Creating from Nothing: Ulli Schulz on Motion, Render Network, and the Future of 3D
Render Network has already opened many doors… I am working on a heavy 3000-frames-long “big futuristic city” scene for a Netflix short movie intro sequence. It is quite pushing the limits… Definitely a great opportunity for collaboration
From nomadic adventures in Asia to high-speed bee animations rendered at 120 frames per second, Ulli Schulz’s creative path is anything but ordinary. A motion designer turned full-time 3D artist, Ulli blends structure with spontaneity, always pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in digital design. In this conversation, he shares how Octane and the Render Network have reshaped his workflow, what inspires his camera work, and why he believes 3D will never get boring.
What was the moment or project that made you realize 3D design was your true creative calling?
In design school I had to choose between photography or Cinema4D. I chose photography, but for the final exam I made a project in Cinema4D where I simply loved the fact that I was able to create something out of nothing.
3D kept playing a second role throughout my career as a motion designer until I discovered Octane Render. The fact that I kept getting instant feedback on what I was doing gave me another push and fresh excitement towards 3D design.
During the pandemic, I decided to use the time to improve and master my 3D skills like I started from “zero.” In 3D, I never get bored. There is always something new to explore, which I really love doing.
How did your time in Asia influence your approach to design?
Interesting question. I had a very minimalistic, nomadic lifestyle in Asia and I’m very thankful for the experience. It was the happiest time with the least materialistic treasures around me.
Absolutely no distraction from my mission back then — to create a wakeboard brand and its design. Also, design for me has to be functional and reduced to its function in a way, unless it is functional to overload a frame with all kinds of impressions.
Big cities in Asia are pretty much overloaded, with a special kind of harmony somewhere in between the chaos. So I’d say my approach is a mix of German structure and Asian freestyle.
Before I start working on something, I have to clean surfaces and get rid of unopened letters. The worst distraction is being surrounded by unfinished things.
3. Are there any visual themes or stylistic signatures that consistently show up in your work?
There’s no intentional signature, but certain preferences definitely show up. I spend a lot of time on camera movements and I’m a big fan of the Vibrate tag — it adds micro movements to tiny details, like a bee’s legs, which makes the shot feel more believable.
In stills, I often use a slight camera tilt to give a sense of motion. “A sense of motion” is probably the closest thing I have to a consistent stylistic signature.
4. How do you manage your assets, scenes, and render settings when sending Cinema4D projects to the Render Network? Are you using the native Cinema4D integration, and if so, how has that streamlined your workflow?
I always try to keep my scenes well organized. Sometimes it gets chaotic during creative experimental processes. Working with layers helps a lot to keep track of certain parts of the project.
I used to export ORBX files to upload to Render Network, but lately I’ve been using the Wizard Plugin, which is great and a lot faster. And not only faster — some specific projects with huge amounts of scattered objects became possible to render through RNDR, which already failed on the ORBX export before because of RAM limitations.
I always render in ACES color space as EXR outputs, with different AOVs if needed in post production.**
** ACES, or Academy Color Encoding System, is a professional color standard used in film and TV to make sure colors look consistent and high quality across different devices and workflows.
AOVs, or Arbitrary Output Variables, are different layers or passes of an image that are rendered separately.
EXR is a file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic. It’s widely used in high-end visual effects.
5. When did you first start using Render Network, and what made you decide to incorporate it into your workflow?
There was one advertising project for “THEO Laser Welding” with the team from Gina and Goodstein, and a very tight production time frame.
Twelve days for a 30-second full CG piece with high-quality animation and rendering. Absolutely no time to lose for rendering locally. Full-time work, improvements, and rendering on the network — without blocking any machines.
Some shots would have taken 5 minutes per frame on machines with a bench score of 1300. Those took maybe around 10 minutes for complete shots on Render Network.
6. How has Render Network changed the way you and your team approach rendering and project timelines?
It took away some stress indeed. Rendering is now easy to calculate, it is fast, and it won’t block machines — so we can focus on creating in non-destructive workflows.
The new support of particle rendering is something we waited for. Cheers to that.
7. Any specific projects where Render really helped unlock something that wasn’t possible before?
In terms of “possible in time,” Render Network has already opened many doors.
In terms of “possible at all,” I am working on a heavy 3000-frames-long “big futuristic city” scene for a Netflix short movie intro sequence. It is quite pushing the limits. Definitely a great opportunity for collaboration!
8. What’s next for you and your team? Any exciting projects or experiments you’re exploring?
The next commercial project will be for a German tire manufacturer spot, which I’m looking forward to — the bee will get its moment there again.
Other than that, I’m using my free time to keep working on that mentioned intro sequence for a short movie on Netflix. The movie is more or less a vision of the future and where AI will lead us as humanity, directed by Aslan Malik, who I’ve known for many years now.
We worked together many times throughout our careers. Also, I will team up with Carsten Böhnert, a talented 3D artist from Hamburg, which I’m also excited about and looking forward to seeing what opportunities this will reveal in the near future.
If you’ve been sitting on an idea or, like Ulli Schulz, are ready to take on larger projects — the Render Network Foundation invites you to submit a quick pitch for a grant to help bring your vision to life.
You can also enter Render Royale, our monthly contest where artists can win 5,250 USDC in prizes, free Render credits, and the opportunity to showcase their work across Render Network’s platforms.
One winner will be selected from each render engine category: Blender Cycles, Redshift, and OctaneRender.
June’s theme: Urban Utopias.
Click here to learn more about Render Royale.
