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We're proud to present an interview with noted 3D landscape artist Johannes Rosenberg |
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It is my pleasure to sit down with Johannes Rosenberg today. Johannes will be the judge of our next contest here at PlanIT 3D I am very pleased that he agreed to let us know about his artwork and work in the 3D Community as well as his background. Johannes works in 3D landscaping, software development, web design and has been a teacher as well as a coach. Welcome Johannes and it's wonderful to have you here. Can you give us some idea of where you are located? I am located in Germany, to be precise, in Essen. It is a town, with other towns around it and at least one great city of about 5 Million people. There are some green in parks and some smaller woods, but everywhere there are people…no places to be alone. I find that our day to day life seems to influence the artwork that we do. Could you tell us a little about your time and interests spent off of the computer? I do some jogging in the morning and on weekend sometimes I drive to the seaside in the Netherlands…and I have a wife :. Besides that there is not much time off from the computer, and even my other interests, like science and spiritual matters, involve the computer. So to sum up: First my wife, then the computer, (she sometimes thinks, it is the other way round though.) Were you always interested in artwork as a child or did this come later in life and what spurred that interest? My interest in artwork started at 14, when I bought my first camera with my own money. When 18 I got a stipend from the town of Essen for visual artists. In between, I also did some music. (of course electronic, but not exclusively), I have written a fairytale and also do some painting work. You have had a varied career spanning many avenues. One of them is teaching. When did you teach and what subjects? Also, being a sports nut, I am interested in your coaching history. :-) Well, let me put it this way: When I was taking a course on business matters, I was a bit frustrated, because all the time the teacher was speaking, and, I also like speaking, so I decided to become a teacher (I was 35 years old). After speaking for some years, and others were listening, well, it was enough words spoken and I went back to more creative work. The coaching is more by opportunity, helping people to get a clear sight of their goals, and how they can achieve them. In the field of software development, what programs have you been associated with and what led to that line of development? My first own software was Textcase. It has taken nearly one year, and it is good, but sales run bad, very bad, and this year I took it off the market. But it will come back, with some parts as freeware. Most of my developing is for special use; a short tool, to solve some problems, like a special color picker for grayed colors. Just now I have started to develop a landscape tool, "Landscaper". It will be a restricted freeware, like Terragen. I know that you have been involved in website development for the past three years, can you share with us how you became involved in website work, what programs you use and show us links to some of your work? I have started with my own websites, like my science site www.gruppe12.de (sorry only German) and then one for the family. The first was done with FrontPage, but now I am working with Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop and Swish. Swish is a useful tool for flash-animation; I like it much more than Macromedia Flash. Some work: www.net-mind.com, www.articolare.de, www.urologin-essen.de And of course my own site, which has been just re-launched with a new design www.cajomi.de Your most recent work involves landscape and scene construction. What software do you use and what led to your interest in creating your beautiful artwork? Well, as I said, I live in a big town. The only real landscapes are the clouds at the sky. So, I do my own landscapes to get the feeling of wideness, peace, or the power of nature. Yes, it is a bit like playing god. I use different software, mostly to develop the terrains; most important are Terraformer, Worldmaschine, and Leveller. The rendering is done now in Carrara, because it allows you to combine different terrains to create a great landscape and put in objects, like trees or a ruin etc. Before that I used Terragen. This is the software that really brought me to the landscapes. I also own Bryce and Vue, but the landscapes became real first with Terragen. Sure, rendering landscapes is a passion.
I believe our readers would be interested in where your inspiration comes from when you create your beautiful scenes. Are they scenes from travels to wonderful places or are they scenes springing from your imagination of idyllic spots you would like to visit? Anything else? :-) A mixture of fantasy and photos. I am realist. So, I want to create realistic landscapes, and even if they are impossible, they should look like a photo. And I build such places, where I would like to be. It is like creating a world when designing the terrains, and then you want to render it and travel through your world. You can discover places where never ever another human has been. So, all my landscapes are not visions of a still image, but of places to travel through. Does your work involve creating scenes for arch vis presentations and CAD developers? If so, how does the process work between you and the client? This is one of my goals, but as of yet it is still not realized. There are strange problems in "urbanizing" the landscapes. But I hope to solve these problems with my tool Landscaper and then realize CAD visions. I am very interested in your latest project, the German fantasy movie "Drachenfeder". (http://www.drachenfeder.com/) Could you give us a little background on how that came about and what role you are playing in the development of the movie? The film is based on a mixture of a fantasy game (like Black Eye, not a computer game, but with people, who develop a world of fantasy where they went through many adventures) and an autobiographical component from the director. It is the search for the sense behind the sense or not-sense of the world. It is not a one-man show, but a team, which will make the journey through the secrets to find the last secret. And if they do not find it, the world will be destroyed. And it begins, where the end starts. How did I meet the team? Well, it was a little post in a German Terragen forum asking whether someone would be interested in a fantasy movie. He, Markus Rupprecht, the director, then selected some of those, who were interested and we began to develop some basic solutions (for night scenes). After this, he decided to give me the responsibility for the design of the landscapes for the movie. We will create a whole fantasy world but most of the film will be done the traditional way, in real places and with a camera. Do you have a completion date for the movie and its release? In what areas will it be shown? The completion date is not fixed, sorry, but at least it may be in 2007. It is not fixed, where it will be shown either. For those decisions it is a bit early as we are still looking for money to raise our low budget. Johannes, where do you see your career and artwork heading in the future? Are there avenues that you would like to pursue that you haven't attempted yet? Are you interested in pursuing the movie development work exclusively? What are your dreams? My last dream is a farm, where I will live in peace with my wife and some children and friends. Not only to create landscapes, but to be a real part of, but until then landscapes for movies are a great challenge. Also for advertising, and when my software is ready, also for arch vis presentations. After all, I am not so much a 3D artist, but a 3D-landscape artist. A dream would come true, if I could design the landscapes for the cinema movie of my fairytale.
Thank you so much Johannes for taking the time to share your work and your life with us. Also thank you for consenting to be the judge of our next contest. It should prove to be a wonderful venture. I wish you the very best in all that you do and please feel free to drop by PlanIT 3D anytime. The door is always open and we love visitors. Thank you, Kathie Berry a.k.a. Damsel You can check out more of Johannes' work with Carrara by looking at his execellent tutorial on the Eovia site.
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