Making Of Bembel Calendar „twothousandten“

An homage to the traditional pitcher (Bembel) used in the German state of Hesse for drinking the regional cider specialty.

Robin Pillmann created his first calendar motifs in 2007 for the Bembel advertising agency. The agency was looking to create a unique gift for its clients and associates. The original calendar, of which 400 were printed in DIN A2 format, was such a success that a run of 1,500 of the same calendar was printed for 2008 in conjunction with the publishing house B3.

The last of the 2008 calendars were sold in early 2009 – this calendar was sought after not because it was a calendar but because of its motifs!

The fantastic feedback, the great number of requests for a 2009 calendar and finally the encouragement by the agency Bembel motivated Robin Pillmann to create 12 new motifs for the calendar "twothousandten".

The new work of art has been available in book stores in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main region and online at www.kaufrauscher.de since October 2009. An exclusive Eintracht Frankfurt Calendar (the regional soccer team) is also available at the Eintracht fan shop.

The creation process

In contrast to the motifs of the fist calendar, which were created sporadically over a period of approx. 9 months, the new motifs were all created within 3 months – consisting of 7-day weeks and 10-hour days.

"The reason we burned the midnight oil so often was that several different versions were created for almost every pitcher", explains Robin. "I not only had to concentrate on creating perfect renderings but also had to design and create each Bembel individually. For some of the Bembels up to 30 different versions were created. For motifs such as the radio, robot, piano or the trophy there were endless possibilities with regard to how they could look or function."

The bulk of the project was created in CINEMA 4D, including design, modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering, using Advanced Render 3.

Modeling that could not be done using conventional 3D applications was done using Pixologic's ZBrush. "The excellent connectivity between ZBrush and CINEMA 4D, which fortunately was introduced during the course of this project, was a huge advantage for the creation of the World Cup, advertising column, piano and halloween Bembels." The resulting Bembels consisted of millions of polygons (resulting in a CINEMA 4D file size of approx. 1GB) but could still be rendered easily.

"I work exclusively with Apple computers. For this project I used an 8-core 2.25 GHz PowerMac with 14 GB RAM, which let me work quickly and rendered with ease. The final renderings had a resolution of 6,000 x 8,000 pixels and were rendered with either a "traditional" lighting setup or with Global Illumination", explains Robin.

"The intension was not to produce purely 3D work but to achieve a harmonious work in a reasonable timeframe. This is why the figures of the nativity Bembel, the flask's nozzle and the parakeet were photographed in a studio and composited into the rendered image." For this and other layout work done, other applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign were used.