Maurice Panisch

User Profile

Achieving great results is often a combination of the right skills alongside the right tools. But award-winning 3D artist Maurice Panisch didn't always have HDR Light Studio... 

The 5 year-old Maurice Panisch struggled with the blunt tools available to him. He was striving, characteristically, as it would turn out, to express what he saw in the world about him. Sitting in a Kindergarten class in Hamburg, the focus of his excitement that day, as it would be for years to come, was a fighter plane. With just crayons and greaseproof paper, he was attempting to recreate the one he had seen only hours before; sleek, purposeful and powerful as it screamed across the crisp morning sky.

Like most children of that age, any frustration at failing to convert the imaginings of the minds-eye into an accurately realised end-product was blissfully absent. Instead, the finished picture was a perfect reminder of the plane; and everything that plane represented.

As Maurice grew up, although his obsession with planes waned, the necessity to recreate and express the world around him didn’t. This trait exhibited itself at first with painting and then later, as a young teenager, with graffiti. What began humbly enough, spraying the walls of local youth clubs, soon saw the young Maurice gaining an enviable reputation for his skills, and he was commissioned his first commercial graffiti job at just 14 years of age. The Norderstedt city library needed something a little different and Maurice was tasked to provide it. The work for the library remained in place for 6 years, only removed when the entire building was renovated. Even Maurice confesses, “I was very proud of it”.

Only a few years later Maurice realised the potential of digital artistry. His twin brother (now a programmer and project manager for a Japanese firm) had bought a new computer and as is the tradition with siblings worldwide, he passed the old one to Maurice. Then, a chance encounter with Photoshop around 1998 had Maurice hooked. However, right then, the commercial work continued to be in the form of either graffiti commissions or the occasional exhibition of his paintings. So the aim was unwavering: to become an artist. But the path was far from easy, as Maurice explains, “…it was very hard for me to get recognised. So I did a lot of extra jobs after hours beside my paintings.”

Fiscal necessity eventually saw Maurice taking a post at a small publishing house called Schüler Verlag (now insolvent). His creative talents were put to use designing greeting cards. “It was around this time I started using 3D software with 3DS Max 4 and after some time I decided to study design”. A stint at Hamburger Technische Kunstschule  (Hamburg Technical Art School) followed and Maurice’s natural talent caught the attention of his 3D teacher. Whilst in his 3rd Semester, Maurice’s teacher got a request to create a music video for the band ‘Unwritten Law’ and asked Maurice if he was interested in helping out. Snapping up the offer, Maurice took a free semester and took the job. The confidence and experience gained from the venture meant Maurice never finished his study, instead opting to try his hand as a freelance 3D artist. A risky decision but one that paid off; in the next two years Maurice worked for several clients and companies and also squeezed a music video in for ‘Depeche Mode’. His talents were further recognised when one of his first HDR images received 2nd place prize at the Animago competition. 

Eventually he took a full time post at Sehsucht, where he has remained since joining in 2004. In that time, as a senior 3D artist in the Hamburg office, he has worked on nearly 80 commercials. Maurice explains further, “In 3D terms, at Sehsucht I do nearly everything from animations, visualisations, particle animations or fluid simulations to car or product renderings. Privately I specialise on vehicles and do a lot of automotive renderings although from time to time I also do product visualisations.”

The 3D and computer design world has seen some enormous changes since the day Maurice first got behind a computer screen. Reflecting on those changes, there are a couple of watershed moments for him, “...the first time you could paint in real 32-bit, creating your own HDR images.” The second being the arrival of HDR Light Studio, as Maurice enthuses, “It’s such a time saver for creating studio lighting, I can´t remember how I ever worked without it.”

Maurice’s day to day routine at Sehsucht is much like any other 3D artist, “I start at 9:30, grab a tea, check emails and some 3D forums and start at 10”. The results however, are amongst the very best, providing a steady flow of further work and new customers, mostly by recommendation but also thanks to displays of his work on the Internet.

The tools may have changed since Maurice’s Kindergarten days but his creative aim hasn’t; to express his chosen subject as realistically as possible. His current application of choice is Cinema 4D. “It’s got such a fast workflow and so stable, even with huge files. I had migrated from 3DS Max to Maya some time before but I feel Cinema 4D has the edge now”. Maurice is equally enthusiastic about the renderers he uses, “…it’s mainly V-Ray because of its speed. It also allows me to create complex real-world materials like car paint, or work like a real photographer and choose a particular camera and F-stop”.

By harnessing the power of HDR Light Studio, Maurice is able to produce work faster and more effectively than ever before, to his own personal standard of excellence, “HDR Light Studio isn’t cheap but it saves me a lot of time, for me it’s worth every penny”.

With such a variety of professional work under his belt, you might be wondering if he has any particular favourites? “That’s a very difficult question…”. After some musing it proves impossible, “I couldn´t pick one out; they are like children. Each is different but I love them equally.” 

But surely, given his early love of all things aeronautical, it stands to reason there must be some favoured renderings of fighter jets or the like in his collection? “No, I wanted to do one but the opportunity, professionally, has never come my way. I did start a couple for my own satisfaction but never finished one…”. With some luck, an aeronautical company will be amongst his future clients. Given the work Maurice has achieved so far, we imagine it will just be a matter of time...

 

To see more if his work visit: www.maurice-panisch.de

Maurice

Graffiti

Winning HDR image

Exterior render

Interior render