Yesterday was my first day back at the company and today is already weekend. Excellent. Even better- looks like I’ll be doing artsy stuff from the time being. Only took me 3 years, ahhh,  let’s hope things turn out well.

As to other news, I managed to get another picture done before going back to “work” work. All thanks to the pin-up contest over at CGfeedback (a nice little forum I can warmly recommend!) I couldn’t get myself going until a week before the deadline so I made it just in time (as in 3 am Japan-time) making me show up tired for work . But it was well worth the effort  - first body in ages, first time painting textures by hand in mudbox. Good fun!
Stop the talk, here’s the image. If you feel like it, head over to the original thread here for some in progress images.

The other day I saw the trailer to “The Fall” – more than the movie I loved the theme music which happened to Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. Such an amazing piece. Listen to it and be happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTo2wI-lpq4

I’m looking for cats now. I need to make one. It’s my mission!

Mudbox is also nice, I like it. I do miss some of the zbrush brushes though, especially the new hard-surface ones.  Combining the two softwares would be glorious I thought – replace Mudbox brush engine with Zbrush and it ‘d be perfect.  :P
Anyhow, for the helmet I exported the high-res mesh as OBJ, brought it into Zbrush and reconstructed the lower levels. This is so cool, I knew about “reconstruct subdiv” before of course but I it was a bit of a revelation that one can exchange a model with all subdivisions like that.

Silly old me – shame it doesn’t work the other way though (Zbrush -> mudbox). Ah well. So heres some pics rendered with MR.
It looked a bit too boring with any colors so I blobbed some on in PS…

One day I’ll remesh it and make a proper character.. Right!! Get in line with all the unfinished stuff, aztec-alien-thing!

Oh -last but not least, I signed my new contract yesterday and I’ll be back at work in a week, oh dear. Time sure sure has flown.

All nice and dandy if it weren’t for that letter from the tax-office yesterday: Income Tax? Me?! A mistake, surely. Not.
Big surprise,  都民税 (tominsei, Metropolitan inhabitant tax) is naturally calculated and automatically deducted from your income .. and here comes the funky bit, is also calculated *per year*, in advance.
In other words, after a full year of working in Japan your tax-rate will be set – and even if you then quit your job on the coming 2nd of January,  you will still have to pay.. drumroll..

A FULL YEARS TAX! OMG! What?!

Wow! Wow! If you don’t quite believe it (as I did), here’s an excerpt from the homepage of Yokohama about taxation (this is concerning ex pats but applies to my case as well)

Income tax is payable for each calendar year,however, inhabitant tax for the calendar year is calculated based on taxable income for the preceding calendar year. Moreover,inhabitant tax assessed against residents in Japan as of January 1 of the taxable year,and, therefore,if an expatriate terminates his assignment in Japan and leaves Japan on,for example,the second of January, he/she will be liable for the entire inhabitant tax for the year of his/her departure from Japan based on the taxable income for the preceding year regardless of only two days of residence in Japan for the year of departure.

I think it’s all the crazier that this still applies, even though you are not actually living in Japan anymore..  where’s the sense in that now!?
small update: some more research reveals that this rule also applies if you (or any Japanese citizen for that matter) actually *die*. So we got that covered.

Income tax is usually 20% of the salary for a foreigner in Japan which is, at least compared to most European countries (Germany 50%!!), beautifully low.
Yet, without any salary it suddenly looks like a big chunk of cash ( especially combined with  rent, living expense etc.)

I guess this is yet another measure to keep things running in a nice and straight line for Japan: if you have a job you better keep it, until the end of your days – seems the motto here. Taking time out? Crazy nut!
Maybe you already know but if you rent a flat in Japan, you usually give the landlord a “present” (yes, as in it won’t come back when you leave!) of 2 months rent – similar concept.
So there you are, another useful bit of info about living in Japan for you.

I really should write a lot more.

Oh! Before I forget, this applies for health insurance as well by the way – another letter I got today. <sniff>
God bless it’s a tad lower but still – my little break surely cost me.

So until next time I leave you with a fitting Japanese proverb I found:

“The nail that sticks up gets hammered down” (Deru kugi wa utareru.)

Lovely.

PS: Thinking more of it now I wonder if all this is one more explanation for all the homeless people I see around.
If you happen to get fired early in the year, I suppose this madness could really give you the push over the edge…

after almost 3 weeks of travel in Europe (and a week Kyoto). Ah.. good times – Germany, northern Italy, lovely Provence and grand Paris. So much art, good food  all topped with surprisingly good weather.
I’d love to show some proof but sadly my iphone+photos got nicked from my pocket at Charles de Gaules airport. Shocking event but at least I managed to lock the phone and board my flight in time. (checking my identity only took 2*15euro phone cards calling Japan! they do things properly here).
I guess I would have taken it slightly easier if there wouldn’t have been also a problem with my credit card earlier –  having nothing but 40 euro in cash left made the whole affair all the  more exciting. Luckily it seems like the insurance will pay so the only shame is all the nice reference lost .
Oh well, I better be productive before it all leaves my brain for good! Seriously though, don’t miss Musee d’Orsey if you happen to be in Paris as it’s an amazing place. Or the National Gallery in London for that matter. So inspiring.. Also I never had much of an art education myself so it was really good to see what’s behind “Impressionism“, “Expressionism” and the like.
And above all the trip made me want an atelier like Cezanne had in Aix:  ;)

Anyhow, back in Japan with an urge to create I had to do some more modeling of course. Mainly I wanted to get some of the “Classic” feel I saw so often in the last weeks. The first one is a bit of a homage to Camille Claudel who was a student (and lover) of Rhodin.  The second I hope you do recognize (or I failed completely!). It was harder than I thought to get his likeness right though..

Still so many things I want to do and time is running a bit short – so that’s it for today!
See you soon, hopefully with some more new work!

as usual long time no post but it’s not been more than half a year so not bad for my standards! There’s been some changes:

Change 1: I moved!
Well I liked my old place. I really did. It had character and it had trees around it. But well, it also had it’s downsides. There were the cockroaches yes .. big ones but still I could live with those. Some traps here and there… Girlfriend screaming.  ahh. The lack of isolation, that was a bigger problem, those paper-thin wooden walls.   So cold in winter, so hot in summer. So easy to punch through.
Well, the aged shower that would sprinkle cold water half of the time I did not love but who needs hot showers anyway? Shame I did not take a photo of the contraption that would get water to it though.
But all this I could easily endure. What I couldn’t was a months rent “present” to the house owner which was in order for the 2 year contract renewal – for “keeping the house intact”.
This was just too ridiculous and I knew it was time to move.  Oh, and yes, they cut down the biggest tree too.. to build another apartment in front of my window. Sad.
Well, this was 2 months ago and I’m already writing from my very comfortable new home – made of real stone and just 500 meters away (I love the area!)
I will post some pictures soon.

Change 2: I have time.
After working 3 years on a project I thought it was time for some proper holiday – by that I mean longer than a week! So I asked for an outrageous 4 weeks of (unpaid) leave but sadly it turned out it was company policy not to give any.  My bosses fought valiantly but rules prevailed.  I will spare you (and me) the gory details here but in the end the only way to get time off was to quit the job for the time being.
Tut, tut, I do wonder when Japanese companies will realize that happy employees are productive employees. Too late probably. Oh well – the current plan is to take it a bit easy now, see the family in Europe, then rejoin with a new contract in July!

So the first thing I did with my free time was finishing a new image!

I created the model for this image initially for the “classic movie monsters” contest over at Kolbies excellent SinisterCircle forum.. which I just found out closed it’s doors. Oh no!
It is based on Klaus Kinski in Herzog Werners Nosferatu – “Phantom der Nacht” (a film, although long and slow I can very much recommend!)
While focusing on the melancholy and sadness of the Nosferatu character, the film stands in stark contrast to most of the other versions. (like the  Bram Stokers Dracula.. ).
So anyway, that’s something I tried to bring into the image - I hope you like it!
Thanks to Martin Krol (http://www.martinkrol.com/) for various tips and critique

That’s what running  42.something km does to you.

The backstory: for 3 years I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to run Tokyo Marathon now. (It’s incredibly popular so who may or not run is decided by lottery ) So out of luck, I choose another, second-class marathon happening in the idyllic, little town of  Tateyama all the way down from Chiba.
I do quite a bit of training usually – just to counter balance all the desk sitting and mouse clicking I do all day. But for the occasion I put in extra effort (4< times a week)  and I didn’t touch my wine bottle either. Now that was a challenge. Running almost every day quickly resulted in notorious knee pain  (note to self: 3 year old worn out cushion trainers are not ideal for this) so I got some new shiny Asics ones.  They actually scanned my feet at the store – I really should have brought a USB stick…!  With the big day coming closer I still didn’t run no more than 25k, oh dear.. But I just can’t get motivated on those treadmills – once in a while  there’s  a view worth per suing but without hope of catching up what’s the point?

So ill prepared we took the train from Tokyo for a long but lovely ride along the coast. Tateyama is a nice little town where you can buy funny souvenirs and eat whales (Kujira = Whale). I’m sure they only serve those unlucky ones that were fished “by accident” or washed up the shore..  The next morning 10 am, armed with 2 snickers and a spray of anti-pain spray I start running! Beautiful day, lovely view on the sea, not too hot, not too cold (thanks to those running tights I bought just before!) Lot’s of grand mothers (jap: obaachan) , fathers and children cheering in the street. And the best thing: every 5k a checkpoint with Bananas, Cake, Candy, Salt and Water! What’s more to wish for!
Everything went surprisingly well for the first 30k. After that, more than 5 km over my longest training distance my legs finally got heavier and heavier.  Eating so much at the checkpoints was a bad idea – foolish me, gobbling down those cakes!  Those tasty and free cakes.
Then finally, the last 5km were really very dire – leg pain, stomach pain, everything pain.. I overtook a Japanese guy running with a can of beer in his hand. Mmh. beer.

But with the end  in sight and the help of some more candy, more walking than running I managed to cross the finishing line! 4.03 hours! Not quite below 4 but close! Anyway – it’s done, I made it! Marathon – check!
After foot onsen (hot spring) and sweet, fresh sake it’s finally off home. Yakitori for dinner. Walk home like a drunk zombie. Sleep.

and there I finished another post – Fanfares! More sooner or later.

I know – I’m bad, but that’s the first step to betterment isn’t it? Lot’s has happened of course but I won’t bore you with it for long. Work is as usual – still full on the technical side but the good news is I’ve been busy practicing at home! So there’s some new images in the galleries, which I hope you like. My newest is this guy at the bottom – originally I meant to create a character along the lines of “cohen the barbarian” from the Discworld series but lost the comical element half way I guess. Just couldn’t stop myself with those sharp lines and Dang!, there you got some Zeus kind of guy.

Other news are that  3 lovebird, crow couples have nested in the big tree in front of my window. And as things go they spawned horrible little crow children who started singing their ghastly song from about 6 am. Forget about earplugs. I tried to go to bed early,  getting my rythm in sync with theirs but no avail. That doesn’t go well with the whole “working at Japanese games company” thing. Oh well – I’ll get them once the leaves fall..

Closely related news – we bought a Piano! No it’s not that bad – it’s actually pretty good (as it’s not me playing but she!). You’d be surprised how these electric pianos sound these days. My untrained ears can’t tell the difference.

And best of all – my dearest mum sent me some 50 Nurnberger Rostbratwuerste (sausages!) and  Sauerkraut. She sent it to my old adress, all the other end of Tokyo but that’s cool. They taste all the better after a long ride on the subway .

It’s beyond ghost hour and as I’ll be probably up early as usual, this has to be it for now. The deed is done though – there shall be more updates soon. (yeah right..!)

seb

最初、ただの英語の翻訳を書こうとしましたが、日本人のなか初めて読んでくれる人が多いとおもうので小さな自己紹介の方がいいかも知れません。私の名前はセバスチャンです、ドイツ人です。ＣＧアートの仕事をしながら色んな国に住んでいましたが　昔から長い旅行が憧れでした。三週間じゃなくて、３ヶ月じゃなくて、一年間以上の旅をしたかったです。計画なしの、次へ行くところを感じて決める旅。戻る時は見えない程遠い、自分を流れさす旅。

それでニュウジーランドの山を登ったり、そこの沼地を渡ったりして、マレーシアのジャングルで迷って、そしてタイでムエタイをやって、中国の巨大の壁の上歩いて。。全部のあった事を伝えようとしたら（得に僕の書く早さで）一週間もかかってしまうので少しだスキップしますね。（でも良かったら写真ページを見てね！）

つまり。。結局日本にきました。ここはすぐ気に入って、何ヶ月も旅していました。東京から沖縄までも、ゆっくり回ったり、見たり、また移動したり、日本語を勉強したりしていました。丁寧な優しい日本人が好きで、極端なところ多い国に住むことにしました。

数ヶ月後、色々の障害を越えて、僕は今東京の特別な家に住んでいます。
小さな丘の上にあり、いくつもの木に囲まれいています。薄い壁で、冬の時寒くて、夏に暑くて、三つの部屋離れて住んでいるお婆ちゃんの好きなテレビの音も聞こえます。古くて、この家の全盛の時代はもう終わったみたいです。
色々あっても僕はあまり気にしていません。チャームがあるので！　畳の部屋があって、隣には神社もあって、ほとんど森のなかでトトロの家に見えます。蛙や猫がよくいて、時々妙な緑オウムみたいな鳥が木の実を食べに尋ねます。このファイバーインタネットと自然込みの宿は僕にぴったりです。

東京でゲームを作っている会社に勤めています。自転車で１５分以内に行けて、帰るのがダウンヒルでもっと早いです。そこでテクニカルアーティストという仕事をしています。スクリプトやシェーダを書いたりしていますが自分の好きなキャラクタモデリングをなかなかさせて貰えません。そこがよく頭にきますが、もう長いし、その話を続けるのはべつの時にしましょう。

では
皆さんもぜひ長い旅に出発して！こんなステキナ自由を一度体験したら後は何があってもだいじょうぶ＾－＾

自分の時間で、つくることが下手にならないように少しだけ新しい物を作っています。良かったらどんどん見てくださいね。

Welcome to the new sebscorner. Yes. It’s been so very long.
Some of you nice people might have followed my long journey via this site.  Then some day, the slowly trickling updates stopped for good, some lousy admin didn’t pay the bills and the whole site disappeared.

I saved the database – but then it’s probably better to have a clean, fresh start (amazing how much spam you can pick up in a few months!)
For all of you who imagined me eaten by snakes, or fallen from some great height, I must disappoint you. The only swamp I’ve been sinking into lately is “everyday working life” I’m afraid. Very busy working life indeed. The time of the big backpack seems finally past me, but then it’s very good to know that some real freedom lies much closer than you’d think.. So before I get all nostalgic, let me tell you – pack your bundle and go onto a long journey yourself! The best thing you can do really. Quit work today I say!

Now then, there, there – back to reality! As already more than one year has passed, and too much has happened to tell – but here is the gist:

I live in Japan, Tokyo. Let me tell you about my house. It sits on a little hill with trees around it, and to be honest, it’s seen better days. The walls are of wood, rather thin wood – so It’s about as cold inside as outside. There is an old lady living four apartments to the left and if there is something nice on TV (which is about always) I usually know too. Not that I care though. This house has charm, tatami-rice mats, a shrine next door and in autumn green parrots come to nibble fruits off the big tree. And of course fiber-internet, this is Japan after all!

I work for one of the bigger Japanese games companies  and  I can cycle there in less than 15 minutes. Even less on the way back as it’s downhill!
At work I waste my team mostly with writing scripts, sometimes a plugin here a shader there. I don’t get to do any modeling anymore – which makes me pretty angry most of the time.
On weekends I usually ride my bike all through Tokyo. Exploring and searching for that one Starbucks I still haven’t been to yet.
.
Not really the gist I guess.. but this is getting way too long already and it’s late! This has to start easy and if I think I still have to get all of this into Japanese as well, oh dear my!

So please – if you like to hear more from sebs ups and downs in Japan feel free to check back once in a while.

Oh and I’ve been doing a tiny little bit of modeling, just to get not too rusty: Quickly before wrinkles and my beloved goblins & co get all out of fashion.