From first sketch to final frame.

Projects

FIREDRAKE THE SILVER DRAGON

Production: Constantin Film
Directed by: Tomer Eshed

Firedrake is a young silver dragon, who has had enough of constantly having to hide in a wooded valley. He wants to show the older generations of dragons that he is a real dragon. When humans are about to destroy his family's very last refuge, Firedrake secretly sets off on an adventurous journey with forest brownie, Sorrel. He wants to find the "Rim of Heaven", the dragons' mysterious haven. On their quest Firedrake and Sorrel encounter Ben, an orphan and stray, who claims to be a dragon rider. While Ben and Firedrake make friends quickly, Sorrel becomes increasingly distrustful and tries to get rid of the orphan at every opportunity. But the unlikely trio have to learn to pull together, because they are being hunted by Nettlebrand, an evil, dragon-eating monster that was created by an alchemist with the aim of tracking down and destroying every dragon on Earth.

The story is based on Cornelia Funkes best-selling novel, and was produced by Constantin Film in co-production with Cyborn and Rise Pictures. It is being distributed by Timeless Films, and was released in October 2020 in cinemas worldwide. The original cast features top class actors such as Sir Patrick Stewart, Felicity Jones, and Thomas Brodie Sangster.

Dragon Rider was one of the most complex CG productions ever made in Germany, and the largest animated film production in the country during the time of its creation. Lumatic was in charge of the overall creative and technical aspects of the production, and also produced complete parts in house.

Sonne und Beton

Directed by:
David Wnendt

Production companies:
Seven Elephants
Constantin Film

For David Wnendt's new film Sonne und Beton we created invisible effects as well as a fully animated sequence.
The film had it's premiere on the Berlin International Film Festival in 2023.

Die Schule der Magischen Tiere 2

For the second part in the franchise, Lumatic took over the design, creation and animation of all digital characters. The animation was done in-house and a new lighting and compositing department was set up to produce the final images.

Lumatic, who won the German Film Award "Lola" for the VFX in part 1, reworked the established characters to increase the overall quality and added two new characters to the cast of talking animals. 371 shots (approximately 20 minutes) were animated, lit and composited in-house.

The movie had a very successful cinema release in September 2022.

Production Company:
Kordes & Kordes Film GmbH

Directed by: Sven Unterwaldt

Strafe / Ein hellblauer Tag

Production Company: MOOVIE / Constantin Film
Directed by: David Wnendt

Lumatic provided visual effects and compositing for the episode "Ein hellblauer Tag" of the crime drama series "Strafe".

Die Schule der Magischen Tiere

For this live action kid's movie franchise, based on one of Germany's best-selling children's book series, Lumatic created the magical, talking fox Rabbat from design to final animation.

Finding the right balance between realism and cartoon was a key aspect in this production.

Lumatic animated approximately 12 minutes in house, and also supervised part of other character animation by different vendors.

Big Hug FX in Munich were in charge of lighting and compositing under Lumatic's art direction.

The movie came to cinemas in October 2021 and was the most successful German film of the year.

In 2022 we won the German Film Award "Lola" / Deutscher Filmpreis in the category Best Visual Effects for our work on this movie.

For the second film in the franchise Lumatic took over the creation and animation of all five digital characters (approx. 20 min / 370 shots) and set up a new lighting and compositing department.

Production Company:
Kordes & Kordes Film GmbH

Directed by:
Gregor Schnitzler

Child's Play

Together with our Munich based partner studio Big Hug FX, Lumatic created a digital version of the robotic puppet Chucky for the 2019 reboot of Child's Play. The client aimed for a very limited range of motion for the character in the beginning of the movie and a more agile version in the final showdown. Lumatic was in charge of body rigging, facial setup and all of the character animation.

Production company: Orion Pictures
Directed by: Lars Klevberg

Spookies Teaser

Teaming up with Wolkenlenker, Lumatic created an investment teaser for the series Spookies.

The clip was staged, lit, rendered and edited in the realtime Unreal engine to give the team more scheduling flexibility and creative freedom.

 

Und Morgen die Ganze Welt

Production company: Seven Elephants
Directed by: Julia von Heinz

Lumatic was in charge of VFX for this political drama. For the 2021 Academy Awards the film was selected to represent Germany in the best international feature film category.

Orbiteers Rescue Team

Investment teaser for the series Orbiteers Rescue Team (currently in development).

Production and life action shoot: Wolkenlenker UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Animation studio / post production: Lumatic Animation & VFX GmbH

The Sunlit Night

Production Company: Beachside Films
Directed by: David Wnendt

Lumatic provided compositing and visual effects for this feature film drama. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019.

Yorck Delphy Lux

Lumatic created the animated giraffe for this commercial for the newly opened cinema delphi LUX near the Berlin Zoo.

Sparwelt.de Spot

Lumatic created a commercial featuring an animated penguin pushing a trolley with a delicious digital breakfast.

Client: Sparwelt.de
Agency: Try No Agency

Companisto Spot

Fully animated TV commercial (20 seconds).

Client: Companisto.com
Agency: Try No Agency

Lumatic was in charge of art direction, design and animation.

Finance Teaser for Dragon Rider

Production company: Constantin Film
Directed by: Tomer Eshed

Lumatic was commissioned by Constantin Film to create an investment teaser for the movie Dragon Rider, with the aim of convincing potential buyers to make an initial investment in the film.

The teaser was created entirely in-house, was screened at the American Film Market (AFM), and successfully helped in financing the project.

Tatort: Borowski und das dunkle Netz

Directed by: David Wnendt

For an internet crime episode of the famous German TV series Tatort, Lumatic provided visual effects and animated sequences, as well as interactive screen content for office PCs, tablets and browsers to be used by the actors on set.

Er ist wieder da (Look Who's Back)

Look Who's Back

Production company: Constantin Film
Directed by: David Wnendt

For the film adaptation, Lumatic contributed extensive visual effects work.

The tasks included set supervision, digital set extensions, on screen graphics, gLitch effects, compositing and character animation.

Selected breakdowns of the effects work we did for this movie.

Direct Line

Client: Direct Line Versicherung AG
Agency / Art Direction: Shanghai Berlin

For this animated online spot for Direct Line automobile insurance, Lumatic worked in collaboration with the animation collective Talking Animals in Berlin.

Mobi Protect

Client: BNP Paribas Cardif
Agency: Supersaga / www.supersaga.be

Lumatic was in charge of direction and 3D animation on this animated online spot for Belgian mobile insurance company Mobi Protect.

Feuchtgebiete (Wetlands)

Production company: Rommel Film
Directed by: David Wnendt

The Lumatic team created the visual effects and animated main title sequence for this feature film adaptation.

Originals

Our Wonderful Nature - THE COMMON CHAMELEON

The second part of the "Our Wonderful Nature" short film series, portrays the eating habits of the common chameleon.

Besides its entertaining qualities the film deals with greedy behavior and its unfortunate consequences. With a similar fable attitude, this one-shot short was also a good opportunity to display Lumatic's artistic and technical abilities in the field of character animation, and was the first short produced independently by Lumatic.

Like the first short in the series, the film was well received worldwide and had a very successful festival run.

Narration John Berwick
Animated by Lars Krüger
Set Design, Set Modeling, Texturing, Lighting Alexander Pohl
Character Design Tomer Eshed
Rigging, Surfacing, Simulation, Compositing Dennis Rettkowski
Character Modeling, Additional Animation Michael Herm
Sound Design, Sound Mix Michał Krajczok
Music Stefan Maria Schneider
Produced by LUMATIC
Directed by Tomer Eshed

FLAMINGO PRIDE

This ambitious animated short tells the story of the only heterosexual flamingo, and his desperate attempt to find love.

The film deals ironically with sensitive social issues, and offers a portrait of society from an unusual point of view. The short was artistically and technically challenging, and required the collaboration of many team members and a long development time. It was very well received after its release.

Cinematography Olaf Aue
Set Design Jan Schneider
Character Design Tomer Eshed
Costume design Frank Bohn
CG supervisor Dennis Rettkowski
Character Modeling Michael Herm, Tonio Freitag
Sound Design, re-recording Michał Krajczok
Music Stefan Maria Schneider
Production HFF "Konrad Wolf" Potsdam Babelsberg, Talking Animals, Tomer Eshed
Directed by Tomer Eshed

CHUMP AND CLUMP

Chump and Clump meet at a bus stop. While waiting for the bus, which arrives only once a week, a bizarre and wonderful friendship develops, which prevails even when all odds turn against our heroes.

Chump and Clump is at the same time both a satire on and a love declaration to contemporary hollywood cinema, wrapped in tale of hilarious comedy.

story, design, direction and animation Stephan Sacher and Michael Herm
compositing Dennis Rettkowski
additional animation Daniel Zinner
voice actor Chump Volkram Zschiesche
voice actor Clump Michael Herm
original music Friedemann Matzeit
editing Sven Fox
sound design Paul Rischer
re-recording mixing Marian Mentrup
line producer Javelle Bauersfeld
foley artist Guenther Roehn
music recording Veit Norek
Production HFF "Konrad Wolf"
Potsdam Babelsberg, Germany

TRICKSTER

In a surreal world the Protagonist, a clown projected onto a huge screen of a picturesque cinema as a metaphor for the subconscious mind of the audience, undergoes an existential development. He dreams of his counterpart, the white-face clown, and finally finds his true identity in the immortal archetype of the Trickster.

Character Design and Development

Trickster is a full CG-animated short film that was written and realized by Alexander Pohl in 2008. At this time the Reyes Renderman renderer was the most efficient renderer on the market developed by PIXAR Animation Studios. The advantage was the possibility to use a nearly unlimited polycount at very short rendering times. In return the user had to give up physical based lighting techniques such as global illumination or ambient occlusion.

World Building with Reyes Renderman

In order to reach a maximum detailed surface within a minimum render time the advantages of the Renderman REYES renderer were used to create the digital assets. The trick was to use displacement maps on very lowres base meshes that created the illusion of very fine and detailed sculptings. This technique saved al lot of modeling and rendering time.

screenplay, design, animation, effects: Alexander Pohl
virtual acting/ voice: Florian Hertweck
producer: Fabian Pöhlmann
camera: Till Vielrose
editor: Florian Metzner
music composed and orchestrated by: Stefan Maria Schneider
conductor: Stefan Maria Schneider
music performed by: Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg
solo trumpet: Jan Sebastian Melzer
sound design: Tilman Hopf
sound re-recording mixer: Alexej Ashkenazy
foley artist: Günter Röhn
line producer: Holger Lochau
technical support: Dennis Rettkowski

Our Wonderful Nature - The Water Shrew

In this animated nature film parody, the mating habits of the water shrew are portrayed as never seen before.

The concept allowed us to ironically combine the nature documentary genre with cinematic action and romance. The short was the first part of the humerous "Our Wonderful Nature" short film series. It was very successful after its release, was screened in many international festivals, won multiple awards, and received a nomination for an ACADEMY AWARD.

Irwin's Love Song (WT)

Director: Tomer Eshed
Production: Lumatic

"Irwins love song" is an original animated short, based on a music piece composed by Tomer Eshed, who also developed the characters and story. It is a short Italian opera, set in a big fictive city. Unlike a traditional workflow, in this case the music was composed prior to the script, and provided the foundation for the story development.

The short tells the story of Irwin (WT), a male street rat, who sings a love serenade to a dark window in a small dark ally. Unexpectedly he is being backed up by three mice friends, who show up unannounced with the intention of supporting him. Embarrassed and confused he continues singing, and eventually finishes his song with a proud bow. As he hopefully looks up to the window he realises that despite his honest love declaration no reaction was produced through his efforts. Disappointed, he turns to leave, but on the way undergoes an internal emotional crisis, unable to accept his defeat. In a desperate attempt he attempts to climb up the window and gets injured in result. After getting knocked out he slowly recovers with the aid of his loyal friends and returns to his senses, but as he attempts to leave the ally with his friends and return to the city, he realises that he is unable to go brake the force that initially brought him there.

About

Lumatic was founded in 2014 by Dennis Rettkowski, Lars Krüger, Tomer Eshed, Alexander Pohl and Michael Herm. Working together for over a decade, we are a solid core team of skilled supervisors in computer animation production. As well as covering each area of expertise, we possess an essential understanding of how the different work steps interact during production, as well as advanced problem-solving abilities.

Lumatic produces in-house, and frequently collaborates with partner studios such as Big Hug FX in Munich, Talking Animals in Berlin, and Able & Baker in Madrid. Lumatic was also the creative lead behind the feature film Dragon Rider.

Services

Any CG project handled by Lumatic will benefit from the profound professional understanding and know-how of the team, starting at preproduction, through the various production stages and completion with a state-of-the-art product.

Pre-production
Production
Post-production
Conceptual development
A good script is the foundation of all successful productions. Lumatic develops scripts in-house and accepts external scripts as well. Parallel to script development, ideas are sketched for initial visual orientation, in close cooperation with the client.
Storyboard/Animatic creation
We believe that a detailed drawn storyboard and animatics serve as the backbone of the animation process. Staging, acting beats and emotions, necessary for coherent story-telling, are defined in this essential phase.
Character design
Lumatic’s approach to character design is based on profound understanding of 2D drawing techniques and further development in 3D, focusing on appeal throughout the process.
Production design
The world design is methodically crafted all the way from rough digital sketches to detailed modeled sets, in a variety of styles, custom-developed for each project. To ensure consistency of the image design and the artistic transformation process we offer Art Direction during the production as long as necessary.
Pipeline development
Large scale projects rely on a steady flow of information and data. Production proven proprietary solutions and interfaces to various commercial tools allow us to setup full pipelines or seamlessly blend into already established workflows.
Character
Based on the drawn designs, detailed 3D models are created, capturing the essence of the character (sculpting, texturing and surfacing). The characters are rigged according to their performance requirements. Lumatic’s rigs are fast, intuitive and animator-friendly.
Environments
Lumatic offers a full service creating digital environments, carefully designed to fit the needs of each project in a variety of styles. Whether fantastic, realistic, stylized or abstract, all sets are crafted with high attention to detail, light and story functionality.
Animation
The size of our animation team depends on the scope of the project. Leveraging over a decade of production experience, we direct and supervise in-house or outsourced work, to deliver state-of-the-art animation in time and budget.
FX
From breathtaking explosions, collapsing buildings or large scale water simulations to subtle character FX like cloth, hair and muscle simulations. Lumatic offers FX, that are both, believable and art-directable.
Lighting/Rendering
Whether being an essential tool in story telling or the most important aspect of beautiful computer graphics, excellent lighting is always a priority in Lumatic’s projects.
Compositing
Chroma-keying, set extensions, balancing CG render layers, touch-ups, re-timing, re-lighting and so much more. Lumatic offers state-of-the-art compositing, bringing every shot to life.
Color grading
As the last finishing touch, color grading plays a vital part in the look and feel of a film. Lumatic provides color grading for it's animation projects and supervision of other post-production vendors.
Stereo grading
Lumatic is proud to offer complete stereoscopic imaging, from the initial stereo setting, via stereoscopic camera placement to final stereo grading.
Score and Sound
Lumatic works with a network of skilled composers and sound designers, who can provide state-of-the-art music and sound solutions according to the clients' demands.

Contact

info@LUMATIC.xyz
+49 (0)30 555 7868 10

Lumatic Animation & VFX GmbH
Sonnenallee 61/63
12045 Berlin
Germany

Jobs

For current and future projects we are looking for CG Generalists, Compositing Artists and Character Animators to work on site in our offices in Berlin. All levels are welcome!

If you'd like to apply for a job please send an email to the address below. Please make sure to state your desired position in the subject line of your email. Also include a link to your reel and where you currently live.

jobs@LUMATIC.xyz