Interview with Anselm V. Seherr
Q. Hello Anselm, could you tell us a bit about yourself, location, employment etc. and what first inspired you to take up a career in the Arts Industry?
 Hello CGArena, My name is Anselm v. Seherr – Thoß, I´m 25, born, raised and still living in good old Hannover in the center of Germany (without being there very often though, maybe that´s why I like it so much :-). I´m a VFX Freelancer with strong preference on particle - and simulation FX. Vray shading is fun too sometimes but not as challenging.
Hmm, technically I was inspired by artists that gather around CGTalk or other studios. Mostly by the stuff Blur (www.blur.com) did around 2004 and 2005. I started as a shading and compositing artist at first being an intern at SoulPix (www.soulpix.de) for 6 month filling the compositing and shading gap since all otheres modeled, rigged or animated. That was the very first day I saw 3d studio max: 1st of October 2004, significant date for me :=). After the intern I was asked to stay. One day the TD came around the corner with Allan McKays first Advanced Visual Effects DVD and KABOOOM I knew where I belong. :-)
Personally I guess the root lays much deeper back. My mom, she studied arts and is an art teacher until the very day in elementary school as well as college and high school. She collects tons of art books and paints at home even today. She has an enourmous art knowledge. So I guess my fate was sealed when I was born *haha* Another big chunk goes to my first PC I got back in 1994 when I was 11. I never did artworks with it but I was already dealing with videogames and stuff at that age.
Q. So, as a freelancer on which major projects you have worked on and how much easy to find a work as a freelancer?
There were so many in the last 3.5 years. I guess my personal highlights are displayed in my current showreel (www.3delicious.de/flash/gallery/3Delicious_Showreel_2008-1.mov). I really enjoy music video VFX since their production lasts for 3-6 weeks only and the director usually is not pushing it to an oscar nomination for “Best FX”. At the moment I am working as VFX and simulation artist on a movie called “Nico & The Way to the Stars”, an Ice Age kinda looking German, Irish and finish production which will hit the box office this fall (it´s a christmas movie) but I´m not authorised to give any details yet. In the evening hours I work on serveral smaller projects including a university degree short film I was asked to help out at.
Concerning the ease to find work? It´s all about self marketing and promotion ;) haha, I give away my secret Indocilis privata loqui! Don´t wanna go into too much detail here since that´s covered in depth in my article on CGArena “Freelancer´s Manifesto – A collection of advices”. You need to be recognized by recruiters and the industry then the phone will ring someday > then you start freelancing in serveral companies > then you work crazy hours and will have tons of overnighters and gain weight > then you get better and better and gather experience > then you can raise the bar on salary > then you get hired by a big studio someday and experience better working hours but a pay cut again > then you might be recognized as a pro someday and live from selling your tutorial DVDs *haha, don´t take me serious here*
Q.
You are mostly known for Particle and scripting work in 3ds max? What’s the main reason of choosing this dynamic branch in 3D?
Not scripting. I use and modify scripts that are public or from friends of mine. I´m more known for particles and shading I´d say. I am good at modifying given sources to my needs especially when it comes to scripting *hehe*. I chose the particle branch which is usually closely connected with dynamics and simulation tasks because I was always interested in how “they” did that in this or that movie or cinematic. You always have to ask questions and have to be willing to learn more and more. I never learned more stuff in a shorter period of time then these days. Be like a sponge! I have a mutli-gigabyte partition on my notebook that deals only with scientific and natural phenomena like the four elements or destruction caused my mankind like explosions or impacts of all kind including super high speed camera shots. I collect high speed shots and analyze them.
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