MiceMice

In 2026 Ritter Butzke hosted a special event series where DJs played a set for free, open air and early (7PM). Big names, like Space Motion, Einmusik, Pretty Pink, Georgia Angiuli and many more participated. So we wanted to make sure, every DJ ist the hero of it's own set of assets, while also making sure, his/her artwork will communicate, that it belongs to the same special event series.

So i arranged that stage, where i could just swap out the artists-picture or even a video. I had much fun, modeling and animating some flowers made out of DJ-knobs and faders, added some "real" fauna, a blue sky and some sunlight. Of cause deadlines where tight i captured different camera-movements by bridging my mobile phone into blender and recording the camera-movements. So we had a bit of variety.

In 2025 gab es eine weitere Iteration von "Unter Freiem Himmel", der Open Air Reihe mit freiem Eintritt bis 19 Uhr. Auch hier war es wichtig, dass die einzelnen Events mit ihrem individuellem Datum und ihrem individuellen Headliner für sich würden stehen können, aber gleichzeitig auch die Verwandtschaft der Events als zusammengehörige Reihe verstanden werden. So gab es also individuelle Artwork-Assets pro Abend, als auch Komapagnen-Inhalte, die die Reihe an sich promoten würden. Die individuellen Artworks sollten flexibel genug sein, um schnell weitere Versionen mit neunen Künstlern und Daten zu erstellen.

Die generellen Animationen wurden dabei von mir in Cinema4D erstellt, aber durch den Einsatz vieler einzelner Render-Passes und Cryptomatten konnten beliebig viele individuelle Versionen ausgegeben werden, ohne den 3D export immer wieder erneut rendern zu müssen. Das konnte sehr viel Zeitaufwand und Kosten einsparen. Also 1x 3D rendern und dann kostengünstig und schnell beliebig viele Varianten iterieren. Das war die Kernaufgabe des Projektes.

Ritter Butzke Records veröffentlicht in reglemäßigem Abstand neue Musik. Zu jeder Veröffentlichung werden Cover, und ein umfangreiches Promopaket erstellt. Fast jedes Cover hat ein rundes, zentriertes Element, welches ich üblicherweise in Cinema 4D oder Blender erstelle. Das Runde Element dient als Wiedererkennungsmerkmal, um die Reihe zusammenzuhalten.

Für jeden Release generiere ich neben dem Cover auch das Social-Media-Material und Visualizer für Youtube, Soundcloud-Banner etc.

Um das kompakte Budget optimal auszuschöpfen, bekommt jeder der bis zu 3 Tracks pro EP eine eigene kleine Abvariante der Hauptanimation. Meist durch farbliche Anpassungen. So lässt sich mit geringen Mehrkosten jeder Track einzeln announcen bzw bewerben.

In Summe habe ich über 180 Releases umgesetzt. Entsprechend hier also nur ein kleiner ausschnitt.

Werkzeuge sind hier Cinema 4D, After Effects, Photoshop und ein bisschen Illustrator.

Ritter Butzke Records regularly releases new music, with every release accompanied by custom cover art and a comprehensive promotional package.

Almost every cover features a central, circular element created in Cinema 4D or Blender. This signature circular motif acts as a unifying visual thread across the entire catalog.

For each release, I produce the artwork alongside a full suite of social media assets, visualizers for YouTube, SoundCloud banners, and more. To make the most of a compact budget, each track on an EP (up to three) receives its own subtle variation of the main animation—typically through color shifts. This allows for individual track announcements and promotion with minimal added cost.

Having designed over 180 releases to date, the selection below represents just a small sample of the catalog.

Tools used: Cinema 4D, After Effects, Photoshop, and Illustrator.

DRIFT is an event series, focusing on fast electronic music. Bif names like Deborah De Luca or Reinier Zonnefeld are headlining. I wanted to make sure, that these main-acts gets their attention, while also communicating the rest of the LineUp properly. So there are different artworks: Some with an artists-video, some with a mixture of a presskit and the lineup.

Another DRIFT, with Reinier Zinnefeld as headliner

Some behind the scenes / rnd stuff, that we discraded on the way. I wanted the artwork has a slight visual relation to Formula 1 aesthetics. I really liked the approach. But the event hoster decided to keep it more simple, so we turned it down and just kept the layout from inside the frame. I had some fun with Blender's smoke solver anyway. Late i generated some smoke via ai to have that element at least somehow in the artworks (see the abstract background. This is just the smoke with contrast turned way up and colorized.)

We needed a "quick & dirty" approach—a workflow that allowed us to push out assets on very short notice for events that didn’t require bespoke designs. To achieve this, I collaborated with the wonderful Pierre Horn from the equally amazing directing, photography, and digital art duo Schall & Schnabel. Using his animated glitch experiments as a base, I applied custom filters, additional glitches, and color distortions to create a massive library of visual assets. This allowed us to quickly generate high-quality artwork that still delivers strong visual impact despite tight turnarounds and limited time budgets.

Here is a selection of animated flyers I made.

Showing the Instagram Story format as an example —each flyer was also adapted into additional aspect ratios and static versions, with many featuring custom variations (e.g., individual artist editions).

Most of these flyers were built using Cinema4D and/or Blender and After Effects.

Here is a selection of animated flyers created in 2025.

Showing the Instagram Story format as an example—each flyer was also adapted into additional aspect ratios and static versions, with many featuring custom variations (e.g., individual artist editions).

Most of these flyers were built using Cinema4D and/or Blender and After Effects.