able to attend a wonderful concert with the Maestro leading the Bruckner Orchester Linz. | |
"YOOBAA-SKETCH"
JPEG: 640x480, approx. 45 KB
| This is a sketch in 3D, which had been created as preparation for an ill-fated music-video project. I like this one for the design I came up with: The rapper has no mouth at all but a gap with a tongue inside instead; the gap was supposed to open/close to the lyrics [think Kermit the frog!]. |
"MS87 - A RELIC"
GIF: 460x900, 100 KB
| Wow, nearly 25 years after the fact I dug up this relic which I had drawn during my school days as a present for my auntie... |
- Composer's Museum -
"ROBOTNIK"
YT Video Link
| Shortly after the 40th of the C-64 I came up with this, my most appreciated SID, for FOReVER. |
"THE GRAZER"
MP3: approx. 8 MB
| Unbelievable but true nonetheless: After 20 years and just in time for the 30th anniversary of the Commodore 64 I managed to complete a new chiptune for my interdisciplinary retro demo "CTG", which was released on CSDb and presented at our bi-monthly Commodore-Treffen Graz, complete with live scroll text contributions by most of the party people. |
"ALBOB - A LITTLE BIT OF BYTES"
MP3: approx. 2.3 MB
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Yet another collaboration with C. C. Tschinkel's ACOUSMONUMENTS for his latest, multi-faceted concept album "AUDITORY_ICON_FILES", a quite experimental one: I laid down some tracks on the SID-chip of the C-64 (again! see above) and Christian quite congenially added his magic on top of that — listen to his solo in the last 12 seconds, it always makes me laugh... |
"ONOMATOPOEIA" ("LAUTMALEREI")
MP3: approx. 3.7 MB
| Located near the end of an old tape I dug up recently, this is completely over-the-top stuff (dramaturgically insane too, I might add): A quite typical concoction by Stefano and me, created on a simple cassette recorder. (w/ lots of button-pressing, that is! ;-D) |
"TIME-LAPSE RETRO SCORING, PART II"
QUICKTIME: 512x288, approx. 41.8 MB
| This is quite similar to the project below, only this time I remastered even two of my beloved "retro" compositions stored on tape, the original names of these musical sketches being "Minimal" and "Claudio 1". An old friend of mine paid me a visit as this music took shape and together we toyed around with it, hence the second title. More importantly, this time around I was responsible for editing, additional animation, post production, and FX as well. I hope you see the difference (one of my goals, making the video footage look like film, can only be appreciated in full resolution): I added title cards on stone tablets (by photographing and enhancing the back side of a piece of plaster made by our daughter!), time axis animation, musical effects, smooth virtual camera moves (naturally, the two web cams were locked off for time-lapse photography), smooth cutting, and much more. As I said before: Compare these two projects (visually) and feel the difference... |
"TIME-LAPSE RETRO SCORING (low resolution download)"
AVI: approx. 42.5 MB
"TIME-LAPSE RETRO SCORING (higher resolution stream)"
ONLINE FLASH VIDEO STREAM
| What you are able to see here are more than four thousand pictures of a construction site taken over the period of 18 months. What you hear is the following: Due to budget constraints this was a simple and quick job but still fun to do, because I got to use existing music of mine, so I dug up one of them really ooold tapes and together we decided which historical compositional sketch of mine would best match the pace of the video and could subsequently be beefed up as well as edited in new ways to fit the moving imagery. The original name of the piece we finally agreed upon is a colorful "idea #3", by the way - I even tried to hit several sync points (e.g. the crane filling/completing the first ceiling above ground level with the drum break starting at around 1:29)... |
"BLADE RUNNER MAIN TITLES - MARTINLAND MEDITATION"
MP3: approx. 1.5 MB
| For all fans of 'Blade Runner' out there and for you nice people at alt.fan.blade-runner in particular: Since my second viewing of the film (but that's whole another story) this sequence of notes always makes me shiver with anticipation and joy - even more so than 'Anything Goes' in the opening sequence of the second Indiana Jones movie. ;-) Some time ago I realized that it's possible for me to pay hommage to this music whilst performing three things at once: The violin, the pianino, and its - believe it or not - _candle-stick_ struck with the violin's bow. Basically it's one unaltered, selected take with some delay added after the fact. Enjoy! |
"AE01"
MP3: approx. 5 MB
| This little musical number started as an experiment in electronic music
during which I tried to rework soundscapes and impressions of last year's animations
for the Ars Electronica Festival. It took me quite a while to complete ;-) That's why it became an entry for a radio project during this year's Festival! Believe it or not, the music represents the dreamlike feeling I get when wandering about with widened, child-like eyes during Ars Electronica... |
"MEISTERFASCHING"
MP3: approx. 316 KB
| T'was the day at the height of carneval, I sat in the graphics department with a lousy microphone at my disposal. Some of you who are old enough and familiar with Austrian TV might recognize the origin of this?!? |
"DECEMBER ´91"
MP3: approx. 9.1 MB
| So this is the only all-out vintage song production of mine around here (except for this curiosity): Taping voice and guitar onto the Fostex 4-Track tape recorder together with a composition done using them all, U110, V50 & W30 (funny how these first, for me quite influental real electronic instruments - we don't want to count home organs - are neighbours in the alphabet, isn't it?) |
"Gottfried Knecht: BAUERNHATZ"
MP3: approx. 2.7 MB
"Gottfried Knecht: QUELLENSTUDIUM"
MP3: approx. 2.0 MB
"Gottfried Knecht: HERBSTTAGE"
MP3: approx. 1.9 MB
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words: gottfried knecht |
"MIAMI II"
MP3: approx. 4.2 MB
| After the V50 I purchased [to get some decent sounding piano at last] the Roland U110 sample-module. Finally I wanted to sample on my own [this was before PCs where powerful at all, mind you!], so along came the Roland W30. This is one of the first compositions I squeezed out of the combined equipment [this time I used the sequencer built into the W30]. Hm, the title might be an after-effect caused by twisted childhood memories of a certain TV-show?!! |
"GOSH, WHAT'S THAT?"
MP3: approx. 1.7 MB
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This is quite simple really: My very second sample tune on the W30. (residing on the same disk and using the same samples as the one below) |
"MEANING OF LIFE"
MP3: approx. 2.5 MB
| As stated above in MIAMI II I finally commanded my own sampler, the Roland W30 workstation, and this is the very first thing I did with it: Taking samples from my lips, bottles, CDs, video cassettes, et cetera and playing around in this kind of funny fashion... |
"OSSI"
MP3: approx. 2.6 MB
| Once again I have no idea where the name for the title came from. There's a bit of Yes / James Bond in the way we approached certain parts, as far as I can remember. Starring: V50, U110, Stefano & myself! |
"C64-game THEME"
MP3: approx. 5 MB
"C64-game IN-GAME"
MP3: approx. 11.6 MB
"C64-game GAME OVER"
MP3: approx. 0.2 MB
"C64-game HIGH SCORE"
MP3: approx. 2.4 MB
| Without further ado: My one and only contribution to the world of commercial C64 game musix. Since it was a kind of puzzle/board game and there were no sound fx I had more than seven minutes and all three voices of the 64 at my disposal to develop on the theme during the game :) |
"MIAMI"
MP3: approx. 3.5 MB
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This is one of the first pieces combining both the V50 & U110 featuring a kind of minimalistic, meditative style. ... t'was finished in creative collaboration with Stefano. |
"CANCELLED"
MP3: approx. 4.8 MB
| Before the respectable effort above there came this little ditty produced via the sample module U110, an effective extension to the V50 synthesizer... |
"SOUL"
MP3: approx. 3 MB
| Another one created on the V50 - don't know how I managed to come up with these names?!? |
"MEDITATION"
MP3: approx. 3.5 MB
| Yep. Those were the days: Here is one of my first compositions [after a shameful affair with some kind of "home organ"] playing my trusty Yamaha V50 Synthesizer [four oscillator algorithms 8-)] with integrated sequencer and drum machine ;-) |
"SPHERES"
MP3: approx. 8.5 MB
| In the course of restoration work done on "Slow[zam]" (see lengthy story below) I discovered this gem which incorporates many of my earliest influences as far as music is concerned. I also distinctly remember modeling this very specific floaty synthesizer patch for all the arpeggios... |
"SLOWZAM"
MP3: approx. 4 MB
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This is a personal favorite of mine again created on the V50 only. It's one of my oldest compositions and therefore pure nostalgia.
At the time I had been heavily influenced by too much exposure to the strange aural world of the Commodore 64; entertaining but somehow weird. Unfortunately, as I was preparing this - and there is still material ranging from V50 & U110 work, not yet presented here, to recent music done with computer sequencer and all the other equipment - the V50's disk drive failed [after 15 years of loyal service :( ] and I had to resort to an old, badly balanced tape recording; I am sorry for the somewhat muffled sound quality [not anymore: see below]. If the drive can be fixed, I surely will replace this version with one taken directly from the V50's oscillators! [GLORIOUS ADDITION: I finally did replace it some 17 years after the fact in May 2008 - before that I managed to finish the repairs on the disk drive in 2007...] |
"RUSHHOUR"
MP3: approx. 3 MB
| One of the first pieces I composed on the V50... ...and, yes, I spelled it like that at the time. |
"GINO"
MP3: approx. 2.7 MB
| This may be the oldest V50 attempt (worth restoring) in here so far - have fun! |
- Theremin Gigs & Pieces -
( T h e r e m i n l a n d )
W A R N I N G : S T R A N G E S O U N D S I N S I D E
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radio shows featuring the aural world of the instrument [and imagery depicting the making and testing of ...] "Martin und das Theremin" (early biography, in German) |
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~--=( performances )=--~
| [11 04 23] | Back in Time Live Set | @ | Bergen |
| [07 26 23] | "C64-Zeitreise mit Theremin-Zusatz" | @ | Kombüse |
| [12 10 19] | Auftakt zum Festakt / LSR Network | @ | Steiermarkhaus |
| [10 19 19] | "Space Control Remixperience" / B.I.T. Live | @ | Bergen, Norway |
| [10 07 19] | Vernissage für Dietmar Wanko / NET_art | @ | Bildungsdirektion |
| [11 29 16] | "Alice im Wunderland" / Künstlerbund | @ | Künstlerhaus |
| [02 1-3 16] | Lecture, Workshop, Concert / Musikuniversität | @ | Elektronisches Musikinstitut, T.U. |
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| [05 31 15] | CD-Präsentation "THEREMINLAND" / Martinland |  | kunstGarten |
| [10 16 13] | "INTI-Suite" / Schwingungsbilder | @ | die keplerkoje |
| [10 04 13] | "Gezeiten" / Schwingungsbilder | @ | die keplerkoje |
| [04 05 13] | "Renate Krammer & Crew" / kunst ost | @ | Loders Backstube Kumberg |
| [09 29 12] | "C64 & Theremin (& Demos)" / IMA | @ | Kulturfabrik Hainburg |
| [05 25 12] | "(30 Years) C64 & Theremin" / Radio Helsinki | @ | Niesenberger …my favourite medley! |
| [04 20 12] | "Theremin einst und jetzt" | @ | Harmonikazentrum |
| [09 28 11] | "Klang und Garten" | @ | "Landesgartenschau OÖ", Ritzlhof |
| [11 09 10] | "Radiokolleg" / Edith-Ulla Gasser | | ORF Klassikradio Ö1, Wien |
| [07 03 10] | "Flötensorbet an Thereminmark" / IMA | @ | Kulturfabrik Hainburg |
| [09 06 09] | "POESIE" / Grado Teatro | @ | centro storico, Grado |
| [07 04 09] | "MLMTCLM09" / Liquid Music | | \zentrum, Judenburg |
| [06 20 09] | "…und die Nacht wäre bewahrt" | @ | kunstGarten |
| [04 24 09] | "draht.lose ätherische klangräume" / "auf.draht" | @ | MiR, Gleisdorf |
| [05 28 08] | "MTC+ML: Theremin und Elektronik" / KIM | | "Sonntags Abstrakt" / Postgarage * |
| [10 24 07] | Theremin Lecture and Demonstration | @ | Harmonikazentrum |
| [06 15 07] | "Kuiper Belt" / the e-acoustic project | | Kunsthalle Wien, project space |
| [05 31 07] | "Show * 3" / IIS Open 07 | @ | Institut für Informationssysteme |
| [05 22 07] | "Jahreskalendersongs" / Martinland | @ | KiG! …my favourite recording so far! |
| [05 05 07] | "ton-gefäße" / Gefässe und Körper | @ | kunstGarten |
| [04 21 07] | "Zeit für Theremin ..." / V:NM-Festival | | Stockwerk |
| [03 27 07] | "Birthday Fantasy" / Sehfrühförderung | @ | Odilien–Institut |
| [02 02 07] | "patchwork" / cym+martinland | @ | stadtteilcafé palaver connected |
| [09 08 06] | "walkON" / Aufbruch-Umbruch | | Museum, Eisenerz …2nd CD [ * 2008] |
| [07 27 06] | Studio: "Kuiper Belt" / Tschinkel | | BrainJoggingLab, Leoben …1st CD |
| [07 13 06] | "Opening" / Styrian Summer Art | @ | Tiefgarage/Hauptplatz, Frohnleiten |
| [06 24 06] | "Theremin mit dem Glück" / Styriarte | @ | KiG!, Graz |
| [06 17 06] | "Serdeczna Matko" / Martinland | @ | Hotel Stary, Kraków |
| [06 13 06] | Jam Session / cym+martinland | @ | Hauptplatz, Frohnleiten |
| [04 04 06] | "nachLage" / Martinland | @ | Kultur In Graz |
- Animations -
"ACOUSMONUMENTS"
[3d-animated web experience]
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This is my most elaborate 3D-animated website to date: Everything you see is either modeled and animated in Maya or pixelled by hand (especially the icons in "Oeuvre" which have been crafted à la 8-Bit Commodore 64). Apart from the obvious moving star field there are four more animated elements, some of them way more subtle and one of which is interactive and kind of hidden, featuring sparks generated in real-time! Happy pixel-hunting… ;-D The main category "Oeuvre" contains the aforementioned dozen hand-pixelled icons that are initialized via a config file adaptable by the composer. Furthermore they are animated according to the user's selection. The overall menu and the sub menus' windows are enhanced with additional effects (star sonifications) and transitions (fades & wipes). |
"INTERSPHERE"
[Animation Short with Theremin soundtrack]
DivX: 768x432 25 fps, approx. 124 MB
ASIFA Austria
Official Selection:
International Animation Day
Best Austrian Animation 2011
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This is yet another animation a loong time in the making: Commissioned by Klaus Schrefler in 2005 as a companion project to our elaborate collaboration and 3D animation extravaganza Intiñahui, the result was a bit rushed and not quite as polished as I would have liked it to be, plus - more importantly: Back then it completely lacked original music! I was fortunate enough to be both artistically and financially inclined to re-immerse myself in this partially abstract dance of dots, lines, and curves with the intention of composing as well as performing an original Theremin score in 2009. Finally, in 2011 everything came together, additional significant (quite laborious) visual enhancements were made and I am now able to proudly present this - in my opinion quite special - animation short in its final aural and visual incarnation: Brought to life via a mix of 2D and 3D techniques, it is based on the physical sculpture "Wheel of Time" created by Klaus Schrefler, Luis Viracocha, and Walter Ackerl. Initially presenting a singular dot the animation moves on to dancing line segments and ultimately blossoms into the sculpture and beyond. The moving image is enforced and transformed by the aformentioned Theremin composition and performance... |
"BHP INTRO"
[Big-Screen Intro for Live Awards Show]
QUICKTIME: 512x288, approx. 29.2 MB
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The powers that be aimed to open their show (presenting nation-wide trophies for architects) with something noteworthy, quite abstract, as well as 3D-animated, with captivating sound. So I created this "THX impression", sort of, culminating in their trophy. Everything - as usual - animated manually by yours truly, no physics simulation here: All of the movement and bouncing around was crafted manually frame by frame using key frame techniques. The soundtrack too was done from scratch utilising old (real and physical, that is) synthesizers and their oscillators, computer generated sounds, as well as samples taken from my trusty Roland musical workstation; plus something analogue. Curious detail: This is an echo or you might even say afterthought to one of the earliest animations I ever did some 17 years prior: It was an early attempt to re-create the finale of my then-favourite THX trailer from the movies (called 'Cimarron'), complete with fake motion blur, 'ripped' sound quickly combined with roaring jet engines, and wobbling stars done in a very, very crude DOS version of 3D Studio. (no fancy Maya back then, hadn't even heard of it yet - like all the others I suppose - since there only was in existence its predecessor 'Power Animator' for Silicon Graphics, if I'm not mistaken ;-D) |
"DANCING EGG-SHELLS"
QUICKTIME: 640x160, approx. 27 MB
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The top half of the frame (see above) - 2D eggs as part of a larger logo (not shown) - is all there was at the beginning... ...I had to rebuild these egg-shells in 3D from scratch to match - complete with stylized edges and outlines - and gave each one of them distinct characteristics: Et voilà! (click above) The rhythmic soundtrack was created in multiple layers on two of my trusty old synthesizer and sampler workstations: Yamaha V50 and Roland W30... ;-) |
"DAUMENKINO LIEGT VOLL IM TREND"
GIF: 564x1024, 251 KB
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| A newspaper article (in German) about my fascination with flip books in particular... |
"MEDIA BOT"
['In-your-face' Trailer for Stereoscopic Display]
QUICKTIME: 640x360, approx. 74.4 MB
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To keep things short and tidy: This is it. My favourite occupation: Just animating! For this project I had the pleasure to craft 70 seconds of pure character animation. So every move you see him do is me: I "merely" did the animation and a bit of character setup. Pure magic (at least for me)... |
"LOMI ROTOSCOPE ANIMATION"
Broadband Flash Video Stream
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A commissioned, special approach to the concept of 'the trailer' for a special kind of energetic body work: No text, no voice, no explanation, just music and movement! Animated and enhanced frame by frame via rotoscoping (painting and animating over special footage) the unique feel of LOMI - the art and miracle of touch is conveyed. To watch the trailer in its entirety click on the preview - apart from my animation aristaDigital (my cousin ;) shot, edited, and produced this piece. |
"CROP-FM"
[animated website]
![Visit CROPfm - the flexxxible radio show! [please select 'cancel' to stay on the animated version]](loading_egg_v1.gif "Visit CROPfm - the flexxxible radio show! [please select 'cancel' to stay on the animated version]")
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Enter the world of glowing blue eggs and Tesla energy! For the portal of "CROPfm", the flexxxible radio show, I created all the graphics and animations, there was a bit of coding and testing on my part too. The site is full of little animated details: For instance, if you 'touch' the small media eggs, they spring open and reveal either a blaring loudspeaker or a rotating old-school floppy disk; there's a floating Tesla sledge on the left hand side as well. Click on the egg above, choose the old 2.0 interface, and have fun exploring! (beyond the interface the content is quite interesting too) |
"VIDEO GAME MODELS, SCULPTING & FX ANIMATION"
sketches - JPEG: 768x256, 67 KB
animation excerpts - QUICKTIME: 768x256, approx. 9 MB
squaw sculpture - JPEG: 768x256, approx. 53 KB
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The only thing I want to mention here is the fact that we slightly emulated "8-bit" colors. Lots of other effect animations (sparks, special glossy lighting, etc.) and models were produced, this is just a handful of examples. |
"STERNENNETZ - NET OF STARS"
[3d-animated teaser web page]
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This is a piece of web animation - subtly alive (especially the sun and its flare) - done solely for presentation of an unrealized realtime-3d project's outline in a short-lived installation, as can be seen above. So please click it and go there to see for yourself, it's still online on our server... |
"SAILING ISLAND"
[3D Modeling & Animation for Image-Film]
(Pre-)Production Stills & Quicktime Animation Test in Full Resolution (approx. 5.6 MB)
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Disclaimer: You should already be familiar with the architectural landmark
that is called
Acconci Island
to understand the concept, modeling, and animation for a film
in which this stationary construction just sails away! The director and I started by tossing around ideas. Pay attention to the first sketch I came up with which depicts booster rockets à la Space Shuttle to raise the main sail. This idea stuck right until the end and has been executed quite similarly in the finished film. On the other hand, the concept of the sail doubling as a giant projection screen ultimately has been abandoned:
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| The pre-production images on the right hand side show different stages of the model from the architect's original data to a completely shaded and lit version ready for animation: |  |
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Here you can see five different concepts for the main sail dealing with proportion, material, and reflection qualities. They lead to a final "hero" version which incorporates all ideas... |
| These two shots were part of a pre-visualization for the entire launch sequence. To this end I created 3D-sketches of parachutes and their shadows on the island's hull. These parachutes were not intended for final production but can be seen in the finished film (see below). |  |
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Sail #5 has been animated by me in this high quality test depicting the moment it catches wind. I am particularly happy with the result as it's mostly hand animation without much simulation - pure joy creating these layers of motion! |
| Finally you are about to see six frames right out of the finished 10 minute film, two of which have been re-framed for this purpose. |  |
"FLIP BOOK WITH SOUND"
MP3: approx. 270 KB
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Late in 2005 an old friend of mine (imagine us both being 14 ;-) and I came up with this mind-boggling concept: A flip book complete with sound - right out of the box! Basically I took the visuals of Let There Be Light!, compressed them into insane 11 seconds running time and did the same to the audio track (add two seconds of count down to prepare the "flip book user" for flipping!). Martin (yep, that's my friend's name :) took it from there and thoroughly constructed a beautiful casing complete with an implanted micro chip that he coded a special audio algorithm for. Phew! So if you want to listen in, grab your mouse and take a closer look at the picture above... ;) Oh, and by the way: You people in and around Graz, Austria are able to lay hands on the real thing @ KiG!, Feuerbachgasse 25!! |
| [Flip Book | & | Interactive Online Animation] |
| DivX: 640x480 25 fps, Silent, ~ 5 MB | & | Hyperlink |
| Finally, here we have the sequel to ausLage on a much grander scale, so to speak: | ||
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| The flip book visual appears courtesy of Reinhold Bidner and Flipt! 2007. | The interactive version has been commissioned by Kulturserver Graz and its soundtrack features my first Theremin-recording ever! |
| The animation mainly consists of three self-contained, despite seemingly jittery animation quite smoothly repeatable sections, which would have been unnecessarily complicated if it had been designed for a flip book only... ;) | |
"V I S - WORKS"
[a separate, animated website!]
| Belatedly I managed to squeeze this one in: A whole chestnut of various things I've done for a wide range of media like installations, posters, the Internet, CD-Roms, and DVDs containing sounds, musix, designs, programming, and animations created almost exclusively by me - including the site itself! Enjoy. |
"MAXIE - The Girl Of The Future"
[Trailer/Pilot Episode]
WMV: 320x240, approx. 1.3 MB
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Here's a special treat: In this pilot episode of "Maxie - The Girl Of The Future" I was able to concentrate solely
on the aspect of character animation. Everything from models, shading, to facial animation and rendering was none of my business. Wonderful! For a change it wasn't necessary to play jack of all trades.
Except that there were seven characters to animate.
So keep in mind: Nearly all character animation was done by Martinland, P.S.: By a happy coincidence, this animation features a weightless sequence, "2001"-style, complete with waltz, both of which are featured likewise in my first short "18 Months Later". |
"CELLY"
Collage of animated gifs and stills: approx. 450 KB
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This cute little cell-phone, name of "Celly", has been commissioned by a costumer of Martinland.
Celly here invites you to watch him pose and perform like he does in another part of the Internet... In this case I had to create the character based on existing designs / suggestions for his "performance". |
"AUSLAGE" (flip book) STOP MOTION VERSION
DivX: 768x576 25 fps, Silent, approx. 3 MB
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This is Martinland's ultimate three-fold hand-made animation: (yep, no computers involved in the artwork/final flip book/stop motion version) In spring 2003 "ausLage" manifested itself as bits and pieces of hand-drawn animation.
This was subsequently converted into a flip book as part of project Aus-Lage by KiG!,
where it has been available for purchase in the store. The third variant is this (1.) stop motion animation [providing me with the excellent opportunity to _animate_ (again!) the flip book the way it is supposed to be used, and even improve on the animation by using the frames a bit differently (re-creating dramatic pacing, which has been lost due to the limitations of the flip book format) 8-) !!] showing the (2.) flip book in action - depicting my (3.) initial drawings - that's three-fold! This animation also was part of the tontoANiMATiON reel, which was on display during the first incarnation of Comic Festival Graz... |
"MIKE" SPECIAL EDITION
DivX: 768x576 25 fps, Sound: 44Khz Mono, approx. 2.5 MB
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This is it: My first TV spot ;-) Click on the second
sketch below (the scribble of baby-mike) to download the piece, which
is a combination of stuff I had done on the tontoANiMATiON reel for
the first Comic Festival Graz
and an over-the-top soundtrack distilled from my favorite jingle on Radio Helsinki 92.6! I don't want to
explain anything more about it, so please watch it! |
"MIKE"
ANIMATED GIFs, approx. 100 KB each
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Hello Mike, good to have you on board! This is the first character done in the
distinct "2.5D" style of animation developed here at Martinland! The sketch above was the second and final version the day after I made the scribble below [it looks that way because it's very, very tiny - like most of my drawings]:
![Hi! I am Baby-Mike. * bllllll * * grinnn * [TV spot burried here :)]](mike_scribble.gif "Hi! I am Baby-Mike. * bllllll * * grinnn * [TV spot burried here :)]") The purpose of my new modus operandi, as far as animation is concerned, happens to be saving time and furthermore creating a weird look by keeping as close to my drawings as possible, but in the realm of three dimensions nonetheless! |
"JURASSIC LOOP" SPECIAL EDITION
DivX: 768x576 25 fps, Sound: 44Khz Stereo, approx. 10 MB
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This is Kali: A creature of Martinland through and through! He appears in this animation
which has been named "Jurassic Loop" by me. Not without reason. So fire up the DivX-Player
of your choice and enjoy the philosophical implications provoked by this little film! I proudly present this Special Edition of Kali's "Jurassic Loop" fresh from the tontoANiMATiON-reel. This version has been produced in full PAL resolution and features, besides some nifty titles, three endless loops fashioned in the style of some weird video installation - definitely an improvement upon the original idea ;-) If you want to know (and see) more about Kali, please visit v i s - page and surf to focus->animation->reference projects. |
"VIS-MAX"
Flash-Stream: 160x240 10 fps, approx. 340 KB / Realtime-3D-Shockwave: approx. 420 KB
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Max came into being, because a mascot was needed to identify with the visualization group. He comes in two flavors: As an Animation-Stream [wait for the ray-ban] as well as
a Realtime-3D-Model [I think he has an eye on you]. You'll need Javascript, Flash & Shockwave to meet Max. |
"PATRICK"
AVI: 400x300 25 fps, Sound: 11Khz Mono, approx. 2 MB
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Having been working on and toying with the fascinating art of character animation in the industry for more than two years, I came up with Patrick (no relation to any friends of mine); finally, he is ready for animation, so welcome Patrick! |
"GENIE"
MPEG: 200x320 24 fps, Sound: 44Khz Stereo, approx. 4.5 MB
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Another byproduct of game-development I have been involved with. I could not figure out a punchline for this one; consider this a character animation demo... |
"THE FROG THAT CROAKED TOO MUCH"
MPEG: 320x240 24 fps, Sound: 44Khz Mono, approx. 2 MB
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The rough version of this animation was lurking around someplace after I had finished it as part of an in-game animation; finally I have improved on it [the title of course is a slight nod to Sir Alfred]. So here it is! |
"LET THERE BE LIGHT!" SPECIAL EDITION
DivX: 768x480 25 fps, Sound: 44Khz Stereo, approx. 10 MB
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So-called Monster, which I kept drawing for quite some time in the good old days(tm), comes
to life in this estounding special-effects extravaganza!
(hm, it's really not bad, trust me; pay attention to the soundtrack!) For this Special Edition, fresh from the first Comic Festival Graz, I decided to transform the piece into a classy black and white short since the monster sequences are b/w anyway.
The animation has been blown up to PAL resolution to give parts of the image space to breath, although Monster itself was drawn on
a smaller scale - plus I re-framed for widescreen appearance. |
"DECKARD2RACHEL"
MPEG: 160x240 24 fps, Sound: 44Khz Mono, approx. 5 MB
| This animation is three things: It's an hommage to the movie Blade Runner, it's my take on morphing and it has been the first animation presented on my homepage! Have fun... |
"71 FRAGMENTS OF A CHRONOLOGY OF CHANCE"
Director: Michael Haneke, DVD available
…the film that started it all (e.g. Martinland)…
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This event fueled my desire to work in the field of animation: Not only was I invited to discuss the relevant page with the director (see script page above) but I'm pretty sure that nobody watching the scene actually realized that the 50 seconds I contributed to the film were animation at all! That's a pretty nice thing to achieve in your first film project. ;-) All the sound was dubbed in later (dialogue, mouse clicks, etc.) and the 2D-animation which I created manually gives the impression of existing and advanced (at the time ;-) software. There was no software. (but instead one of my first attempts at 3D animation at the end ;-) To top it all off the official DVD (not done by me) features - out of all the scenes in the movie - my 50-second contribution to the film in its main menu loop! All this culminated in my decision to continue working in the fields of film, animation, music and drawings - that's exactly what I've been doing ever since! Interesting tidbit: If you look closely at the top of the script page it says "(25)" in my own handwriting. This is the number of takes an adjacent shot in the scene was repeated by the director to "wear out" his actors. That's just his approach to achieve what he calls 'realism devoid of mannerism'. |
