rise | visual effects studios

Houdini now simulating at RISE

2011-11-21T19:02:00.004+01:00

We have added SideFX's Houdini 3D animation and simulation package to our feature film fx pipeline. Thanks to Houdini we are now capable of offering the highest standard of simulation work for natural phenomenons, particle simulations, smoke, fire, water and destruction of all kinds. Currently our 3D department is working heavily on integrating it into our pipeline and optimizing interoperability with all other software packages used at RISE.

If you are a talented Houdini TD and if you are interested in working with us - please check the jobs page for openings starting January 2012.

3000 shots in 180 days... That's 16.667 Shots a day!!!

2011-11-03T19:40:00.006+01:00

When Rayk Schroeder signed on to supervise the VFX work for the second season of Ijon Tichy he was already aware that it wouldn't end up being a standard 100-600 shot project. But he didn't expect 3000 shots either. In the end Rayk and his small team managed to finish the 3000 shots within roughly 6 months by automating various tasks, beta testing our own high-speed shot management database and preparing as good as possible for when the storm would hit. The combination of scale models, CG elements that were supposed to look like scale models, puppets and actors shot on greenscreen ended up being more than 80 percent of the entire running length of the series. Great work, guys. And a HUGE "THANK YOU" for hanging in there. A refreshingly abstract yet very, very creative approach to visual effects. Starting this Friday on ZDF:

The Laconia is sinking... Tomorrow...

2011-11-01T14:24:00.006+01:00

RISE proudly created about 75 percent of all visual effects shots, among them the sinking of the CG Laconia, CG submarines and CG B24 bombers. Especially for the sinking of the ship a combination of computer simulated ocean and water, fuel puddles on the ocean, fire, smoke and the CG ship itself proved to be quite a challenge for crew and hardware. The goal was to stay away from Titanic's style as far as possible. So instead of going for a romantically moonlit atmosphere RISE designed the torpedo hit fire to illuminate the scene, bouncing of the ocean surface to create a nice interaction with the ship's hull. One of the references used over the course of the design process were the burning oil drills in Kuwait in the early 90s as well as last years oil drilling rig disaster, the Deepwater Horizon.

Watch Laconia on ARD, 2nd November, 8:15pm
Read everything about the History of the Laconia and about the film HERE!

Pointcloud9 online!

2011-10-26T18:57:00.005+02:00

Starting today our subsidiary Pointcloud9 offers Lidar scanning services for the visual effects, film and game industries. We figured it was about time for someone in Germany to make everyone's life in 3D computer graphics a lot easier. Check out the new Pointcloud9 website for details, give us a call if you need advice or a quote!

The Captain is back!

2011-10-20T14:49:00.007+02:00

Just days before the release of the "Captain America: The First Avenger" DVD and Blue-ray in the US Marvel Studios posted a special treat on Youtube: One of the scenes we've been working on and that didn't quite make it into the final movie. Enjoy it in it's full resolution 1080p glory!

Lust, violence and intrigues at RISE!

2011-10-05T18:31:00.006+02:00

In August RISE finished over 230 VFX shots for Europe's most expensive TV series of all times: "BORGIA". The story of one of the cruelest chapters of the Vatican will be aired in Germany on ZDF between 17th and 27th of October. RISE brought Rome of 1492 to life and created digital environments for a family that was ruled by nothing but lust, violence and intrigues. Over 40 years ago the stories and legends about the Borgia were already the inspiration for "The Godfather". RISE developed a 3D topography of the old Rome with detailed virtual main locations like the Colosseum. These 3D renderings were the foundation for historically accurate matte paintings and set extensions. For several shots with thousands of digital characters a proprietary crowd tool was developed that was tailored to precisely meet the series' demands for a fast turnaround. "Borgia" is a co-production between Atlantique, Etic Films and ZDF.

RISE more than ever before...

2011-08-04T22:14:00.004+02:00

RISE just got a lot bigger. Our flagship office had to expand last year for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", adding the "Secret Lab" in November 2010. Now in August 2011 new additional office space connects the "Secret Lab" and the flagship office. The entire factory building with its three floors is now one visual effects complex - meaning it lets us do more complex work with more people. The new stylish main entrance hall will be opening soon - after wiring has been finished and RFID access control is set up.
Oh - and there is a brand new pool billiard table in case you want to challenge us for a match.

Captain America: The First Avenger

2011-07-22T18:57:00.002+02:00

BLAST! That's just what we did. For Joe Johnston's "Captain America: The First Avenger" we shredded evil soldiers to pieces. So this time it wasn't about painting environments and city- or landscapes. It was about matching and animating digital doubles and then turning them into lightning and plasma, burning pieces of torn cloth, ash and debris as they vaporize in one super complex simulation. Super complex was also the simulation for the Blue Bolt rays causing them to vaporize. Imagine fantastrillions of particles. And then multiply that with a humongillion of rigid bodies and cloth pieces. That's the number of objects we simulated. Seriously. "Captain America: The First Avenger" is out today in the US and later this year on 18th August 2011 in Germany.
Thank you to Joe, Chris, Mark, Victoria, Lisa and everyone else at Marvel! It was a BLAST!
AND THANK YOU SUPER AWESOME RISE SUPER VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERHERO TEAM!

X-Men: First Class

2011-06-03T11:45:00.005+02:00

Mutant design powers enabled our "gifted youngsters" to create stunning full cg shots, virtual environments and digital matte paintings for Matthew Vaughn's X-Men Prequel. We built digital houses, set up fences, planted trees, polished helmets and took the X-Jet to new heights and to the beach. X-Men: First Class hits US theatres today on 3rd June 2011, German moviegoers will have to wait until 9th June.Thank you Matthew, John, Denise, Stef, Alexa, Michael, Serge and everyone at 20th Century Fox!
WE LOVE YOU, RISE MUTANT VISUAL EFFECTS ARTISTS! YOU ROCK!

Harry Potter 7

2010-11-17T11:40:00.010+01:00

the crew at rise | visual effects studios has been working in their new "secret lab" facility in berlin, germany during the last couple of months to provide the epic finale of the world's biggest movie franchise "Harry Potter" with virtual environments and digital matte paintings.

having opened the facility in 2007, just three years later it feels like having reached the mountain top, working for "the" major movie release in 2010. a big "thank you" to all our crew who have been creating some of the most beautiful images that have left our office to date, delivering on time as always.

HARRY POTTER

heads off!

2010-08-20T15:01:00.007+02:00

a magician never tells his tricks. but Markus Degen did. just recently. on how to let pirate ships appear out of nowhere. it has probably something to do with computer animation and visual effects. but read the complete interview with dozens of eyecandy pics from the movie "13 Paces without a Head" over at 3D WORXX:

3D WORXX RISE FEATURE

we need more electrons!

2010-07-22T12:16:00.007+02:00

how do you create lightning? well, that's easy: you need a negatively charged thundercloud and an equal but positive charge induced in the earth below the cloud.

we don't recommend to hold lightning in your own hands - but we will explain how to let others touch pure electricity. watch our behind-the-scenes of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" on 5th August on Studio Daily:

STUDIO DAILY

consider it Dohne - at fmx'10

2010-04-12T20:03:00.005+02:00

lead artist Michael Dohne joined the team of rise | visual effects in 2009 to create digital magic for feature films. within the last years Michael has been working all over the world on films like "Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince", "2012", "Ninja Assassin" and lately "Percy Jackson & the Olympians". he will provide an insider's view of his work as lead compositing artist for berlin's biggest vfx facility.

at fmx'10, Benz-Town, 6th May 2010, 6pm, room "Mannheim"

recruiting at fmx'10

2010-04-12T19:28:00.008+02:00

just as the easter bunny brings easter eggs every year you can be sure that we'll be in Stuttgart for the fmx conference during the first week of May. if you've got what it takes come to our recruiting presentation on 4th May, 12 o'clock in room Reutlingen and throw demo reel dvds at us if you want to be part of our team.

theatrical release schedule

2009-11-29T13:30:00.003+01:00

from October to January a total of eleven movies will have their theatrical release in Germany showcasing our visual effects work. from martial arts fest "Ninja Assassin" to digital pirate sea battles in "13 Paces without a Head", from historical Tolstoy biopic "The Last Station" to fantasy thriller "The Door" - you shouldn't believe your eyes. for the full press release click here

1st October 2009
Es kommt der Tag

19th November 2009
Liebe Mauer
Tannöd
This is Love

26th November 2009
Die Tür / The Door
Helen

10th December 2009
Das Orangenmädchen / The Orange Girl
Ninja Assassin
Zwölf Meter ohne Kopf / 13 Paces without a Head

17th December 2009
Lila, Lila

21st January 2010
Ein russischer Sommer / The Last Station

rise|fx on fxguidetv

2009-11-06T04:11:00.004+01:00

check out the breakdown presentation of some of our toughest 3D compositing shots to date for director Matthias Glasner's "This is Love" (Badlands Film, Kinowelt, release 12th November 2009) on the visual effects industry's leading news source fxguidetv: one of them being a 14 second long car crash shot filmed hand held from the back seat of the car. the whole exterior of the car was built as a photo real 3D environment using various techniques and approaches, making jaws drop at IBC Amsterdam this year. fxguide was there, covering our 20 minute presentation:

thanks John! thanks Angie! u rock!

Ninja Assassin Trailer

2009-07-23T19:19:00.004+02:00

the official Ninja Assassin trailer has been released today - containing a lot of our digital effects work. check it out.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

fmx/09

2009-04-23T15:57:00.005+02:00

we are always looking for talented new staff. if you consider yourself to be a gifted nuke compositor, matte painter, maya or 3ds max artist, visit us at fmx/09 for our recruiting presentation on wednesday, may 6th from 10-11am in room reutlingen. you can also make an appointment for our recruiting desk on may 6th, 10am-7pm giving you some more face-to-face time to show your reel and to have a chat.

you can also check out what's going on in berlin on tuesday, may 5th from 3-5pm in room karlsruhe. our beautiful facility in the heart of the city (and our amazing digital magic skills, of course) qualify us to be part of the vfx@berlin-brandenburg presentation, showing some of our latest eye-popping work on international and national film productions.

Now Showing - The Three Investigators and the Secret of Terror Castle

2009-03-20T16:09:00.007+01:00

The Three Investigators and the Secret of Terror Castle is now showing in a cinema near you. Director Florian Baxmeyer, DoP Peter Krause, Visual Effects Supervisor Robert Pinnow and Studio Hamburg International Production teamed up again to create the sequel to 2007's blockbuster "Skeleton Island". We were asked to create one of the main characters of the movie entirely using CGI - Terror Castle itself. Check out the movie, bring your kids - it's a lot of fun.

A big, warm Thank You to our crew:

CGI Department - Simon Ohler, Joern Weisspfennig, Christian Pundschus, Holger Wenzel, Alex Broeckel, Kariem Saleh - Compositing - Christoph Benden, Michael Lankes, Claudia Lechen, Dirk Matzkuhn, Sascha Reinholz, Rayk Schroeder, Markus Schneider, Robert Tucker, Jörg Berkel, Jakub Stejskal - Mattepainting - Robert Kriegel - Matchmoving - Andreas Schulz, Michael Wolf - Title Design - Jean-Michel Boublil, Marcel Pelzer, Alexander Kähler - Lead Pipeline Engineer - Sebastian Elsner

Insight Out Conference

2009-03-05T14:42:00.005+01:00

rise is proudly supporting the Insight Out conference 2009 on digital production of film + tv in close collaboration with the HFF film + television university potsdam-babelsberg. the conference is aimed at decision-makers in the film, tv and new media industries - producers, directors, dops, ... - offering an in-depth look at today's and tomorrow's digital story telling tools.
participants will be visiting our facility on tuesday, 24/02/09 for a presentation of our work on recent film releases and a q+a session.

Die Patin - starting this sunday on RTL

2008-12-12T11:58:00.005+01:00

don't miss our latest work for germany's biggest television network RTL and Teamworx. "Die Patin" by director Miguel Alexandre is the story of Katharina Almeda (Veronica Ferres), a loving mother and wife, who is sucked into a world of organized crime. rise provided visual effects for over 180 shots working closely together with DOP Jo Heim, matching his unique color scheme down to the last pixel. the first part of the mini series is aired this sunday.

part 1 sunday, 14th december, 20:15
part 2 monday, 15th december, 20:15
part 3 wednesday, 17th december, 20:15

a big thanks to our crew
supervisor jonathan weber, lead compositor sascha reinholz and compositors christoph benden, björn gottwald, christopher kollar, claudia lechen, rayk schroeder, jakub stejskal, philip strahl, robert tucker, holger wenzel and matte painter robert kriegel.

this is love - it's a wrap!

2008-09-21T23:08:00.021+02:00

until just one week ago we were shooting "this is love" with badlands film, the latest work of director Matthias Glasner. thanks to everyone at badlands film we are able to show you some behind-the-scenes footage of one of the most complex visual effects shots in the movie. main character Chis is having a car accident - later, after we have done some of our digital magic, it will be actor Jens Albinus sitting behind the steering wheel. the shot was planed down to the smallest detail by our previz department, always refining the shot based on Matthias' ideas before we started principal photography.

Thank you so much Matthias, Jürgen and Lars for letting us be a part of it, Heike and Dennis for the awesome behind-the-scenes video and the entire film crew! U ROCK!

new eye candy - zero calories...

2008-09-11T20:27:00.005+02:00

finally our projects page has been updated with our latest work. we are especially proud to show you our full cgi tiger from the television project "wer liebe verspricht" and a perfect example of state-of-the-art compositing from the movie "maerzmelodie". there is also a production design preview of "haecksen", a children's movie set in an online virtual world. check it out here

currently in production

2008-07-01T16:40:00.003+02:00

rise is proud to announce that more and more production companies have discovered our unique skills to transform an impossible idea into its photo realistic, budget saving representation on the screen. with currently more than 20 artists working full time at rise creating visual effects for more than five feature films our capacities and capabilities grow by the day. if you consider yourself a compositor and you know that nuke is nothing to be afraid of go ahead and apply for one of our open freelance positions today.

currently in production:

The Three Investigators in The Secret of Terror Castle
directed by Florian Baxmeyer (Studio Hamburg International, Buena Vista)

Helen
written and directed by Sandra Nettelbeck
starring Ashley Judd

The Last Station
written and directed by Michael Hoffmann
starring James McAvoy, Christopher Plummer and Academy Award Winner Helen Mirren

Last Cowboy Standing (Juoni Filmi, NiKo Film)
directed by Zaida Bergroth

Die Patin (Teamworx, RTL)
directed by Miguel Alexandre
starring Veronica Ferres

Dutschke (Teamworx, ZDF)
directed by Stefan Krohmer
starring Christoph Bach

and more...

"king of nuke" frank rüter visiting rise

2008-06-18T19:28:00.012+02:00

rise | visual effects berlin was the first feature film visual effects house in germany to rely entirely on the foundry's "nuke" package as primary compositing application. of course it was quite a risk to take - but since then nobody at rise ever looked back. "nuke" is rock solid and packed with more features than a swiss army knife, certainly more than any other software we have ever worked with. our pipeline and "nuke" integration is one of a kind, making rise | visual effects berlin the first, most cost efficient choice for next-generation visual effects production.

having the latest in software technology is one thing - having the artists who know how to take advantage of it is something else. last month Frank Rüter visited rise, an old friend and someone "many consider to be the worldwide king of nuke tools and customization" (fxphd.com). Frank was not only answering questions but also showing tweaks and tricks he learned while working on the "Lord of the Rings"-Trilogy, "King Kong", "I Robot" and "Speed Racer" as 2D lead technical director.

we invited a couple of artists from all over germany, good friends and everyone interested in seeing the next big thing in effects production. thank you so much Frank for stopping by! hope to see you again soon!