Johannes Schlörb | Freelance Digital Design

Entries are sorted roughly in chronological order. Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size version. All images are © Johannes Schlörb 1992-2002
	The latest version of the ISS-2 over (or under?) Australia, rendered using finalRender Stage-1 Alpha and the incredible BlueMarble texture set by NASA. Unfortunately one of the 1km-resolution texture tiles is ending at the upper right corner of the image and is causing these strange "artifacts".
	Yet another test rendering. Considerable parts of the station are missing in this shot, though.
	A first "lower earth orbit" shot using 1km-tiles of the invaluable "Blue Marble" set of texture maps by NASA, the highest-quality free planetary maps available. This was an experiment to use blurry raytracing instead of traditional specular highlights to visualize the reflectance properties of oceanic surfaces with proper "cut-off" underneath the clouds.
	Another render test to check the coloration and "credibility" of this CG earth model, this time using 8km-resolution-tiles. I'm absolutely not satisfied yet, even though the texure maps themselves are marvelous. Just the shader of mine sucks and needs much more work yet.
	The incomplete Stonehenge model of mine (which you can also download from our HengeMark 3D website) in the middle of graslands, created using ChaoticDimension's Shag:Hair, backdropped against a photograph with a "typically british evening sky". This is a test for one possible "lighting mood". The whole scenery will eventually be used for the "Kurzzeithelden" teaser sequence.
	Once again my incomplete Stonehenge, this time surrounded by a fully immersive sky dome, stitched together from various great sky photos available at www.animax.it
	The arena for an "Axel F" music video, which my friend Toby Olsson and me were working on in winter 2001/2002. Due to problems between the producer and the record company, this video for DJ Spacecorn's trance version of Harold Faltermeyer's famous main theme of the "Beverly Hills Cop" trilogy never got finished. (more...)
	Another location for the "Axel F" music video. My goal was to create a naive, but yet near-photoreal world, just as it would look like in a traditionally produced "claymation" film. I'm making no secret of the fact, that we were strongly inspired by Ruairi Robinson's gorgeous "98FM" commercial, which had nearly the same look we were now after.

	The original version of "Detention". The idea to that scene came when I was watching one of those old "Derrick" episodes. Some locations had this typical interior design of the seventies and early eighties, so I thought it would be interesting to create such a linoleum corridor. The blurry reflections on the walls and the floor were also a great experiment to test-drive finalRender Stage-0 beta. (more...)
	Rendering for a design exercise my ex-G/F approached me with. She invented this motif as part of a fictitious HIV prevention campaign for her design class, but wasn't able to have it actually photographed this way. Either the condom wouldn't grip or the egg wouldn't remain upright… so to speak pretty much the same problems as in "the actual case" ;-) (more...)
	First close-up of the main "dashboard" with all the texture layers created in CorelDraw, which will later be partially animated using good old Autodesk Animator Pro! ;-)
	Some first lighting and texturing previews of the CGI interior set of the Monolith shuttlecraft for "Kurzzeithelden", which will be used for compositing in the live action with our 4 actors in a greenbox.
	Another shot taken from the aft region of the shuttle cabin.
	The captain's and co-pilot's chairs. Note the "VacuGee" logo. It might give you a hint on how exactly I "solved" the problem of the missing gravity inside the shuttle - for all you knit-pickers out there! ;-)
	A first glance at one of the main locations for "Kurzzeithelden", the exterior of the Ground Control Center. To be added are some more distant buildings backdropped against "Metropolis", some vegetation, a lot of animated extras in front of the main complex and some vehicles.
	Originating from a modeling exercise I did with László Sebó's "MeshTools" for 3ds max 4, this unfinished caricature head of Helmut Kohl was now subject of an attempt to simulate realistically looking skin. I haven't gotten very far, as you can see (although this is not yet the latest version I did).
	Another test render, this time with a slight subsurface scattering effect, illuminating underlying skin layers.
	One of the first texturing attempts. The geometry itself isn't done yet, especially what regards the "propulsion system". Later you will see this model composited with the interior and the actors, visible through the front windows.
	Yes, those are actually air inlets. Monolith is programmed for re-entry into the atmosphere, in case that anything would go wrong. Hence also the rather aero-dynamic shape of the spaceship. The airstream provides the necessary cooling of the inner and outer hulls. There are yet a few things missing, such as the pneumatic system for the board/starboard propulsion coil cantilevers.
	Rear view with the docking hatch. The little indents on the main hull will later be replaced with mounts for the docking clamps. Also the "spindle" of the aft engine is just a placeholder for a more sophisticated gadgetry.
	Visual element for the 2001 corporate portfolio presentation for Deutsche Bank Real Estate Division. The animation sequence shows the skyscrapers of the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, and an environment stitched together from various photographs.

	A downtown scenery, born out of the idea to create vast amounts of building blocks simply by using the freeware plugin "Greeble". The city has meanwhile been used for various purposes, and so there also exist many different versions. You can see it in action as part of a "Foley Studio MAX" demo animation, which I did for BoomerLabs. (more...)
	An up to now unused (and unfinished) component for my Metropolis cityscape.
	Frame taken from a test animation I did in order to see how the park would fit into the (lowpoly) urban environment I had created so far.
	One of the industrial robots produced by Reis Robotics, modeled after a few photo references from their catalogue and done solely for general job acquisition purposes in that field of the industry. This still is taken from an animation, which they later actually used as an audiovisual element for their tradeshow booth.
	My last attempt to get a decent result with TerraMetrics' TruEarth™, which is a set of geographically highly accurate earth texture maps, but in my opinion they are lacking any natural coloration. It was quite difficult to compensate this in the shader setup. Also I had to create the cloud layer on my own, using METEOSAT infrared imagery. (more...)
	A cheesey Fifties-SciFi motif, rendered with the help of a very early predecessor of finalRender Stage-0
	The first version of the "Mars Attacks" image, yet without translucency and stuff...
	Render experiment using finalRender's early subsurface scattering implementation, a method to calculate the distribution of diffuse light inside a volume (in this case the foam cap). As you can see it was still having problems with 3ds max' energy balancing, hence the dark shadow. (more...)
	Part of an animation sequence under the motto "You can see our work!" for Deutsche Bank Real Estate Division. My first attempt ever to use patch modeling and to create something roughly resembling a human eye, mapped with a combination of custom bitmaps and procedural textures.
	This cat character named "Leo" was supposed to be the mascot and moderator of an "edutainment" software for kids. The tail is done using Shag:Hair
	Atmospheric logo animation for one of the oldest (almost 500 years old) restaurants in Frankfurt. The looping animation sequence is shown as DVD playback on a widescreen plasma monitor in the foyer of the location.
	One of the many different uses of the "Metropolis" scenery, this time actually in the style of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. I removed the logos from the airships way back, but meanwhile it is no secret anymore that this motif was supposd to be used for a tradeshow booth of Dresdner Bank.
	Another view of "Utopolis"
	A navigation element designed for my first website layout, which I then never used. Since I'm not exactly an Apple fan, this "iMac" was supposed to disintegrate after a certain time during the visit of my website, eventually melting to a clod of goo, but it turned out to be too hard to code. Last not least the animation wouldn't have worked for Apple users visiting my website due to compatibility issues.
	Faked "GI" indoor lighting using an array of omni lights. There is not even raytracing involved (the tables have a flat mirror map assigned to them), so it could have been done even in 3DS DOS already. But then again there was no realPeople plugin back then. :)

	The first design version of "Monolith" landing on the salt lake. The sequence was being used on-camera for a scene in "Kurzzeithelden", taking place in a restaurant with a monitor.
	My first design for the "Monolith IX" faster-than-light shuttlecraft, roughly based on the Sänger project designs with a strong emphasize on atmospheric flight and airborne launch (piggyback from a carrier aircraft). (more...)
	The mascot of a local pub named "Hirsch" (=stag, deer), which is decorated in a "huntsmen" fashion. I did these various looping animations in the style of a "screen saver", so that they could use it as part of their interior design, without distracting too much. Only for special events there would also be little "short movies", acting as periodical 30-sec-eyecatchers to draw the attention of the visitors to a certain announcement. (more...)
	The same mascot character, this time as a huntsman trophy. Subject of this rendering was the lighting effect, accomplished by using a projector map to create the spooky impression of refraction caustics caused by rain pouring down the window at night.
	A quick design and compositing test for a perspective modeling/animation job. The director of this movie wanted to have a spaceship, that was a blend between a Cadillac "Fleetwood" and a pumpkin.
	The almost completed first version of the station. I know, it might be hard to comprehend for many people having seen this quasi finished model, but I nevertheless simply had built it again from scratch, as this design looked way too gloomy for my taste.
	The first version of the ISS-2, from which the astronauts of "Kurzzeithelden" will start to their pioneer flight. This collage was originally created for the 3DCafe.com gallery.
	The first conceptual design study for the "ISS-2", created using the CartoonReyes shader plugin.


	A gummy bear, done for the (never completed) short movie project at www.3dmax.de
	My design for the "oriental starbase" of Bassa Selim, one of the main characters in the Sci-Fi version of Mozart's "Escape from Serail" opera. My task on this project was the computer-animated viewscreen inside the set decoration for the "Kleine Oper Bad Homburg", an ambitious and very popular ensemble, producing classic operas and theater plays especially adapted for children.
	The finished models for the "Escape from Serail" opera production, which was entitled "Alert on Dora-037" in this special version for kids.


	One of many emotional key motifs taken out of the Dunlop Kick-Off trailer I did in fall 1998. This trailer is enirely a one-man-show, as I did everything from the conceptual work over modeling, texturing and animation till the final cut and sound design, including parts of the music. Remaining elements of the soundtrack were contributed by my colleague Norbert Weinzierl, such as the test drive guitar theme. (more...)
	A test with Pyrocluster by Cebas, which was later being re-used as an insert for the final space battle in "BorgWar 3", showing an explosion crawling up the bridge turbolift shaft. Download the full Borgwar3 teaser-trailer here (DivX 3.11)
	The ill-fated USS Dallas exploration cruiser, which got involved in a deadly space battle with an unknown race. Download the full Borgwar3 teaser-trailer here (DivX 3.11)
	My version of the often-mentioned "Utopia Planitia" Fleet Yard Facilities in orbit around Mars. These are screenshots from a quite lengthy establishing sequence, in which the shuttlecraft "Puttkamer" with two people (live action plate) on board is approaching the USS Yorktown (a just slightly refitted version of the old "FKB Enterprise"). Download the full Borgwar3 teaser-trailer here (DivX 3.11)
	A collection of images showing the redesigned "FKB Enterprise" from 1994/1995 in her new role as USS Yorktown NCC 80000-A. Download the full Borgwar3 teaser-trailer here (DivX 3.11)
	My design for the little training ships the cadettes have to fly during their holodeck combat simulations. Yes, I know it somewhat resembles Luke Skywalker's landspeeder. Download the full Borgwar3 teaser-trailer here (DivX 3.11)

	One of several animated key visuals for the video wall of the "Young Clothing Stores", a then new department of the rather noble Peek&Cloppenburg fashion stores.
	Another "point of sale" screen design taken from the "Peek&Cloppenburg" reel, using 3D-animated elements as well as plain animated typography, composited together in Adobe Premiere.



	A first (ugly) attempt to create some interesting visuals for Dunlop
	A little logo animation as part of an entire design package I did for Henkel Ecolab.
	Call it art, even though it is really just the result of my first encounter with 3DS MAX and refraction mapping, something that didn't yet exist in 3D Studio for DOS (at least not directly out of the box).
	My 2nd Borg Cube, this time using multiple layers of bump- and opacity-mapped gadgetry to receive more depth, especially for animations.
	A close-up, showcasing the various depth layers (and bad texture filtering :-P)
	A CD Cover design proposal for the band of my former music teacher Michael Schuster. Certainly one of the very first pictures I did with 3DS MAX.
	My first architectural visualization for Planungsbüro Rohling AG. The interior of the "Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank" subsidiary in Düsseldorf was supposed to be entirely refurbished, but the client of course couldn't imagine how those skewed walls would look like in reality. (more...)

	My personal further development of the original Klingon Bird-of-Prey, the WarEagle, premiered in the Trek Home Video from 1995 and was later also used for BorgWar3.
	Another backcover I did for the "TrekWorld" fanzine.
	The VCD ("Versatile Cloaking Device") of the F.K.B. ("Federal Klingon Battlecruiser") Enterprise. This device has multiple functions. Firstly it can act as a 3rd warp drive nacelle allowing for transwarp and artificial wormhole maneuvers, as a large-scale "debris" replicator and last not least as the ship's primary cloaking device. (more...)
	As part of our arts class, we had to build a model of our dream residence. I asked if I could also use the computer to only create a digital model. My teacher was open-minded enought to allow this, and so I carried my 486 to school and designed a cliff-dwelling segment of the Enterprise's saucer section with another two platforms for swimming pool (with a glass floor) and a helicopter pad. (more...)
	Wrapper design for a fanzine issued by the "Star Trek Fan Club Frankfurt", depicting the commissioning ceremony for the Enterprise "W" inside the gigantic hangar sphere of Starbase Deep Space 12. Right now I have no explanation why the ship was allowed to fire phasers within the dock, other than that it just looks kewler then! ;-P
	During the heights of my Trek "fanatism", the german TV station SAT.1 was calling for submissions for their Trek home video contest, the grand prize being a Peugeot 306, well worth some 15,000 €. And I had just received my driver's license, too, so I was very much after winning this competition. There was just one minor problem: I had no camcorder to shoot my own home video. :-( (more...)

	Once again the F.K.B. Enterprise on display, created as a backcover for the "TrekWorld", the then most popular german Trek fanzine.
	The Enterprise "W" mounted in her drydock, floating inside the gigantic hangar sphere of Starbase Deep Space 12
	Yet another poster of the "FKB Enterprise"
	Side elevation of the Enterprise "W", which was printed as a large poster for the members of the "Deception Class Development Project" (which was basically a team of three loyal Trekkies, writing their own little storyline named "Star Trek - The 25th Century"). (more...)
	The Enterprise "W" inside a space nebula, inspired by an episode from "Star Trek - The Next Generation". The volume light is of course just fake, as something like this did not yet exist in the (out-of-the-box) version of 3DS DOS.
	One of the two main shuttle bays on top of the saucer section of the "FKB Enterprise"
	Chancellor Helmut Kohl, this time as a wind-up toy for a funny showroom video I did for a SciFi merchandize shop
	A weird "logo" proposal I once did for the german ST fanclub "Star Trek Central Europe"
	One of the first pictures of the first "human" character I ever did.
	Just an attempt to model something cool. As it began to look more and more like an oceanic vehicle, I also christened it "Aquatic Shuttle". Despite its primary purpose you can also see a flock of these shuttlecraft inside the hangar sphere of "Deep Space 12"
	A poster version of the "World of Fantasy" logo animation, which I did for the eponymous retail shop in Frankfurt. Also my first encounter with Inverse Kinematics, as far as I recall.
	"World of Fantasy" was the name of a roleplaying and SciFi merchandize store in Frankfurt, and this scenery (dragon in front of a castle, backdropped against the moon) was their logo. Back then I felt honored to create this showroom animation for them.

	One of the huge promenade decks revolving the gigantic hangar sphere of Starbase Deep Space 12, with a klingon "pub" to the right. :-)
	Wide view of the "Warrior's", a gloomy pub for Klingons ;-) Don't mind the stiff crew members hanging out there. They are probably just in awe for the sheer size of that promenade deck.
	The giant starbase Deep Space 12, my Trekkie answer to the Death Star! ;-) This station has also been reused later for the SAT.1 Trek Home Video

	A little job for my brother Boris Schlörb during his time as student of architecture. He was sending in his concept of a ferris-wheel-like bicycle mounting system as part of an economical and ecological urban traffic plan. Based on his idea I was visualizing this key artwork. As far as my memory serves me, it was placed 4th with an "honorable mention".