Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 9, 2015. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Have you ever made the acquaintance of a brown duck? Or to put it another way: with an Aix sponsa, the widespread duck species native to North America? In 2006, four Munich freelancers pooled their expertise and founded their company of the same name in the Schwabing district. Manuel Casasola Merkle, founder and creative director of Aixsponza, told us how the studio works, which projects it takes on and why the “S” finally became a “Z” in the name.
DP: How did the company come about?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Tobias Müller, Achim August Tietz, Christian Tyroller and I founded Aixsponza in 2006. We had previously worked as freelancers in Munich for various companies such as Hochkantfi lm, Velvet Mediendesign (see also DP issue, which will be published on 10 July) and Gate11 and worked together on projects time and again. We soon came up with the idea of creating a platform to combine our wide-ranging interests and realise our own projects. Design, directing, editing and photography as specialisms and 3D design as a shared interest still form the basis of Aixsponza today. Our basic idea has always been to combine a high level of design with sophisticated technical realisation to deliver good and effective work. One of our first commercial works, “speakers” for BigFM/Jung v. Matt, was honoured with a Clio Award soon after it was founded, which confirmed that we had taken the right step in founding Aixsponza.
DP: How did you come up with the name?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: We were looking for a name that sounded interesting without referring to our field of activity. It had to be a word that we could charge with meaning. We also wanted the name to start with A so that our company would appear at the top of alphabetical lists. As we had a lot to do from day one of our existence, there was little time for naming and our corporate identity. We needed a quick solution. So we searched the Wikipedia index for a suitable term that was still available as a domain and came across “Aixsponsa”. We immediately liked the Latin name for the species of mallard duck, and after replacing the “S” with a “Z”, Google found no more results. Our logo, the duck, was also finalised. In the meantime, we have also stuck to the “Aix” naming scheme internally. Our computers are called “Aixpert” or “Aixterior”, for example.
DP: At which locations is Aixsponza represented?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Aixsponza was founded in Munich because all four partners are from Munich. However, this location has proved to be quite favourable for us. In addition to numerous contacts with customers and partners in southern Germany, which we were able to bring into the company, Munich also has the resources to cover the needs of a media company in terms of personnel and technical services. The proximity to the major German car manufacturers is also in our favour. So far there have been no plans to open a second location, but we don’t want to rule out this step in the future. We are represented in the UK by Joyrider Films (joyriderfilms.com) and in the USA by ACME Filmworks (www.acmefi lmworks.com).
DP: How is your company organised?
Manuel Casasola Merkle : Wehave been working in a beautiful, bright 400 square metre office in Altschwabingsince 2008. There are three offices on the first floor with space for up to 40 workstations and some with a panoramic view of the bustling Feilitzschstraße in Schwabing. There is also a production office, a compositing suite and a finishing suite. You can cook for yourself in the small kitchen or take advantage of the immediate surroundings, which provide plenty of variety for lunch: from burritos at Münchener Freiheit to veal sausages at Seehaus.
DP: How are the employees/teams structured?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Aixsponza has twelve permanent employees. The organisation of the teams depends very much on the type of project. For small projects, Aixsponza cultivates an artist-centred workflow that restricts creativity as little as possible. We rely on generalists who are masters of design and technology and can therefore realise projects quickly and creatively. Efficiency is also increased because little coordination is required between the different teams. For all larger tasks, Aixsponza also draws on an extensive pool of freelancers. As the short project durations generally make parallel processing necessary, we rely on a classic department-based workflow. Direction/animatic, look/layout and assets/realisation work simultaneously. In the implementation team, we have the classic separation into modelling/shading, rig and lighting.
DP: How is the workflow organised?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Projects are started by creating a new project in Basecamp, a web-based collaboration software, and creating a rough structure (basecamp.com). Participating artists, subcontractors and sometimes clients are invited to the project. Tasks and goals are then added and changed dynamically in dialogue with the artists. In contrast to Shotgun or Ftrack, every artist has the opportunity to independently manage and improve the structure, not just the project manager or producer. This allows our small teams to be partially self-managed. Tasks and goals are assigned directly, discussed in small groups and the teams are encouraged to organise themselves as much as possible. The Scrum methodology is currently being tested in order to further optimise this way of working. Our efficient file and server structure defines the workflow between the departments. Project data makes its way from the office server via project, render and compositing servers to the archive server on LTO tapes. The render management software RoyalRender (www.royalrender.de) intelligently manages the rendering effort and supports the quality check as well as the data flow from the 3D department to compositing. This allows us to optimally utilise our in-house render farm.
DP: What kind of projects do you specialise in?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Aixsponza specialises in animation and visual FX. However, we are not a pure VFX studio, but a design and production studio. So we also take on the concept phase, design and direct. In view of increasingly complex tasks and tighter budgets, it is an advantage to be able to offer a complete production from a single source. The combination of creation and production in one company leads to more impressive results than the classic separation of the areas. In addition to orders in the field of advertising and events, we also offer classic graphic design. For example, we were able to realise the current Cinema 4D branding for Maxon. Although Aixsponza’s focus is on pure CG production and post-production, we also offer mixed productions with real filming, often in cooperation with a film production company.
DP: Who are your clients and partners?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Aixsponza was able to establish itself in the advertising industry right from the start and now works with many large advertising agencies in Germany and abroad. We also look after direct customers, including large automotive and industrial groups. Aixsponza’s cooperation with Peter Clausen Film is particularly exciting, as it has enabled us to realise numerous projects for the Red Bull Racing entity. We also work for film productions as a CG partner or realise the post-production for real film projects.
DP: What software and hardware do you work with in the company and why?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Right from the start, we mainly worked with Maxon’s Cinema 4D. We have a close relationship with Maxon, both as beta testers and as speakers at Maxon events worldwide. The decision in favour of Cinema 4D was a natural one when Aixponza was founded, as we had all worked mainly with Cinema 4D before. Fortunately, the software grew in parallel with the development of our company and has always been able to fulfil all our needs to the best of its ability. Today, we are very happy with our decision to opt for C4D, as C4D is perfectly suited to the project requirements and size of Aixsponza, and in Maxon we have found a software partner that is reliable and predictable. We are constantly expanding the possibilities of Cinema 4D using in-house tools. We employ a full-time developer for this purpose. Of course, we have also added many other products to the pipeline to cover special requirements. ZBrush and 3DCoat, Blender, Maya, XSI, Houdini and RealFlow are used when necessary for a project. We mainly use V-Ray from Chaos Group as a renderer. Here, too, we have a close relationship with LaubLab and we contribute to the further development of Vray4C4D as beta testers. We have also recently added Octane to our portfolio, which is very suitable for some projects due to its speed. AE and Nuke are used for compositing. We use both packages as they can play to their strengths in different projects.
DP: Which tools should applicants master and which soft skills should they have?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Applicants should first and foremost be good designers, but they should be at least as good at the technical side of 3D design. We are always looking for specialists, but for a permanent position we are looking for generalists with a broad range of skills who can take on a wide variety of projects. Good and in-depth knowledge of Cinema 4D and V-Ray is a prerequisite. Our employees should be team players and be able to work in a structured and independent manner. The ability to accept criticism, but also to criticise, is welcome.
DP: Who are you particularly looking for?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: We are always looking for specialists who have specialised in areas such as rigging, sculpting or fluids, as we do not have such specialists permanently in our team due to our size. We are most urgently looking for 3D artists who are both strong creatively and technically adept. Basically, we are always interested in new contacts, even if it’s not about a current project. DP: Where should I send an application? Manuel Casasola Merkle: We are always looking for talented artists to expand our freelance network. Our job offers can be found at http://www.aixsponza.com/company. Please send applications to jobs@aixsponza.com.
DP: What is it like to work for Aixsponza?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: We offer a family atmosphere and the opportunity to learn a lot. Working at Aixsponza means short distances, direct contacts and a flat hierarchy. Every employee has the opportunity to supervise a project from start to finish, and the tasks are varied and diverse. We are happy to cater to the personal preferences of our employees whenever possible. Our working hours are, as far as the projects allow, family and leisure time friendly. The start and end of working hours are flexible in order to establish a core working time, and if the project requires us to work later or even take a weekend, we make sure to compensate for this. Prompt payment of our freelancers is a matter of course for us.
DP: What further training opportunities are there for artists?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: Further training is very important to us, as the software and the entire industry are constantly evolving. The popular tutorial portals such as DigitalTutors or CMIVFX are available to all our employees. In addition
in-house employee training courses are held on various topics. Even those who start at Aixsponza as interns can immediately work on commercial projects (within the scope of their possibilities) and continue their training. Most of our former interns now work for us as freelancers and are still in close contact with Aixsponza. Beta testing for numerous products helps to ensure that employees are always at the cutting edge of technology. Individual employees regularly take part in conferences such as FMX or Siggraph to keep in touch with the community and keep up to date with the latest developments.
DP: What have been some particularly great projects recently?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: In March, Aixsponza completed the “Infinity Red Bull Racing Transforming Formula One: 014 Rules Explained” film for Peter Clausen Film, in which we present the rule changes in Formula 1 this season using a glass racing car. This project was a lot of fun as it was both a creative and production challenge. Over three minutes of
of photorealistic 3D were rendered. All disciplines were able to show what they can do: Car Rigging, Driver Rigging, Workflow, Shading, Layout, Modelling, CAD, Edit, Composite.
Here is the video that allowed Aixsponza to take the animago trophy home to Munich:
Shortly before that, we managed and successfully completed a design-heavy project with the complete package for MTV Buzz, which also presented us with technical challenges.
DP: What does the future hold for Aixsponza and what projects are on the horizon?
Manuel Casasola Merkle: In the future, we will try to continue to realise our vision of creative CG projects and create new and interesting films. We also want to expand the area of further training – even beyond the company’s borders. At the moment, we are considering organising public training courses on Cinema 4D, V-Ray
and workflow under the label “AixCademy”. Since July 2014, we have been sharing our first-hand experience from day-to-day production with interested parties.
Interview by Sabine Hatzfeld
